UPON THE ALTAR OF LIBERTY…

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 liberty.

President Abraham Lincoln, letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby of Boston upon the loss of her sons in battle, 21 November 1864.