It is just a month since Rob's Regiment left New York, and
Uncle William's went today, bound also for Harper's Ferry. Our last sight of
Rob was from the Flora; he was standing on the paddlebox of the Kill
Van Kull waving his handkerchief to us, and we saw him until the steamboat
rounded the point between Snug Harbor and Factoryville. I pray God that the
next month may pass as safely for him and Harry. Mother had a letter from Mr.
Olmsted, taking rather a gloomy view of the state of affairs. George, also, is
rather depressed and everybody generally wants Lincoln to change his Cabinet. I
don't see the use of being depressed; if Washington had been depressed, our
country would never have been born. The true spirit is, “If new difficulties
arise, we must put forth new exertions and proportion our efforts to the
exigencies of the times.” And we should feel as our dear old Uncle Sam1
writes in a letter to his father: “I have so much faith in the justice of our
cause, and am so sure that Providence, in its own good time will succeed and
bless it, that were twelve of the States overrun by our cruel invaders, I
should know that the remaining one would not only save herself, but also work
out the redemption of the others.” Bravo, Uncle Sam! That's the spirit of the
Revolution and the spirit we need now. For my own part, I believe (to put it
rather strongly) that if we had no soldiers and all the officers were
drunkards, the Cause, by its own force of right, would run without help from
anybody. No matter if everything isn't going on just right, “Our cause can't
fail,” because it's God's cause as well as ours.
_______________
1 Major Samuel Shaw, who was on General Knox's
staff in the Revolution and first United States Consul to China.
SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The
Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 14-5
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