LXXXVI
Clara Barton—one of God’s noblest. Augusta (Ga.) Journal.
One of the world’s greatest.
Sacramento (Cal.) Record-Union.
Honored in three continents. St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch.
Her movement spanned the globe.
Springfield (Mo.) Republican.
The preferring of charges against Clara Barton, and her subsequent investigation, is one of the rankest instances of injustice in the history of this country. Unfounded charges, political spite and the hope of remuneration,—the charges were refuted and the schemers were discredited, but politics had triumphed and Miss Barton was cast aside. Los Angeles (Cal.) Examiner.
It was demanded of Clara Barton that she give an accounting of goods and food distributed to dying and wounded on the battlefield. The unspeakable Turk never did anything as bad as this.—But that investigation was only an exigency, an excrescence, a malformation, a wart on the nose. The Fra, East Aurora, N. Y.
Squint-eyed slander. Beaumont and Fletcher.
Slanderous as Satan. Shakespeare.
Slander expires at a good woman’s door. Ewald.
’Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words,
Slander, the foulest whelp of sin.
Pollock—Course of Time.
Slander, meanest spawn of Hell—
And woman’s slander is the worst.
Tennyson—The Letters.
’Tis slander “whose breath
Rides on posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world.” Cymbeline.
If the end brings me out all right what is said against me won’t amount to anything. Abraham Lincoln.
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
Abraham Lincoln.
Speak not evil of the dead. Chilo.
They that slander the dead are like envious dogs that bark, and bite, at bones. Zeno.
A poor lone woman. Shakespeare.
Done to death by slanderous tongues. Shakespeare.
Speak me fair in death. Shakespeare.
And thereby hangs a tale. Shakespeare.
The greater the truth the greater the libel. Lord Mansfield.
The greatest friend of truth is Time. Colton-Lacon.
Truth is the daughter of Time. Mazzini.
Truth is Truth. Tennyson.
There is nothing so powerful as truth. Daniel Webster.
Truth pierces the clouds; it shines like the sun and, like it, is imperishable. Napoleon.
The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
George Eliot.
All error, false hate, malice, evil company and their kindred, are sure to find their true value, and though apparently successful are doomed to die at last. Clara Barton.
The Almighty has his own purposes. Abraham Lincoln.
We never know the uses the Master will put us to. His designs are known only to himself. Clara Barton.
When you come to the certain conclusion that only truth and justice are eternal, you will find it easy to wait and let the Heavens rule. Clara Barton.
Nothing but truth lives. Clara Barton.
My Lord will help me. Joan of Arc.
God shows me the way I shall go. Joan of Arc.
We are all lost! We have burned a saint.
Tressart, Secretary to Henry VI.
Would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman is.
John Alespie,
Peter Maurice.
(Two of the judges that condemned Joan of Arc.)
First in the list of American great women is Clara Barton; first in her ideals; first in her achievements. In America, she ranks with Jeanne d’Arc, of France, to whom the English are now (1818) placing a monument in Manchester.
Corra Bacon-Foster, Author, Clara Barton, Humanitarian.
Joan of Arc was rather tall, well shaped, dark, with a look of composure, animation and gentleness. Guizot.
It is not true, I think, that Miss Barton has ever done anything to disentitle her to a conspicuous recognition in the Red Cross Building. Ex-Secretary of State Richard Olney (in 1917). (The eminent American selected by the “Remonstrants” in 1903, and unanimously approved by the Red Cross, to name the members of the Red Cross Proctor Committee—to investigate the “charges.”)
There is, and can be, no foundation for such a charge.... During all the twenty-five years that Miss Barton has devoted herself to the Red Cross work she has been in receipt of an individual income which it has been her pleasure to use in defraying her own expenses and for such helpers as the extensive correspondence compelled.
(Signed Red Cross Committee
By Walter P. Phillips Chairman,
Samuel M. Jarvis,
J. B. Hubbell.)
(In a Memorial to Congress, March 3, 1903—from House Document No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Cong.)
