A LETTER FROM A FRIEND IN TEXAS AFTER DEFENDANT’S RELEASE.
Gonzales, Texas, Dec. 30, 1859.
Dr. J. R. S. Pitts, Medical College, Ala.:
“Dear Sir:—In the sunshine of prosperity, friends will crowd around like bees on the honey-comb, but when the lowering clouds of adversity appear, there are but few who will not be found among the ranks of deserters, your case, however, forms an exception to the general rule. You have been favored by the benign and exhilarating influences of fortune; and you have also experienced the dark and bitter reverses with which humanity is so often saturated. At one time, she has thrown around you a joyous halo of felicity—at another time she has forsaken you with a treacherous inconstancy; but amid all her various phases of change which you have endured, the sympathy and good-will of every honest heart has beat high in your behalf. Your vile prosecutors succeeded by miserable subterfuges of law, which involved you in serious pecuniary embarrassments, and consigned you within the dreary walls of confinement, but time is now doing justice both to you and to them. You are mounting up into a brighter—a purer atmosphere of public estimation, while they are descending as rapidly into the dark abodes of eternal execration.
No one can feel more elated, or more disposed to congratulate you on anything pertaining to your interest, happiness, and success than myself; and certainly none more willing to contribute at every opportunity all within the power of one individual to your permanent gratification: how could it be otherwise? I have known you long; a chain of unbroken friendship has ever continued betwixt us; and more than all, I am proud in the contemplation that I have had some share in your early education.
Your attention is now directed towards the medical profession; and here I can express a few words of encouragement without acting derogatory to the principles of rectitude or sincerity; for if thinking otherwise, most certainly would I prefer the task of assisting at the risk of displeasing you.
The medical profession affords a fine scope for the developement of every faculty belonging to the human soul. Man, “the image of God,” is the most wonderful and complicated machine in the universe. Here is the noblest of all subjects—vast, boundless, and inexhaustible. Here is a theme on which the finest geniuses of the world have been engaged: a theme in connection with which the accumulation of intellectual wealth and constant progression have been marching onward with giant strides from the commencement of man’s mundane existence; yet but little hope—but little prospect of ever reaching perfection; hence the encouragement for onward acquisition for further triumphs of science.
Knowledge is valuable only in proportion to its applicability for preventing or alleviating the sufferings of humanity; then where is the avocation more adapted to better accord with this sentiment than the medical profession? Of course, I exclude all consideration in reference to the many quacks, empirics and murderers, who assume the medical garb without the least sign of internal qualification.
There is nothing in all the wide diversified forms of creation that can give you such lofty conceptions of the attributes of the Deity as the study of man: Life’s warm stream which ramifies and circulates in processes so wonderful; the numerous heterogeneous fluids which are secreted from it to answer all the astounding purposes of systematical economy with the nicest of all exactness; and all this by a “vital principle” which none can define, but which serves very well to represent our ignorance; the almost countless numbers of self-acting—self-propelling powers, with multitudes of valves, hinges, joints, all working in the grandest of earthly harmony; these are mechanical operations which belong to the Deity, and mock the proudest of all efforts in vain imitation. But what are these in comparison to the human mind—this noble prerogative of man? It is this which makes him the “lord of creation,” and draws the broad line of distinction betwixt himself and the lower order of creation. It is to this we are indebted for the manifold wheels, springs and levers which carry society along; in short the moral transactions of this revolving globe owe their origin and continuance to its agency. The science of medicine comprises a considerable knowledge of the whole. To understand any one business well, we must have much information on the relation of many. The study of causes and effects of physical phenomena, as well as the faculties, sentiments, and propensities of the human soul, are all within your province. But without enlarging, enough has been written to urge and animate you on in the work you have so well begun.”
The most remarkable action of any executive was that of the Governor of Mississippi in giving assistance to the “clan” in its expiring throes, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is not material now to enquire. From this action alone, but few are incapable of understanding, to some extent, the influence which wealth and distinction can exercise in cases, no matter how depraved they may be. This is only one instance from incalculable numbers which might be adduced where even the highest departments of State can be made subservient to vitiated purposes.