Pada bulan Desember 1862, Presiden Amerika Serikat Abraham Lincoln mengirimkan sebuah surat penghiburan yang singkat kepada Fanny McCullough, putri letnan kolonel William McCullough, setelah ia tewas dalam Perang Saudara Amerika.
Latar belakang
suntingLincoln telah bertemu dengan William McCullough bertahun-tahun sebelumnya, ketika Lincoln masih seorang pengacara keliling di Illinois dan McCullough adalah seorang Panitera Pengadilan Sirkuit di McLean County. Lincoln kadang-kadang tinggal bersama dengan keluarga McCullough saat ia sampai di area Bloomington, Illinois sirkuit tersebut. McCullough menjadi pendukung setia Lincoln dimulai dengan keberhasilan Lincoln dalam pemilihan Kongres tahun 1846. Dengan dimulainya Perang Saudara, McCullough meminta Lincoln untuk mengizinkannya masuk ke dalam tentara meskipun ia memiliki banyak masalah kesehatan dan usianya cukup lanjut. Permintaan McCullough diterima, dan ia ditugaskan sebagai letnan kolonel dalam Kavaleri Illinois ke-4.[1]
Setelah McCullough tewas pada tanggal 5 Desember 1862 dalam sebuah pertempuran dekat Coffeeville, Mississippi,[2] putrinya Mary Frances ("Fanny") tidak dapat dihibur dan mengunci dirinya di dalam kamarnya. Atas permintaan David Davis, seorang teman Lincoln dan keluarga McCullough, Lincoln menulis kepada Fanny pada tanggal 23 Desember.[3]
Teks
sunting
Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 23, 1862.Dear Fanny
It is with deep grief that I learn of the death of your kind and brave Father; and, especially, that it is affecting your young heart beyond what is common in such cases. In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once. The memory of your dear Father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer, and holier sort than you have known before.Please present my kind regards to your afflicted mother.
Your sincere friend,
A. Lincoln.Miss. Fanny McCullough.[4]
Lihat pula
suntingReferensi
sunting- ^ VanGorder, Megan (2014). "Close Reading –Letter to Fanny McCullough | History 288: Civil War & Reconstruction". dickinson.edu. Diakses tanggal 2016-10-15.
- ^ Duis, E. (1874). The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois: Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County (dalam bahasa Inggris). Bloomington: The Leader Publisher and Printing House. hlm. 201-205.
- ^ Shenk, Joshua Wolf (2006). Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness (dalam bahasa Inggris). New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. hlm. 187–189. ISBN 0618773444.
- ^ "Abraham Lincoln's Letter to Fanny McCullough". www.abrahamlincolnonline.org. Diakses tanggal 2016-08-05.
