Who Wrote The "Letter to Mrs. Bixby"?
by Roy P. Basler
Lincoln Herald, Volume 45 Number (February 1943): pp. 9-14
Facsimile of the Bixby letter, once widely circulated as genuine, but now believed to be a clever forgery of the original which has been lost.
As is well-known to most students of Lincoln, the purported facsimiles of the "Letter to Mrs. Bixby" have been judged to be forgeries, and the original manuscript has never been found. Furthermore, the opinion has been somewhat widely held that Lincoln never wrote such a letter at all. Of course, the myth that Lincoln was a semi-literate country lawyer gave rise even before his death to much guessing as to who wrote his speeches and letters, and in spite of Herdon's testimony to the contrary and the official editing of Lincoln's works by his former secretaries John G. Nicolay and John Hay, the rumors continued that Herndon, Seward, Nicolay, and Hay, among others, had written this or that particular item or passage. But apparently only John hay lent his own personal testimony to these suppositions, and it is exceedingly difficult today to determine just what Hay's testimony, written and oral, meant. The following resume will give the essential facts of the controversial story concerning his authorship of the famous letter.
In his book Across the Busy Years (1940) Nicholas Murray Butler relates the following:
Theodore Roosevelt admired the Bixby letter greatly and had a framed photograph of it in one of the guest rooms at the White House John Morely occupied this room while the guest of President Roosevelt in 1904. His attention was attracted to the Bixby letter, of which he had never heard, and he too admired it greatly.
One morning during his visit to Washington, Morely called on John Hay, then Secretary of State, whose house was on the opposite side of Lafayette Square from the White House. Morley expressed to Hay his great admiration for the Bixby letter, to which Hay listened with a quizzical look upon his face. After a brief silence, John Hay told Morley that he had himself written the Bixby letter and that this was the reason it could not be found among Lincoln's papers and why no original copy of it had ever been forthcoming. Hay asked Morely to treat this information as strictly confidential until after his (Hay's) death. Morley did so, and told me that he had never repeated it to anyone until he told it to me during a quiet talk in London at the Athenaeum on July 9, 1912. He then asked me, in my turn, to preserve this confidence of his until he, Morley, should be no longer living.
Butler is not content to have reproduced this story, with all its pious observation of promises kept, but goes even further in casting doubt on a majority of the letters which bear Lincoln's signature from 1861 to 1865. He claims that:
As a matter of fact, Abraham Lincoln wrote very few letters that bore his signature. John G. Nicolay wrote almost all of those which were official, while John Hay wrote almost all of those which were personal. Hay was able to imitate Lincoln's handwriting and signature in well-nigh perfect fashion.
Another version of John Hay's authorship of the Bixby letter is that given by the Reverend Gildart Arthur Jackson in a letter written to E. V. Lucas on January 16, 1922, and published by Lucas in Post-Bag Diversions (1934). The prior date of this story makes the claim of secrecy in the Morley-Butler story not a little improbable. In its essential part the Jackson story is as follows:
When I lived at Knebworth, Cora, Lady Strafford - an American - occupied for a time Knebworth House, Lord Lytton's place, and the late Mr. Page, the American Ambassador, used to spend weekends there. On one occasion, Lady Strafford told me, he noticed a copy framed, I think - of Lincoln's letter and asked her if she knew the true history of it. He then related that John Hay had told him that when the news of the mother's bereavement was given to Lincoln he instructed Hay to write a suitable reply of condolence. This Hay did, and handed it to Lincoln. Lincoln was so surprised that Hay had so perfectly captured his style of composition that he had the letter exactly as hay wrote it sent to the mother as coming from himself.
That is Mr. Page's story to Lady Stafford of Lincoln's famous letter, and I suppose he was a man who knew what he was talking about; nor do I suppose that Hay was the man to say what was untrue. I feel sure that I have given this as Lady Stafford gave it to me, and as she is still in the land of the living she can corroborate it if the matter interests you sufficiently.
Although there may be no doubt concerning the integrity of Butler, Morley, or Page, the story has not likely gained in accuracy by reason of being kept for so many years in the fallible memories of men. John Hay, we may admit, told Morley that he (Hay) had written the letter, but what did he mean when he used the word wrote? Did he mean simply that he had penned the letter, or that he had composed it? There is no doubt in Butler's mind that Morley had understood Hay to mean composed, but one may wonder whether Hay even tried to make himself completely accurate and clear in this statement, when, as we shall see, he was not so careful on previous occasions when he discussed the authorship of Lincoln's letters.