Wherein... was removed from his position, under Miss Barton, he said: “I can stand a great deal of cuffing, but then my time will come, so help me God I will not humbly submit to all I am having to bear.”... was brought to Washington from a distant State... principal witness for the “Remonstrants.” Mr. Stebbins and I were convinced that...’s object was blackmail.
W. H. Sears, Attorney for Red Cross.
... conspired to supplant Miss Barton by destroying her name and fame. Miss Barton resigned in my favor. Hoping to secure justice for Miss Barton I accepted the Presidency, but finding that I would be unable to assume the onerous duties as her successor, with Miss...’s insatiable desire to be at the head of the Red Cross, I resigned in favor of a party Miss... dared not oppose. Affidavit by Mrs. John A. Logan. (From a book of 177 pages by General W. H. Sears, in a report to the Library Committee of Congress, in 1916.)
... not one of whom (“remonstrants”) ever went to a field nor gave a dollar, above fees; and half of whom were never known as members until now they appear in protest against the management. Clara Barton (1903).
As to the threat of an investigation, if there be any, Miss Barton cannot assent that it be suppressed by any act of hers. Red Cross Committee, 1903. From House Document No. 552, Vol. 49th, 58th Congress.
The Red Cross up to this time, 1898, had kept clear of political rings, and uncontaminated. Miss Barton was the acknowledged chief in authority. The Society had begun to win the most enviable reputation; it was growing to be a power; and politicians who had hogged everything else, from a cross-roads postoffice to a foreign minister, had begun to lay plans for displacing Miss Barton with a wife, niece, or daughter of a Washington politician. Miss Barton was probably not aware of this unholy scheme at this time. Perhaps, even if she had been, it would not have disturbed the serenity of her countenance for she was working for God and humanity. Under the Red Cross; or the Spanish-American War (Page No. 154, book published 1898; Author, Doctor Henry M. Lathrop; Editor, John R. Musick.)
Blackmail Alleged — “Congressional Investigation” — Truth of History
Joan of Arc was born in 1410; Clara Barton in 1821—411 years later. The former became the leader of the armies of France; the latter, the leader of humanitarianism in America. Each was a patriot—self-sacrificing—serving not for self-glory, but for a great cause. The little clique of politicians and military aristocracy plied Joan of Arc for five months with “catch questions” on “trumped-up” charges, then condemned her to be burned at the stake. The little clique of politicians and social aristocracy plied Clara Barton with “catch questions” on “trumped-up” charges, then tried to condemn her to eternal ignominy. General Leonard Wood, humanity’s friend and chivalric, with whom Clara Barton served in the camp, the hospital, and on the battlefield, says: “There is a call for women actuated by the same spirit of service as a Deborah, a Joan of Arc, a Molly Pitcher—women who will carry forward the work begun by Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale.”
Let the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s
Thy God’s and Truth.
Clara Barton met her fate in the Nation’s Capital. Says The Fra: “The clique went before Congress and secured an amended charter to the Red Cross, which included none of Miss Barton’s friends. Because the name of Clara Barton headed the list, the bill was passed; the members of Congress supposed it was a bill that Miss Barton wanted. This was done without Miss Barton’s knowledge or consent. However, Miss Barton was ignored by the new organization. Her name has never been mentioned in their reports or publications; she has never been invited to attend any meeting of the Society which she had created, and established in this country.”
The Red Cross then was non politics, non society, non salary, non graft. President Clara Barton was obdurate, non pliable. She could not be used. Her virtues became her undoing. She was retired. From Europe, for inspiration in America, was brought the English heroine;—suppressed or belittled, the American Red Cross Mother in semi-official literature, “At Home and Abroad.” The coup won—the conspiracy completely triumphed. And how the official records disclose.
