The Virginia Gazette

To the PRINTERS.
Gentlemen,
Please to insert the following in your gazette, and oblige
B many of your customers.

To the Officers in the Army.
GENTLEMEN,
From the duty we owe to God and our country, we freely and cheerfully part with our sons at this time, many of them the props of our old age, and support of our families. We send them forth, under your government and direction, to fight our battles against the cruel invaders of our rights and liberties.— We give them up to you as their parents and guardians, as well as their Captains and commanders. Suffer us then to urge it upon you to be careful of their morals. We less dread the loss of their lives in the field, than we do the loss of their virtue in the camp. We are often shocked, and astonished, with the accounts we hear of the profanity and debauchery which prevail there. O! Sirs, for God's sake put a stop to these vices; it is certainly in your power, in a great degree, and as certainly your most indispensable duty. To mention no other obligation, you all profess to follow and be ruled by the resolves and directions of the Continental Congress. Why do you then allow the execrable sin of profane cursing and swearing to be followed with impunity, and also the destructive vice of gaming? Shall our sons (if it please God to guard them safe through the dangers and perils of war) return to us so debauched and corrupted as to be the curse of our families, and grief of our hearts, the remaining part of our lives? Shall they be ever after nuisances to society, and pests in the country their valour helped to save? God forbid! Rather let them die in the field, and be devoured by wild beasts and birds of prey, their unburied bones lie whitening in the sun, than that should be the unhappy case! But, Gentlemen, may we not hope better things?— Excuse the liberty we have taken, in this short hint, as we are all greatly interested in so important an affair. We are your most obedient humble servants,
The Parents of the Youth in the Army.