Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,--
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
The Scioto Gazette, Chillicothe, Ohio
March 31, 1863
LET US LOVE OUR FLAG.
As I sat by the bed of a sick soldier, I saw on his arm what appeared to me to be our national flag.
"You have the American flag on your arm?" I said to him, inquiringly.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied, and began to pull up his shirt sleeve that I might see it more distinctly. "That was put in when I was nine years old; I fainted several times while it was being done, but I would have it there."
I looked at his arm. There was the Goddess of Liberty, bearing in her hand our Star Spangled Banner. The red stripes had been put on in vermillion.
"That is a mark the rebels would not like," I remarked to him.
"I always supposed if I should be taken prisoner I should be murdered, because of this mark, but I was determined to fight for the flag that protected me. It protected me when I came to this country seven years old, and under it I have had my living ever since. I want to die under its folds."
"You die for your country just as truly as if you died on the battlefield, and I thank you for what you have done for us," I said to the poor fellow who was suffering from heart disease and dropsy, and who is liable every moment to be taken from this fighting world.
"Do you ever regret that you volunteered? "
"Never. I have done what I could, and am willing to die in this way."
The young Irishman seemed to have a true attachment to the flag of his adopted country. He has given his life for it. How is it with ourselves? Do we really love it and prize it as we should? Is it the symbol of progress, of political and religious freedom? We should cherish it as we cherish God's best gifts to us, and we should be willing if need be, to die for it. We must teach our children to love it, to consider its safety superior to their own, and to be willing to make any sacrifice which it requires. We must pray for it and teach our children to pray for it. Let us not be too much tried by the self denials and privations that war is bringing upon us. Let us bear it nobly and uncomplainingly with hearts full of steadfast faith and trust in God, and let us grow strong in patriotism as were our grandmothers before us. They left us a precious legacy. Shall we leave one of less value to our children?