Franklin County: Alex Cressler to Henry A. Bitner, July 30, 1861
July 30th 1861
Dear Friend:-
Yours of the 19th instance was received in due
time, I was
sorry to hear that you were not well, but I
hope that you are now stout and hearty,
enjoying the
pleasures of a beautiful country home. I know not
whether you would
prefer a town life to one in the
country, but if you lived in town awhile and had
nothing to do, you would realize the truth of that
saying, that "nothing to do" is the
hardest work that
one can engage in. I hope you will take care of that
and always
manage to have something to do, for children learn mischief
when they learn nothing else.
You will excuse me for reminding me of the value
of health, but my object is to put you
on your guard
that you may not, by unnecessary means, impair
or
injure your health, for it is one of the greatest gifts
confered upon a man by a bountiful Creator, a gift
which few
enjoy, and which a still less number try
to preserve, how much less suffering would
there
be in the world if people would regard their health
[page 2]
in the proper light, The only possible excuse
that could be
advanced for one's neglecting his health[illeg.]
would, I suppose be, that Doctors must live too,
He who loses his health, by abusing it, will
then for
the first time discover that he has forfeited [deleted: it to]
all
his claims to unalloyed and perfect happiness.
Now as you and
I are yet young and healthy,
let us resolve [added: that]
our health shall claim its share of
attention,--that we will ever strive to preserve
and
maintain it as long as it is the will of our Maker
to do so.
The war is not over yet,--the difficulties remain
unsettled-- the traitors still live to
plot our destruction
yea: it is just beginning to assume its destructive form
the
defeat at Manassas Junction, and the cruel manner
in which our
wounded heroes were treated will forever
remain on the pages of history as a living
testimony against
the humanity of the slave drivers of the South, when
the people of
the North [added: once] suffer the cruelties which the
south chooses [added: to] inflict--when his life depends on
the
sympathy of a southerner, he will say "the half
was not told us of [added: the] inhumanity of this people"
[page 3]
no, the war is not ended yet, we permitted the south
to
inflict upon a poor and helpless race of God's creatures
the most
unjust tortures that was [added: ever] heaped upon
any
race of human beings, and now we are to be asked to
do just what rational beings might
have expected
to bow down on our knees [added: before
them], that a like burden
may be placed upon our shoulders, but will we do it;
will we as freeman succumb to
their unjust demands &
will we sacrifice ourselves and our children to the
everlasting curse of slavedom? No, but we will
cheerfully
sacrifice our all upon the alter of our Country
and stand by the Constitution and the laws
until the
last drop of our heart's blood shall have oozed from
[added: our]
bosoms, not as long as we inherit the spirit
by which
our fathers were actuated [added: can we] shrink
from the task
before us, nor can [added: we,] until that
spirit shall have
been entirely annihilated, yield to the mandate of
that notorious traitor Jefferson Davis not until
we have
lost everything that is noble in man, can we
consent to the destruction of
the government,
which would be nothing less than our own destruction.
No the war is
not ended yet, the fighting is
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yet to do, and
Virginia
will become a free
state, and slavery will gradually die
out, and
how is this to be done? Why I will tell you
our troops will take
Virginia
-- occupy it, --and then
the secessionists will have to leave to escape being
imprisoned for treason, and then western Virginia will
extend
her government over the whole dominion
and abolish slavery herself, because the non-slaveholders will carry the elections, and after Virginia
becomes a free state and presents to the other southern
states her advantage gained by freedom and their disadvantaged incured by the curse of slavey they will
gradually one after the other become free, and those
who live to see it will behold the
whole union
cemented together by bonds of common
interest
and brotherhood, this is my opinion
of the result of this war.
I am getting along with study old fashioned
and have some hopes of getting home before
long,
wishing you success in your efforts to get
a berth of
school teaching.
I remain your,
true friend
Alex Cressler