In a letter written from Paris on September 5, 1866, Hay answered W. H. Herndon's specific enquiry concerning the letters which Lincoln wrote as President, in the following language: "He [Lincoln] wrote very few letters. He did not read one in fifty that he received. At first we tried to bring them to his notice, but at last he gave the whole thing over to me, and signed without reading them the letters I wrote in his name. He wrote perhaps half-a-dozen a week himself - no more."
This statement may be generally true. Perhaps after 1861 Lincoln wrote few letters. It is interesting to note that Hay's estimate of "half-a-dozen a week," whether it be occasionally a little high or a little low for all the genuine compositions of Lincoln, amply covers the really significant letters, of which there are rarely ever that many dated during the same week. There are, however, several inadequacies and inaccuracies in the statement as a whole. When Hay states that "he gave the whole thing over to me," he hardly does justice to Nicolay, who, as numerous manuscripts show, penned many of Lincoln's letters. Furthermore, when Hay states that Lincoln "signed without reading them the letters I wrote in his name," he presumes quite a bit. If he had looked over a number of such letters as he did pen for Lincoln, he would have found a number with corrections and emanations written in by Lincoln before he signed them. Then too, Hay's statement implies that all of the letters thus signed by Lincoln were composed by Hay himself. This is demonstrably not the case in the "Letter to General H. W. Halleck," July 29, 1863, which is in phraseology and style distinctly Lincoln's and is emended and corrected as well as signed in Lincoln's handwriting, though penned by Hay. Some letters Lincoln apparently dictated to Hay, others to Nicolay, and still others to secretaries who relieved and assisted Nicolay and Hay from time to time. And often Lincoln emended them before signing his name. Finally, Hays statement fails to take into account the many letters he did write in his own person (and in his own handwriting) and signed with his own name as the President's Secretary.
Another interesting example of how Hay used the word wrote is contained in two references in his diary to Lincoln's "Response to a Serenade," November 9, 1864. The first of these is as follows: "The President answered from the window with rather unusual dignity and effect and we came home. (Added later: 'I wrote the speech and sent it to Hanscum.')" This statement might readily be misinterpreted, if detached from its setting, to mean that Hay had composed the Response, when as a matter of fact he merely penned what Lincoln said, perhaps polishing it a bit according to his own light. It is interesting that this speech as printed in the Complete Works* is far inferior to the other "Response" of November 10, 1864, which Lincoln took the trouble to write out himself. Hay's second comment is as follows: "The speeches of the President at the last two serenades are very highly spoken of. The first I wrote after the fact, to prevent the 'loyal Pennsylvanians' getting a swing at it themselves."
Furthermore, it is a curiously interesting fact that of the only two letters which Hay states in his Diary that he wrote (implying composed) one is omitted from the Complete Works* (1894) and the other is so utterly without personal style and without significance as to be of little worth. Of the first of these two letters Hay notes: "Today I induced the President to sign a letter to Colo. Rowland approving his proposed National Rifle Corps. I think Rowland himself rather a humbug but his idea is a good one." This "induced the President to sign" sounds far different from the tone of Hay's statement to Herndon and probably indicates far more accurately the limit to which Hay's authority and function as secretary extended. The second of these letters is the "Letter to G. H. Boker," October 26, 1863, which may be consulted in the Complete Works* as an example of the colorless and inconsequential style of Hay's compositions as secretary to the President, most of which Hay signed in his own name with the notation "A.P.S." appended.
If one were to take Hay's statement to Herndon as complete and accurate, one would get just such an impression as Nicholas Murray Butler records when he states categorically that Hay wrote "almost all" of the personal letters. In a letter to the author, Dr. Butler gives the following explanation of his statement: "All I can say in response to your question in that it was Robert T. Lincoln himself, Abraham Lincoln's son, who told me that it was the custom of John Hay to write in the name of Lincoln all letters of a non-political kind and that he, hay, imitated Lincoln's handwriting admirably. Robert T. Lincoln certainly knew what he was talking about." If one could agree with Dr. Butler's belief in Robert T. Lincoln's authority, there would be no argument, but unfortunately no evidence has been uncovered that will substantiate this belief. Perhaps after all, Robert T. Lincoln "knew" only what John Hay had told him, and what Hay had told him was probably much the same as the statement to Herndon.
