Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-08-10
0MOrtester @aiIp Spp.
THE DAILY SPY.
By MRS. CHILD.

From the Evening Post
My heart is full Of sorrow and sympathy,
which seek sympathy. From the beginning
of the war have watched the course of Col
Robert G. Shaw with intense and peculiar in
terest; tor | knew his character abounded in
those noble and excellent qualities of which
the country and the times stand so much in
need, and always have feared that he might
be cut oil in TIC morning of his beautiful
life.
Then the fifty-fourth regiment, Offering
their lives with such cheerful bravery to
achieve the freedom of their cruelty oppressed
race! If only their lives had been sacrificed,
we should have been sad, but eXultant withal;
for this existence is brief at best, and sacrifice
is holy and immortal. But to think of those
brave, devoted men, after their exhaustion by
hunger, fatigue, and the hard laborS of battle,
sent to Charleston, to be insuted and tortured
by furious tyrants, and then sold into slavery
Father of mercies how this thought agon-
ICES just and humane soulsl
As for the mean, vindictive answer to the
request for the body of their brave Young col
onel, it will produce the effect that all such
manifestations do. 1t will impress more
deeply than ever the minds of the people how
internal the spirit of slavery is. To the pure
and heroic soul which had Just parted from
his immediate family have principles that will
lift them above the possibility of feeling de-
graded by suffering with, and dying with,
Gods desplsed and prosecuted poor. They
will not forget the words ''Inasmuch as We
did it INTO the least of these my brethren,
ye did it unto me-"
Young Col. Shaw had many healthy infu-
ences TO shield him from the corrupting and
weakening effects of worldly prosperity. He
inherited from his excellent grandfather that
innate honesty of character which is far more
valuable than bank shares and broad acres;
and instead OF being diminished by transmits
sion through his parents, they confirmed and
developed it by the largest and wsest moral
culture.
AT the outbreak Of this war he stood on the
threshold of life, with the tairest and happiest
prospects spread before him. An only son,
dearly and deservedly beloved by his parents
and by group of sympathizing sisters, a fa-
vorIte with numerous band Of relatives and
friends, TO whom he was endeared by his gem
tie, refined, and conscientious nature, no per
son who saw him before the war could have
imagined that it would be his destiny to die,
sword in hand, storming fort amid flashes
OF lightning and roar of artillery. But when
the free institutions Of the country he loved
were brought into peril by traitors he did not
pause to daily with the alurements of life.
- He marched at once with the New York 9TH
to the protection of the capitol As a soldier
his bravery and tirmness were only equalled
by his kindness. He took the gentlest care
of wounded comrades, ard evinc<d a >~o.,-c.r.'s
thoughtful tenderness in cutting locks of hair
from the dead to solace the bleeding hearts of
distant relatives.
When the raising of colored troops was pro-
posed, his well known character caused him
to be at once singled out desirable Off
Ger. When the great moral influence he
could thus exert was urged upon him, he did
as his noble-hearted aunt had done when
similar suggestion was made to her; he moved
to the right Immediately. His parents were
well aware of the terrible risks he would in
cur, but they conquered all personal cOnsid-
erationS, and cheerfully advised him to follow
the promptngs of his own conscience. There
tie of peculiar tenderness which bound
him to this life. l alludc to his young bride
only to show how much he sacrificed from Il
sense of duty. But this is sacred ground;
and with reverent sympathy [ throw veil
over the unspeakable agony of that separa-
ton. Whether the parting exhortation
of his honored grandfather required to
his mind, and helped him to form his
decision with such solemn, self-sacri-
dangerous post without any other hesitation
than that which arose from a modest distrust
of his own experience and ability. In what
manner of spirit he undertook this great re-
sponsibility may be inferred from the follow
ing little incident While the 54th were be-
ing drilled at Readville, many people visited
the encampment. Among them were two in-
telligent well-bred coored strangers, who
brought letters of introduction to the colonel.
When he invited them to dine with him, they
thanked him, but respectfully declined. Be-
ing urged, they said You are aware, Col.
Shaw, there is prejudice against our COM
plexion." 'All gentleman are the same to
me" he replied whatever their complexion
may be-" He seated them at his table, and
treated them with the same unpatronizing
courtesy with which lie would have treated
the Duke of Argyle. His letters to friends
at that time were filled with expressions of
pleasure at the number of intelligent colored
people with whom he was brought into con-
tact. He seemed to rejoice over all indica-
tons of their progress, as a generous heart
does over the good luck of brother who has
been kept down by misfortune. The good
character the regiment obtained in the neigh
borhood of the eucampment was source of
great qualification to him, and in a letter from
James Island, received almost simultaneously
with the tiding9 of his death, he expressed de-
light at the high terms in which everybody
spoke of the bravery of the 54th.
Many of the 54th had followed their brave
leader through the dark gate, and among
them The poor old negro who, years ago, had
been seen in vision, recognized also his kim
dred and descendants. They all smiled on
each other, and when memory glanced back
ward to tine loved ones in the world they had
lett SO suddenly, the genial patriarch said =
''Be not disturbed; the separation is but for a
moment; they will follow"
Mr. CONWAY, in "Waks about London. -
published in the Commonwealth, speaking of
English crowds, says, q propos perhaps of the