|
We
are permitted to publish the following patriotic letter, written by a
gentleman of Chester, Pennsylvania, to his son, who is in service in Col.
Longnecker’s regiment, recently encamped at Hare’s Corner. It breathes the
true spirit of patriotic devotion to the Union, and most truly represents
the feelings of loyalty which animates all classes, all ages, all
conditions of the people of the North upon this great issue of government
or no government. The letter will be read with deep interest, and will
find thousands of Delaware hearts ready to respond to the glorious
sentiments it contains.
Chester, May 16th, 1861.
My
Dear Son:
I thank you for your letter. It is very satisfactory to hear from
you. I am disgusted, however, at the course of your company. W. S------,
exhibited to me the list of the names of those, who were willing to in for
the three years. I scann’d it over hastily and it contained nineteen out
of seventy eight. Are they Chester boys! It seems to me, that we, old and
superonnated fellows, will have to “come up to the scratch,” and see this
grand fight through. I would enlist for a “thirty years” war if necessary,
myself; and by the time it was concluded, I should be, most undoubtedly,
toothless and very likely speechless. Nevertheless, this vast question,
has now to be settled. The question is, “will you live as slaves, or die
freemen”?
In the decision of this question, there is with me, no hesitation.
I was born a freeman, under the shadow of the “Stars and Stripes”; I mean
to die, a freeman under the shadows of the “Stars and Stripes,” and I am
ready to do and to die, whenever it pleases God to require back the life
he has lent me.
If your men do not stand by you in this moment of the agony of a
nation, let them go let them come home if they have a home, and let them
meet, the contempt, the derision of their fellow citizens. No measure of
time can wipe out their disgrace; “knave,” “braggart,” “coward” will be
entailed upon them and their descendants, from generation to generation.
Traitor, tory, coward has stuck to the descendants of men, who were
faithless to their country and its cause, for over “three score years and
ten.” No gold has been able to gild or to ennoble it. The other day, the
lineal descendant of the man who rode by the side of Lord Howe when he
entered Philadelphia, in the War of the Revolution, and who said to his
Lordship, “This Second street, my Lord,” perished miserably. Took his
evening bath, and by some inadvertency, his dress took fire, and he was
burned to death. His income was perhaps some forty thousand dollars a
year.
Now, my dear boy, from all that I have written, all that I have
said to you, in the familiar conservations that have passed between us, it
is entirely unnecessary for me to add that in the defence and maintenance
of the Constitution of the United States; the rights and immunities of the
citizens of the United States, the … must always be in the advanced guard!
There can be no other part for them. Your grand uncle fought at Bunker
Hill; your great grandfather served under Washington, Lafayette and
Greene; your blood is true, and all I have to say is, that in any
emergency, I am entirely convinced that you will show the mettle of your
blood and your descent from honest and brave men. Results are with God
alone, we can trust Him with our destiny. D.B.S. |
