Woodrow Wilson to Richard Heath Dabney

I have been knocking from place to place, utterly unable to sit down and tell you what is really in my heart about your tragical loss. I cannot tell you, my dear fellow, with what affectionate sympathy my heart has gone out to you in the loss of your daughter. Everything that you tell us about her makes more vivid my impression of how inconsolable you must be. I hope you realise, my dear Heath, how intimate my feeling of affection and sympathy is. It has given me great pleasure to feel that anything I might say would convey to you the least solace. You bear the whole thing so nobly yourself that it shows that you were worthy to have such a daughter. I shall always remember her as one of my own dear frineds, after what you have told me of her.

With warmest affection,