In regard to the specific question of Hay's ability to imitate Lincoln's handwriting, one must doubt Dr. Butler's belief. There is still some study to be done on this matter, and there is the bare possibility that a number of letters among those included in the Complete Works* of Lincoln may prove to have been written by Hay in imitation of Lincoln's handwriting. That there can be no large number, however, is a foregone conclusion. In the first place, Hay would not have had time to painstakingly imitate Lincoln's scrawl in any number of letters without entailing an enormous amount of labor beyond his usual duties as secretary. The business of imitating handwriting (forgery is the less polite word for it) is no easy task for an expert, and Hay certainly had his hands full without undertaking such an utterly useless task. Secondly, the author has never seen among the several hundred Lincoln manuscripts which he has studied in the original or in photostatic copy any letter in which Lincoln's handwriting could have been imitated by Hay, without demonstrating beyond all doubt that he was a very poor imitator. There are numerous letters which are not in Lincoln's handwriting , but they are clearly in Hay's handwriting, or Nicolay's, or that of one of the other scribes who did copy work in the White House. Furthermore, the author has queried a number of authorities who know a great deal more about Lincoln manuscripts than he does, and not one of them has ever admitted having seen such a letter. In only one instance known to the author is there even a possibility that Hay might have been attempting to imitate Lincoln's handwriting, and that is the "Telegram to Mrs. Lincoln," December 21, 1862, which is in the Brown University Library. That Hay penned this telegram seems certain. Perhaps he was trying to imitate Lincoln's scrawl in order to get the telegram sent free, though that would not have been necessary. In any event, the telegram is not in Lincoln's hand, and if it is an imitation it is an exceedingly poor one that anybody can detect by comparing it to genuine Lincoln manuscripts.
In another instance Hay had an opportunity to imitate Lincoln's handwriting when there would have been a real need for it. In the "Letter to Henry W. Hoffman," October 10, 1864, Lincoln originally wrote the phrase "better posted." After Lincoln has finished the letter Hay carefully scraped out the word posted, as he records in his Diary, and wrote in the word informed. Here, if anywhere, Hay had reason to imitate "in well-nigh perfect fashion" Lincoln's script, and yet the manuscript clearly attests that the word is in Hay's penmanship. In short, if there is any evidence that Hay ever did imitate Lincoln's handwriting, it is still in hiding.
Of the numerous letters that are in hay's handwriting, or Nicolay's for that matter, the only criteria which will serve in most cases to determine the President's composition from that of the secretary are those of style, characteristic expressions, and content. Such criteria are not infallible, but they serve better than one who has never studied Lincoln's style might suppose. Regardless of the handwriting, there can be no doubt that Lincoln composed such letters as the "Letter to James C. Conkling," August 26, 1863, or the "Letter to General Rosecrans," November 19, 1864.
We may conclude concerning Hay's function to President Lincoln, therefore, that Dr. Butler is probably incorrect in stating that Hay could and did imitate Lincoln's handwriting, but certainly incorrect in the opinion that the imitation was "well nigh perfect." Further, we may conclude that Dr. Butler is correct in his belief that as one of Lincoln's secretaries Hay wrote a good many letters, but incorrect in believing that many of the better letters were composed by Hay. Concerning Hay's statement to Herndon, we may conclude that it is inadequate, inaccurate, and incorrect, in certain particulars.
Returning to the question of just what Hay may have told John Morley, one wonders whether in the statement that "he had himself written the Bixby letter" Hay meant any more than he did in the statement to Herndon. Of course, the whole story as told by Dr. Butler is mere heresay at third hand, carried in the memory of John Morely for seven years, and in the memory of Dr. Butler for twenty-eight years, but the distinguished character of the bearers of this gossip must lend it a certain credence. One may reflect, especially in view of Hay's letter to Herndon, that "to err is human." If we assume that Morely remembered verbatim what Hay told him, then we may assume that Hay used the word write in some form when discussing his own participation in the Bixby letter. But, did he mean that he wrote it from Lincoln's dictation, or copied it from Lincoln's first draft, or that he composed it entirely himself and submitted it for Lincoln's signature, or that he composed it and signed it in imitation of Lincoln's handwriting?
