(Beautiful Essay)美文+录音20篇
来源：英语周报
发布时间：2009-09-02 18:21:00
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内容提要：Is it worth it?Put first things firstThe power of encouragement
The power of forgiveness
（第12期）
During the American Civil War, a young man named Roswell McIntyre was drafted into the New York Cavalry. The war was not going well. Soldiers were needed so much that he was sent into battle with very little training. Roswell became frightened and ran. He was later court-martialed and sentenced to be shot for desertion. McIntyre’s mother appealed to President Lincoln. She begged that he was young and inexperienced and he needed a second chance. The generals, however, urged the president to enforce discipline. Exceptions would destroy the discipline of an already surrounded army.
Lincoln thought and prayed. Then he wrote a famous statement. “I have observed,” he said, “that it never does a boy much good to shoot him.”
He wrote this letter in his own handwriting: “Roswell McIntyre is to be readmitted into the New York Cavalry. When he serves out his required enlistment, he will be freed of any charges of desertion.”
That faded letter, signed by the president, is on display in the Library of Congress. Beside it there is a note, which reads, “This letter was taken from the body of Roswell McIntyre, who died at the battle of Little Five Forks, Virginia.”
It never does a boy (or anybody else for that matter) much good to shoot him. But you might be surprised at the power of forgiveness.