How Lincoln dealt with grieving mothers (quite different)

[democrat in Tallahassee]

http://www.mahablog.com/
Shortly after the battle of Gettysburg, Edward, the elderly White House usher, showed a careworn, tearful woman into Lincoln’s office. Her husband and both of her sons were in the Army, she explained, and she was finding it hard to survive. Could she have one of her sons back?

The way she told her story moved him. He stood by the fire, his head low, keeping a grip on his emotions. ‘I have two and you have none,” he murmured. He stepped over to his desk and composed an order that would secure her youngest son’s discharge.

A few days later, Edward came to tell him, “That woman, Mr. President, is here again and still crying.”

“Let her in.”
more

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Lincoln also visited the wounded

and his oldest son, Robert joined the Union Army. But then Lincoln CARED about people. That's the difference between Republicans back then and what are called Republicans now.

[1monster]

7. And encouraged his youngest son, Tad, to make care packages for

the soldiers.

Tad, the little entrepreneur, tried raising money for the care packages in various ways.

He set up toll stairs in the White House, charging anyone who wanted to use the stairs five cents.

Once, while in a Cabinet Meeting, the President looked out the window and then dashed from the room. He had seen his son Tad selling his wife’s best clothing in a yard sale.

To these and other methods of raising revenue for the care packages, the long suffering, but patient Lincoln gently suggested, "You'll have to find another way.

Finally Tad found an acceptable way to raise the funds he needed. He bought food from street vendors and then resold the food at higher prices to people waiting in the White House Lobby to see the President.

Lincoln also quietly replaced White House blankets, books, and other items that Tad confiscated for the care packages.

[ck4829]

2. Lincoln...

was Intelligent.

Lincoln had emotions.

Lincoln felt for his fellow man.

And...

Lincoln had a Soul.

[BikeWriter]

3. "Then he hurried out of the room before he gave way to tears"

I just did.

[lavenderdiva]

4. that is a beautiful story...

Thank you for sharing it. I wonder if this story will make its way into the MSM, as a glaring comparison of how a true President reacts to a grieving mother?

[bballny]

5. Lincoln was our

greatest President He came from a very humble background. He was self taught and was a very spirtual man. Bush is none of these things. The more I watch him the more I am convinced he is not stupid but a real sociopath. He is demented.

[Journeyman]

6. Mr. Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby. . .

In the fall of 1864, Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew wrote to President Lincoln asking him to express condolences to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a widow who was believed to have lost five sons during the Civil War. Lincoln's letter to her was printed by the Boston Evening Transcript. Later it was revealed that only two of Mrs. Bixby's five sons died in battle (Charles and Oliver). One deserted the army, one was honorably discharged, and another deserted or died a prisoner of war.

The authorship of the letter has been debated by scholars, most of whom now believe it was written instead by John Hay, one of Lincoln's White House secretaries. The original letter was destroyed by Mrs. Bixby, who was a Confederate sympathizer and disliked President Lincoln. Copies of an early forgery have been circulating for many years, causing many people to believe they have the original letter.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

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

[livinginphotographs]

9. Mr. Bush's letter:

Hey ya'll

Who we honorin' here? Aw yeah. Sorry about your loved one. :tee hee hee hee: Hey look at my cowboy hat? Well, see ya around.

Later
Dubya

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

8. This

as opposed to this:



YOU decide.