Staunton Spectator
Letter of Hon. A. H. H. Stuart
A Sacred Duty
Full Text of Article
We concur with the Richmond Whig that there is one solemn and sacred duty incumbent on the legislature of Virginia soon to assemble. It is, to declare the will of the people that the maimed and wounded and helpless among her sons, whose prospects in life have been blasted by a devotion of their persons to her service in the field, shall be a sacred charge upon their affectionate care and bounty. This question ought not to be embarrassed by any considerations touching the justice, legality or unconstitutionality of the cause in which these brace and chivalrous soldiers have suffered. If the late war was wrong, the State nevertheless put them into that war. The State called them to arms. For the State thousands upon top of thousands now sleep beneath the sod of a hundred battle-fields. Their bones are mingled with the dust of Georgia, the Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and of every State where they were called upon to uphold and defend the standard which Virginia placed in their hands. Shall the survivors, with shattered health and armless sleeves, who offered their lives at the call of Virginia, be suffered to pine in want and neglect? The United States takes care of her maimed heroes -- but the United States cannot, perhaps, provide for technical "rebels" against her authority. This duty, then, devolves upon the Old Dominion, and there is not a brave and true man from the Penobscott to the Rio Grande, whatever his views about the "rebellion," who will not applaud the act of noble justice by which Virginia shall provide for her maimed and scarred sons.
We hope that Gov. Pierpont, who has demeaned himself so well and wisely in his high office, will see his duty clear in giving this suggestion the influence and endorsement of his earnest and energetic recommendation. For such a recommendation would embalm him in the memories of thousands of as brave and noble men as ever labored and suffered in any cause.