[Continuation from last page;last paragraph: that you could desire. If it has, I shall not begrudge you keeping Mary so long away from me. Remember me kindly to your cousin, Miss Ramstead and [?]. I wish I could send you a more satisfactory letter but Mary will write you soon and will make up for my deficiencies Ever your true friend William Stone] Washington D.C. [April] 9, 1870. My dear Martha, Tonight I suppose you are making the most of your claim upon my good wife and wishing that you could have her longer for yourself. But I presume as she has fixed upon Monday as the day for leaving you all that you will not be able to persuade her to change her plans, even if you should attempt to do it. I know how much you must wish to have her near you and were I able to consult entirely my own feelings, it should be so, but at present, here seems to be my place, and Mary has been so long away from me that my claim upon her seems now to be paramount. I have been very glad that you could [Page Break] be with her all this week and I do most earnestly hope that you have experienced no physical change for the worse in consequence of your vacation having been taken now. If you have had such weather as we have had here during the past four days, I am sure you could have had nothing finer at Aiken. Mentally, I know that a few weeks stay with Mary has had a sheering effect. I cannot tell you how much I have longed for her and how I have counted the days and even hours that must pass before I can have her for myself once more, but your claim could not be ignored and I should always have regretted if she had come away without your seeing her again. I trust that the rest of the time your have to remain at Aiken this season will be favorable to your health and it [Page Break] does seem as if our [winterest?] weather must be about over. I shall hope to hear very favorable accounts from Mary as by your condition. I know that to you this must seem to be but the expression of a vain hope, still those of us who have been blessed thus far with physical strength and vigor cannot, I presume, accustom ourselves to look at the finishing, rather than at the opening of one's life-duties, with such feelings as those who suffer as you do. It has, I need hardly assure you, given me great pain and some uneasiness, to receive the reports you have sent me of your health. But yet, it seems to me that there is something besides sadness in what you write. I am glad that you ask that your friends talk cheerfully with your for in so doing, you show how carefully and fully you have considered your case and its probable results. [Page Break] My own circumstances have never before placed me so near one who looks to a [underlined:future] other than this and perhaps not far distant, and I find myself unable to give expression to words which I would be glad that I might utter. To be sure, my experiences in the Army and all the teachings of childhood as well as the reasonings of my own mind have led me, in theory at least, to look upon the closing of a life here, whether in youth, middle-age or old-age, as a mere physical change, a long, child-life sleep [crossed our:during] from which, all that is really substance in our natures wakes in a new home and in the presence of Infinite Love for whom we can find no clearer [name?] than Father. I can no more find a place in my mind for any other view of this physical change, than I can doubt the wisdom and goodness and Love of Him who placed us here,- not to attempt tasks beyond our strength or to accept for truths mere speculations of theologious about original sin and a vicarious atonement and kindred matters, but to do well our daily duties, looking not for reward here or caring for praise or blame except as our own conscious judge us and to trust to Him for the rest. Than such a faith, I can conceive of nothing higher. To narrow it down to written statements, [Page Break] to declare it as absolutely true and essential to future salvation, would be as bad as to compel the acceptance of any other theological [?] As I read your letter, I could not but feel an instinctive reverence for the spirit which annates your life and conduct and to attempt to encourage one with words of mine who is so truly living for the future, seem an impossible undertaking. I have always, I think, been a Quaker in my belief as to inspiration on, as you call it, "the moving of the Spirit" and since knowing you, I am more than ever convinced that God did not cease to manifest his presence with Jesus and his immediate companions and followers. If nothing else had shown us, our war certainly has, that lives are not to be measured by years but by deeds- In your own case, you have already done more than most who have passed their prime, and yet, such as you, always have on hand more work [Page Break] for others than can possibly be accomplished by one person. One obstacle overcome simply reveals others to be encountered until duty becomes the every day routine of life. We thought that slavery was [underlined:the] monster evil of the country- and so it was- but now that it is abolished, we have to fight daily with the evil training it left on peoples, perverting their morals and destroying their sensibility. When this state of things is remedied other evils, hardly thought of now must be met by an equally hard front. I take it for granted that you have said to Mary virtually what you have said to me so that when she comes, I shall let her read your letters. I think it is better that I should do so than keep them to myself for I don't like to have any secret from her. Even the pain it will give her will be, perhaps, better home now, than later. Beyond her, of course it will not go. [Page Break] I have been rejoiced to hear of your success with [General] Howard and do most sincerely hope that your eyes will be pleased with the sight of a new school- house, on your own land, before you [?]. You have indeed done a great work for Aiken, the influence of which, cannot easily be measured. The talk with Mr. Williams must have required more nerve than anything else and in face of it I don't think any of us men can say that woman lack "pluck". I feared where colored people were concerned , you would find him a hard man to deal with, still you know that such people as Aunt Amy are sometimes mistaken in their views of things. He might, perhaps, have told her she could have her place [underlined:for life] and she, not familiar with legal doctrines, might have confused that having the place for her own life gave her an exclusive right to it for herself and [Page Break] children. There is a difference between a moral and a legal right and however much be might be morally bound to give her a deed, he might not be legally. However, she ought to have a deed even if she has the place for a [?] of years [?]. I had a letter from father this morning telling me that mother has been taken quite sick and that the [Doctor] says she must make up her mind to be will for some time. This will be no easy for her as she has always been one of the active kind. I do not presume that that is anything of a serious nature connected with her sickness. I had written mother of you still having hemorrhages and father says in his letter today that they hope you may recover as we need such as you "to help in the great work to which [our?] age and country are now called". I have been writing at the office where I am on duty. [?] I have always written to Mary when on duty here but as she expects to leave on Monday I do not need to do so. I suppose we shall hear from you very soon after Mary gets he as she will want to hear from you immediately after your return. How [crossed out:will] does Miss Ranstead fancy house keeping with only herself and [?] while you have been away? I fear its been a lonesome vacation to her. To you I must it has been all [Page Break] [Envelope Writing] War Department Miss Martha Schofield Aiken South Carolina