WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
503
than that it is a great misfortune. The more closely you connect family associations; the more you endear families to each other, as members of society, the greater is the hope of harmony and of the continuance of affection. If you take a boy at the age of fifteen and send him to an institution like the Military Academy, you estrange him from his associates in early life. He loses that reverence for his parents which would have grown up with him if he had been left at home. Their moral teachings are lost upon him. He may, perhaps, retain a remembrance of some portion of them; but they are not daily inculcated by example and precept. He becomes alienated from his brothers and sisters. New asso- ciations and detachments withdraw him from home, and he grad- ually forgets it. He remains at school four or five years, where his mind is attracted to other pursuits, and home gradually loses its attractions for him. He only recollects it as a thing of the past. He remembers his kindred like others who have been kind to him; for he has found in the world friends and associates who are agreeable. He loses that filial and paternal affection which he ought to cherish through life. He becomes a soldier of fortune, wedded to the Army. His sword is his companion. He feels that if with it he gets promotion, he will be happy. He forgets the ties of home and of family, and becomes, if you please so to call him, a son of the Republic; and if an Emperor were at the head of the Government, he would be the Emperor's son. Is this training calculated to increase a man's affection for his country, or to add to his patriotism, further than as he conceives the benefits he receives are reciprocal? But, sir, go to the walks of private life; go to the volunteers. Who are they? They are men who, when they come to the camp, quit the warm affections and embraces of affectionate friends. They leave maternal or sisterly, or it may be conjugal affection. They rally to the standard of their country, and are anxious to achieve something, and return to those endearments for which they cherish so much fondness. They move with alacrity and spirit; there is no desertion among your volunteers. But in one year I have noticed that, in a single command of the regular Army, nearly half of the troops deserted. There are no volunteer desertions, because home is no refuge for the dishonored man; but it is the elysii.tm of the patriot. After he has performed his duty, he returns to the embraces of his family, to the confidence of his friends, to the esteem of his neighbors. He has every incentive to noble achievement. He has everything to invite him to return speedily to the walks of private life. When his country needs him, he drops the plow-handle,
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