Washington is the rendezvous of “in full dress” criminals—character-assassins,—“that strange bedlam composed largely of social climbers and official poseurs.” They carry a stiletto, half truth, but in desperate cases make use of slander, of forty-five calibre. Their prospective victims range from rich Uncle Sam down to a poor lone woman, of charity. They ply their vocations sometimes, through envy, for self-glorification; sometimes, through ambition, for self-exaltation. While Washington was having the honor of dishonoring the great American philanthropist, a western town was offering as a present to her a fifty thousand dollar home, just to have the honor of her presence there. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Miss Barton’s three cospirits and co-workers for humanity, met their fate while guarded by detectives; under certain customs prevailing in the West and South, as there is no protection from slander against a woman, “Chivalry” would have come to the rescue of defenseless Clara Barton.
There is an official Red Cross report to Congress, made in 1903, said report on file in House Document No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Congress, statements of historic interest relating to the status of Red Cross affairs about that time. In re the proposed annuity of $2,500 and the Honorary Presidency for Life, should Clara Barton consent to permit the minority membership thereafter to control the Red Cross, and other matters relating thereto, appear the following in that report:
Since the filing of their (the remonstrants) Memorial in Congress, at least two thousand newspapers, in the country and out of it, have openly published these damaging statements, without the slightest knowledge of the facts.
The memorial includes an ex parte statement.—It is greatly to be regretted that such action should have been taken—without giving a hearing to the majority of the organization, or to Miss Barton herself.
While there were seven States represented by members actually present (at the meeting), the entire list of signers to the Memorial (by the remonstrants), with one exception, were residents of Washington, D. C.
With one exception, not one of the twenty-five members has ever taken part in Red Cross Field work for a single day;—and she valuing her services, however, at $50.00 per week for two weeks, making a sum of $100, which was allowed and paid by the board; nor were there any records to show that, aside from their membership fees aggregating about $160, they have ever contributed to the funds of the Red Cross, while individual signers of this Memorial have drawn from it more than 500, in aggregate amount.
Clara Barton has never been a pensioner on the Red Cross Society, and certainly could not assent to be placed in that relation. We may, too, reasonably ask how these sticklers for correct form in all proceedings can find authority, being only a small minority of the membership, to offer such terms; and how can they undertake to barter its offices, privileges, and funds for a compliance with their demands? They admit they can stop the proceedings in Congress—for a consideration—thereby indirectly admitting the purpose of their movement from the beginning. The mere statement of the situation will suggest its difficulties. The majority in control of the body is at a loss to know where and how, under the charter or any of its bylaws, past or present, there can be authority for such proceedings.
“That it was physically withstood,” says Clara Barton after her retirement, “was beyond either the expectation or the intention;” “still stamping on me;” “so long as I am personally unharmed I expect nothing more.” Fortunately for her country her life was spared, by her “enemies,” eight years more; for in that eight years she did a work many times more difficult than to have kept running her perfected and well-oiled Red Cross machinery. She brought into existence a new organization, of possible greater benefit to the American people than the Red Cross, an organization with headquarters in Boston and branch societies everywhere from Maine to California.
And why should she not have done so? About the time of her retirement (in 1903) there was filed with Congress by a committee of the Red Cross an official report, unanimously concurred in by the committee, in which report appears the following: “At no time in her life has Miss Barton been in sounder bodily or mental health, or better able to continue the work to which her years of experience and natural endowments have preeminently fitted her. Moreover, the nation’s confidence is Miss Barton’s, and no hand can better guide its Red Cross work than hers. While every right minded person will deplore the mental suffering, anxiety, and personal humiliation inflicted upon one of the noblest women that ever lived, it cannot be supposed that she will abandon her life work on such a demand as this, or that she will retire from the office to which she has been almost unanimously elected, while under fire; nor would her friends permit it if she were so disposed.—We find nothing in the opposition except malice, resentment, and the jealousy of a few people whose ambition has been thwarted.”
Tis eminence that makes envy rise;
As fairest fruit attract the flies.
Successful with her new organization, the Red Cross a few years later (in 1910) formed in its society a department to carry on relief as then carried on in Miss Barton’s new organization, the department being of like name—The First Aid Division. In her new field of humane service, Clara Barton expended from her personal funds about $5,000, besides five years of hard work, before she achieved success.
