The Bixby Letter

[RJNorton]

(07-27-2017 11:07 AM)Gene C Wrote:  As far as Lincoln knew when the Bixby letter was written, Mrs Bixby had lost 5 sons due to the war.
As a father who had also lost two sons, he was in a slightly better position to write a letter of sympathy than John Hay.
Add to that, he was close to Elmer Ellsworth when he wrote to the parents, knew Fanny McCollough and her father, I think he is touched by the horrors and responsibility of war more than John Hay.
Of Lincoln's secretarys, I personally think if he were to assign the responsability of writing the letter, he would have given the assignment to John Nicolay, the senior secretary, if he was available.

I would also expect the wording of the letter to be slightly more formal since Lincoln did not have a personal relationship with Mrs. Bixby compared to the Elsworth family and Fanny.

IMO a computer program can not adequately determine the intricacies of matters of the heart.

Gene, as you know from my previous posts, I'd like to think Lincoln wrote the letter (but my hope on this is waning). John Hay apparently told several people he wrote the letter. I think there is sometimes a pattern when a person takes credit for someone else's work. In other words, it may happen more than once. Does anyone know Hay well enough to comment on this - in other words, did Hay take credit for other things that he did not do? If not, then IMO, I tend to doubt he would take credit for one isolated (although highly famous) letter if he were not the letter's author.