Letters of Condolence

Comforting friends and family who have recently lost someone they love is not an enviable or an easy task.

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  • Gouverneur Morris letter to Sarah Gouverneur.

    Fishkill, NY - 19 December 1776

    We all sustain in her a great loss, but you in particular, who are thus bereft of the companion of your age, must feel it most severely.

  • Benjamin Franklin letter to Georgiana Shipley.

    London, ENG - 26 September 1772

    I LAMENT with you most sincerely the unfortunate end of poor MUNGO. Few squirrels were better accomplished; for he had had a good education, had travelled far, and seen much of the world.

  • Daniel Webster letter to Isaac Davis.

    Boston, MA - 18 January 1804

    You have been too long a citizen of this world to expect permanency in any of its enjoyments.

  • Abigail Adams letter to Thomas Jefferson.

    Quincy, MA - 20 May 1804

    Had you been no other than the private inhabitant of Monticello, I should, ere this time, have addressed you with that sympathy which a recent event has awakened in my bosom ; but reasons of various kinds withheld my pen

  • John Jay letter to Philip Schuyler.

    Bedford, NY - 25 July 1804

    The philosophic topics of consolation are familiar to you, and we all know from experience how little relief is to be derived from them.

  • John Jay letter to Maria Jay.

    Bedford, NY - 2 November 1804

    Our Heavenly Father has called this child home, and the very best wish that you or I could have formed for him. was, that after a long and virtuous abode bore, he might be where he now is.

  • Abigail Adams letter to Packard.

    Quincy, MA - 11 March 1805

    Scarcely had the grave closed over the remains of my esteemed friend Madam Sargent, relict of the late Judge, ere it was again opened to receive those of one still dearer to me.

  • Joseph Alston letter to Aaron Burr.

    , SC - 25 February 1813

    It was there, in the chamber of my wife, where every thing was disposed as usual; with the clothes, the books, the play-things of my boy around me, that I sustained this second shock, doubled in a manner that I could not account for.

  • Abigail Adams letter to Dexter.

    Quincy, MA - 12 May 1816

    How can I address you, or offer human consolation for a wound which must bleed afresh at every attempt to assuage it?

  • Thomas Jefferson letter to John Adams.

    Monticello, VA - 13 November 1818

    Thomas Jefferson letter to John Adams... I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure.

  • Joseph Story letter to Daniel Webster.

    Washington, MD - 27 January 1828

    I received in the course of the mail your letter announcing the melancholy news of the death of Mrs. Webster. It has sunk Mrs. Story and myself in deep affliction.

  • Daniel Webster letter to Anna Ticknor.

    Washington, MD - 8 January 1832

    Your last severe affliction a good deal resembles my last; except that Providence, in taking one brother, has left you another, and has left beloved sisters also.

  • Abraham Lincoln letter to Fanny Mccullough.

    Washington, DC - 23 December 1862

    abraham lincoln -- LETTER OF CONDOLENCE TO MISS FANNY McCULLOUGH.