William Stone letter to Martha Schofield

[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