A letter written a long time ago to Mrs. Bixby from Boston

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the
Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who
have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine that would
attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.
But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be
found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement,
and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved, lost, and the
solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice
upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln