Second- and third-hand recollections of acquaintances suggest Hay may have claimed to others that he wrote it, but his children could not recall him ever mentioning composing the letter. Writing to William E. Chandler in 1904, Hay said "the letter of Mr. Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby is genuine", but he may only have been referring to its text. In a 1917 letter to historian Isaac Markens, Robert Todd Lincoln said Hay had told him that he did not have "any special knowledge of the letter at the time" it was written.