She was herself again; she was on the “firing line”; she had the support of her former Red Cross field forces,—not one had deserted her. She didn’t flee her “enemies” to Mexico, but to the “Hub”;—where, and in which vicinity, she had enjoyed social amenities with the Julia Ward Howes, the Wendell Phillips’, the George Bancrofts, the John B. Goughs, the Louisa M. Alcotts, the Lucy Larcoms, the Mary Baker Eddys, the Henry Wilsons, the Charles Sumners, the George F. Hoars. Either among such then living or their friends, she had lost none of her prestige because she had been attacked in the “Den of Character-Assassins.”
Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
Thou shalt not escape calumny.
On her “First Aid” Advisory Board were Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles and ex-Governor John L. Bates, of Massachusetts; Dr. Eugene Underhill, of Pennsylvania; Dr. Charles R. Dickson, of Canada; Dr. Joseph Gardner, of Indiana. Associated with her in various other capacities, also, were persons of national fame and widely-known humanitarianism. She was unanimously elected and re-elected, while she lived, the Active President of the organization—the organization known as the National First Aid Association of America: now she is the President In Memoriam.
In the House Records of 1903 and 1904 there is found the following: “They (Remonstrants) suggest that Miss Barton is a party to loose and improper arrangements for securing the needed accountability for supervision of disbursements for money furnished in demand of exigency of the Red Cross by the charitable public.” In 1916, a letter signed by a leading Red Cross official was mailed to the members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. In that letter, among many other “charges,” was the following: “I think I have given sufficient evidence to show why the dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Miss Barton makes the officials of the Red Cross strongly opposed to having the memorial of such a woman placed in a building that stands in remembrance of the noblest, finest, and most self-sacrificing womanhood of America.”
It is inexcusable, on the part of a member of the present management of the Red Cross, to make public “accusation” of Clara Barton’s book-records without certification to that effect by an expert accountant, in an official capacity, and then only confidentially to the organization itself for some good purpose; and in no case to the public in defamation, to support the position taken by an “enemy.” Similar conduct, on the part of an employé in a well-ordered private corporation would subject the guilty, probably, to dismissal in disgrace from the service. If in the interest of public policy such information should be made public, and become of record, it should be made officially public, and through the President of the society.
In what has been done, pro bono publico has had no consideration. In publicly attacking the Red Cross Founder’s book-records before the members of the National Legislature, there should also have been considered that conditions now are not as were the conditions a score of years ago. Then the President-Vice-President-Chairman-Vice-Chairman-Comptroller-General Manager received no salary; now (in 1919) the annual salary of four Red Cross officers is $41,400; $15,000 and $10,000 respectively, for Chairman and Vice-Chairman; $8,000 and $8,400 respectively, for Comptroller and General Manager. In re the attitude of the “Remonstrants” towards her, Clara Barton said: “I am still unanimously bidden to work on for life; bear the burden of an organization; meet its cost myself—and now threatened with the expenses of the ‘investigation.’”
In consonance with her sentiment, and statement, “The foundation on which all good government rests is conformity to its laws,” Clara Barton in 1904 turned over to the new management all Red Cross books, official papers, official records, public funds—all Red Cross matters of whatsoever kind or nature. If there were evidence of defalcation, or “dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Miss Barton,” then was the time to have made the charges, and in the criminal court. “Instead, the post mortem charges were made twelve years after Clara Barton’s resignation of the Red Cross Presidency, and four years after her death.”
Kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This vituperous slander enters.
