Must stop or fail.
You have full control over your appetite, and can let drinking alone. Had you not pledged me the sincerity of your honor early last March, that you would drink no more during the war, and kept that pledge during the campaign, you would not have stood first in the world's history as a successful leader. Your only salvation depends upon your strict adherence to that pledge; you cannot succeed in any other way. As I have before stated, I may be wrong in my suspicions; but if one sees that which leads him to suppose a sentinel is falling asleep on his post, it is his duty to arouse him; and if one sees that which leads him to fear the general commanding a great army is being seduced to that step which he knows will bring disgrace upon that general, and defeat to his command; if he fails to sound the proper note of warning, the friends, wives and children of those brave men, whose lives he permits to remain thus in peril, will accuse him while he lives, and stand swift witnesses of wrath against him in the day when all shall be tried. If my suspicions are unfounded, let my friendship for you and my zeal for my country be the excuse for this letter; and, if they be correctly founded, and you determine not to heed my admonitions and prayers of this hasty note by immediately ceasing to touch a single drop of any kind of liquor, no matter by whom asked or under what circumstances, let my immediate relief from duty in this department be the result.
