Show A HAWTHORNE LETTER ill grin proposal that old me MOM only dball co go vrr war A letter from nathaniel hawthorne to an english friend just ut printed written during luring the civil war shows how lightly the great struggle rested on the novelists mind the proposal t make old men fight in war had the grim h humor u of swift in it he ile guys we also have gone gon to war and N we seem to have little little or at least a very mis t y idea id ea of what we are fighting for it depends on the speaker and that again depends upon the tile section of the country in in which hig his sympathies are enlisted the southern man will sa ay T we fight for state rights liberty and independence the middle west ern man will avow that he be fights lights for the union while our northern and eastern man will swear from the beginning his only idea was liberty to the blacks and find the annihilation of slavery elavery all are thoroughly in in earnest and all pray for the blessings of heaven to rest upon the enterprise terp ter prise Fise the appeals arc are soli so umer out fervent and and yet so contradictory r that the great arbiter to whom they e y so piously and solemnly appeal must be sorely puzzled how to decide on one 0 thing is indisputable the spirit of our young men is thoroughly aroused their enthusiasm is boundless and ad the smiles of tf our fragile and delicate women cheer them on when I 1 hear their theli drums ma beating ond see their banners flying i g and witness their stead steady y marchin marching I 1 declare were it not for certa certain in a ivery mo monitors hanging by my ray temples suggesting prudence I 1 feel aa as if I 1 could catch the infection shoulder a musket and be off to the war dr myself meditating on these matters I 1 begin to think our custom as to war is a mistake why draw from ouri our i young oung men in the bloom and heyday ay of their youth the so soldier diers who are to fight our battles had I 1 my way no man should go to war under 50 years of age uch such men tuen having already had their natural share of worldly pleasures and lifes enjoy ments and I 1 dont see how they could make a more creditable or more honorable exit from the worlds stage than by becoming food for pow derand gloriously dying in defense of their home nome and country then I 1 would add a premium in favor of recruits cruita re of three score years and upward as virtually with one foot in the grave they would not be likely torun to run away I 1 apprehend nd tb that at no people ever built on the skeleton of a warlike history so rapidly adly as we are doing what a i me fine theme th eme for the poet isyou if you were not a born from whose country we ex expect act no het help and little sympathy I 1 would as ask you fo for r a mar bial strain etrain a song to be sung L by aj r our campfires camp fires to soothe the beef feelings 0 and rouse the energies of our troops inspiring them to meet like men the great conflict that awaits them resolved to conquer or to die if dying still to conquer ten thousand poetasters poe tasters have tried and tried in vain to give us a rousing scots clial haw law with wallace bled if we ave fight no better than we ling ing may theford the lord have mercy upon us its and upon the nation |