It is obvious from Dr. Butler's account that the occasion of Morely's discussion of the letter with hay was brought on by the facsimile which Morely had seen in the White House. It is likewise obvious that hay meant to inform Morley that he (Hay) knew the facsimile to be a forgery. In this case his use of the word write would not necessarily imply that he had composed the letter. As the reverend Mr. Jackson tells the story, of course, it is elaborately detailed that Hay meant to claim the composition as well as the penning of the letter. One cannot help wondering, however, whether Jackson's version as given by E. V. Lucas is not so largely a matter of British tea-table gossip that it should be entirely disregarded. It seems that it may even be a garbled account of the same story told by Dr. Butler. In any event, both stories are mere heresay, and, though they raise questions, they answer none.
When, and only when, the manuscript of the Bixby letter is produced can we hope to sift the whole truth from the whole untruth in these claims. Since the original has been sought diligently for more than half a century, one must doubt that it is now in existence. In view of these circumstances we can only rely on the circumstantial evidence surrounding the composition of the letter and the internal evidence of style in the letter, both of which point conclusively to Lincoln's authorship.
The circumstances which occasioned the writing of the letter make it seem improbable that Lincoln would have "instructed Hay to write a suitable reply." Governor Andrew of Massachusetts sent the supposed facts in the Bixby case to the War Department and specifically stated in his endorsement, "I really wish a letter might be written her by the President of the United States, taking notice of a noble mother of five dead heroes so well deserved." The case received the approval of various officials in the War Department and was referred to President Lincoln. After the letter was written, it was sent to the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, William Schouler, an old acquaintance of Lincoln's, who had first called Mrs. Bixby's case to the attention of Governor Andrew and who delivered the letter to Mrs. Bixby in person and released a copy of it to the press. It is conceivable that Lincoln might have dismissed such a request as Governor Andrew's by turning it over to one of his secretaries, but in view of his practice in obliging numerous other requests for testimonials, letters of introduction, etc., it seems strange that he should have dismissed an opportunity such as this. It was just the sort of opportunity for publicly recognizing patriotism that Lincoln gladly seized in other instances, and in addition was an opportunity to oblige his old friend Schouler and the Governor of Massachusetts.
Finally, the internal evidence of style seems to mark the letter as Lincoln's. It has been claimed that Hay could have easily have imitated Lincoln's style. Perhaps he could have, but the author has yet to see in any of the letters which Hay wrote as Lincoln's secretary, including those discussed here, or in any of those that are published in the biographies of hay, any evidence that Hay could or did imitate Lincoln's style or that of any other writer. Some of Hay's poetry is imitative (pretty sadly!), but his letters are invariably in his own peculiar idiom and are wholly unlike Lincoln's.
If the student will read aloud the best of Lincoln's lyrical passages in the "Farewell Address," Gettysburg Address," or "Second inaugural Address," and then read aloud the "Letter to Mrs. Bixby," he will find it exceedingly difficult to believe that anyone other than Lincoln composed such sentences as: "I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming ... I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Then if one wishes to be furthered assured, let him procure a copy of Thayer's Life and Letters of John Hay and read a few of Hay's compositions.
In conclusion it may be said that discovery of evidence in the form of demonstrable examples of Hay's imitation of Lincoln's handwriting and style would bolster Dr. Butler's exceedingly weak claim. At present there seems to be nothing to it. Out of the welter of improbabilities in the claim one can see a single logical possibility that would embrace most of the evidence at its face value. John Hay may have told John Morley that he (Hay) wrote the Bixby letter meaning merely that he penned it, either from Lincoln's dictation or from a first draft, and submitted it to Lincoln for signature. But why, in this event, would Hay have sworn Morley to secrecy? One concludes by wondering whether there may have been in John Hay a touch of mild chicanery that permitted him to enjoy with a knowing smile the perpetuation of the forged facsimiles, so long as the popular sale and distribution of those facsimiles added to the fame and glory of his idol.
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* Internet Editor's Note: Complete Works as used here refers to Nicolay, John G. and John Hay, editors, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial University: Harrogate, TN, 1894) not to be confused with Basler, Roy P., editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1953).