The Bixby Letter and 9/11

At this morning's Ground Zero ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, former president George W. Bush read Abraham Lincoln's so-called "Bixby Letter":

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.

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 word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering 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 and 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,

A. Lincoln

The choice of the letter has, predictably, caused a stir in the blogosphere.  Many doubt whether Lincoln actually wrote the missive.  And worse, historians have established that only two of Mrs. Bixby's sons actually died in the Civil War; one, as it turns out, was a traitor.  It would appear to many that once again Bush made a misguided choice, albeit one that speaks to his sincere beliefs and convictions. 

In a way, the choice to read the letter was perfect in its imperfection because it captures all that we have endured as a nation the last ten years.  The Bixby letter's history is, like war itself, rife with uncertainty and inaccuracies.  We live still today with the fallout from the difficult choices both Bush and Lincoln made in the aftermath of great atrocities.  But whoever actually wrote it, and however you feel about the man who read it today, the Bixby letter is beautifully moving and sincere,  and provides a model for the dignified expression of grief.