Under the laws of this country the accuser was estopped from making “charges” in 1916; or at any other time, except in a court of competent jurisdiction. Were it not for this wise provision the reputation of no man nor woman, alive or dead, could have adequate protection from “enemies,” in ambush. By what code of ethics, legal or moral, is such personal judgment against the dead rendered? And where is the record-verdict of the “crime”? In five or six years of the investigation, I have been unable to find any record that such “crime,” as is alleged against Miss Barton, was committed. Nor do I find that a criminal charge of any kind against her is of record in the criminal court, the only institution under the laws of this country where a person should be adjudged guilty of crime. I do find from the records, however, that the Red Cross official making these charges was one of the “Remonstrants” of 1903–4, and who then certified to Miss Barton’s “integrity”; and also over her own signature proposed that Miss Barton accept the Honorary Presidency of the Red Cross as a tribute to her “integrity.”
“Loose and improper arrangements for securing the needed accountability”; “such a woman”; “dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Clara Barton!” Says The Fra, then under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Hubbard, “Such accusation is not only the blunder of boors but it is crime and sacrilege.” If such unproved, unfounded charges against a woman, with immunity to their author, can get into the government record, into the hands of the people’s representatives at Washington, passing without governmental protest through the mails, perilous the adventure of the women of America to enter upon a career of public service.
And has the cause of Clara Barton grown? Yes, gloriously, to the infinite credit of Clara Barton in laying the foundation in conformity to her statement, “To be efficient, the Red Cross must have government recognition, must bear the stamp of national individuality, and be constructed according to the spirit, habits, and needs of the country it represents;—in contemplating the possible realization of my hope and all it would entail and involve, I have been looking carefully and anxiously to the plans of the foundations of the structure we are hoping to build; and I perceive in creating an Institution that shall be National and of the people, the foundations must be as broad and as solid as the whole nation.”
To the credit of the Clara Barton management, and of the succeeding management, of the Red Cross; to the credit of the American people that for twenty-three years previous to the “accusation,” and thereafter notwithstanding, the world has held in highest regard the Red Cross Founder and Red Cross integrity. What of financial support, for reasons that have been withheld, (probably millions) has not been reported. What of financial and moral support accorded to the Red Cross brings a flush of pride to the face of every true American; what of seeming policy toward the Founder also brings a flush,—but not of pride. A public policy, not in harmony with public sentiment, has brought on national disasters—a world disaster.
Mere growth, of itself, is not a virtue; for the upas tree grows, with spreading branches. The best prosperity is that prosperity whose foundation is secure, whose record-history is untarnished. The best philanthropy is that philanthropy which lives in the best atmosphere, breathes of the purest, gives of the soul’s best. To her latest breath Clara Barton breathed love, breathed purest Red Cross philanthropy,—but prayed justice for herself. She had never spoken a discordant word in her life, meaningly; her “enemies” monopolized the discordant words. So far as known, she never made an enemy; her “enemies” were self-made—their self-made record, on the books, reported “in the red.”
Wearing a “political helmet,” those who attacked a helpless woman took possession of her reputation and prospered. At no time in her life has it been shown that in her chosen field, with years of successful experience, Clara Barton was not a good business manager; her “enemies” assumed themselves, without experience, to be good in business and took charge of her affairs:—but under proper political protection.
Slander—it is a coward in a coat of mail
That wages war against the brave and wise.
Her “enemies,” shielded behind “charges,” made accusation against her,—without self-sacrifice; she exposed herself to attacks of every character known to womankind, and made self-sacrifices for the Red Cross and for country. What is inscribed over the portals of the cell, near Brussels, of Edith Cavell, must be inscribed on history’s tablets, of Clara Barton: “She sacrificed herself for the Red Cross; she sacrificed herself for the country.”
Slander
I saw it tread upon a lily fair—
A maid of whom the world could say no harm;
And when sunk beneath the mortal wound,
It broke into the sacred sepulchre
And dragged its victim from the hallowed grave
For public eyes to gaze upon.
Yea, I have seen this accursed child of envy
Breathe mildew on the sacred fame of her
Who once had been her country’s benefactor.
Human nature hasn’t changed since he, who became the first American President, suffered through the “Conway Cabal,” a cabal not dissimilar in the motives, the charges and the execution, to that through which suffered the first Red Cross President. But George Washington was a fighter; Clara Barton, a woman of peace. The Red Cross President was as patient as was the first martyred American President, under persecution, and who then said “I am nothing, but truth is everything.” She was as innocent and unsuspecting as was our last martyred American President, who said “I have never done any man wrong, and I believe no man will do me one.”
