Abraham Lincoln - Bixby Letter - Union, MO USA - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

County of marker: Franklin County
Location of quote: Main St. & S. Oak St., courthouse lawn, Union

Quote:
"The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom" - Abraham Lincoln

"One of the most extravagantly admired of all Lincoln documents is the letter to the Widow Bixby, written on November 21, 1864. James G. Randall and Richard N. Current declared that it 'stands with the Gettysburg address as a masterpiece in the English language.' Another Lincoln biographer, David A. Anderson, claimed that 'Lincoln's three greatest writings'—the Gettysburg Address, the letter to Mrs. Bixby, and the Second Inaugural Address—are the compositions 'upon which assessment of his literary achievement must ultimately be based.' A New Yorker thought the Bixby letter superior to the Gettysburg Address: 'It is cleaner English, better constructed and shows a heartfelt of emotion and sympathy.' Henry Watterson called it "the most sublime letter ever penned by the hand of man.'" "But not everyone agrees that Lincoln actually wrote the letter. One historian observed that "the furious controversies that have raged' around its authorship threatened "to become as important in the annals of this country as the affair Dreyfus was in France, with this difference—no scandal, though a lot of dirt and deception, attaches to it; no duels, except verbal ones, have been fought over it; and no one ... has been imprisoned because of it.'" ~ University of Michigan

Address: 300 E Main St Union, MO 63084 Website: [Web Link]

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