Man, political, cowardly-man constructed the apparatus;—the tongue of woman, the sender; the ear of woman, the receiver. Of all the God-given good of earth, one woman is the best; TWO WOMEN, the worst. The only serious charge in history that will stand against Clara Barton is that she WAS A WOMAN; her most serious “misappropriation,” that of her confidence in another woman.
Away the fair detractors went
And gave by turns their censures vent.
Elected for life? Yes. Then resigned? She was not a “war-woman,”—she had never filled a swiveled-chair;—yes, she resigned in the interest of peace and harmony. And from the facts, distorted, and the motives, impugned, as to why she resigned were taken the bundle of faggots to add fuel to the flames of her torture.
Slander never wants for material;
Virtue itself provides it with weapons.
As for safety, the ancient criminal fled to the Temple of the Gods, so America’s modern character-assassin fled to the Temple of the Red Cross, and implored silence; for then to recite the historic facts of the martyrdom might cause vibrations that would have shaken to earth the pillars of that sacred temple. President Clara Barton of the Red Cross said: “Its President has spoken not at all, and never will.” Silence reigned. The truth was withheld at the Red Cross receiving station, while untruth sped wireless—and all the world wondered.
The Red Cross! No, the recent Red Cross officials don’t know the facts,—the reputation of the Mother is the child’s richest heritage. The Mother loved the Red Cross child; the child, the Mother—the slander of the Mother, dead, is by the individual, not by the Red Cross. The slander having coiled itself in Red Cross official circles there it lives, and will live, until scotched by the Red Cross or the American people.
For slander lives upon succession;
Forever housed, where it gets possession.
The so-called “investigation of charges” against Clara Barton in 1904 was before the Red Cross Proctor Committee. The “Remonstrants” demanded an investigation, and suggested that Honorable Richard Olney name the committee. The Red Cross unanimously approved the selection. The great Ex-Secretary of State named as that committee: U. S. Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont; William Alden Smith of Michigan, then a member of the House and later a member of the Senate; General Fred C. Ainsworth, of the United States Army, of Washington, D. C. This in fact was a Red Cross Committee and not, as so-called, a Congressional Committee. “Congressional Committee to investigate” was a threat to frighten a timid woman.
In the so-called “remonstrance” (of record) there is by the “remonstrants,” of whom the “post-mortem accuser” was one, a disclaimer of
(a) “Any dishonesty on the part of Miss Barton in the administration of the affairs of the Red Cross.
(b) “Any charge of misappropriation of any property or any money by Miss Barton; or
(c) “Any improper act or conduct of any kind which involved in the slightest degree any element of moral turpitude.”
Had there been an official charge at that time of “misappropriation of any property or any money,” or any other charge involving “in the slightest degree any element of moral turpitude,” on the part of the Red Cross Founder, charities would have thenceforward ceased to flow into Red Cross coffers, the Red Cross would have collapsed, and the “remonstrants” making such accusation haled into court, on a charge of criminal libel. The “remonstrants” foresaw that the good name of the Founder was the one hope of the Red Cross. The disclaimer was prerequisite to the attainment of the “remonstrant’s” ultimate object, namely: the coming into possession of a popular organization that carried political and social prestige.
Mrs. Logan, the Vice-President, threatened court proceedings unless her name was removed from Red Cross literature, and in consequence it was removed. Not so, Miss Barton. She at all times wished it removed, at one time threatened court action, but she dared not risk the possibly fatal consequences to the Red Cross. She suffered, in heart-aches, because of such conscienceless fraud on the American people, as she often said, that the Red Cross might survive. Thus to the very day of her death, through silent acquiescence in the fraudulent use of her name to secure legislation and the people’s confidence for the new management, she was being terrorized, lest by her own word or act her Red Cross child might come to grief. The post mortem charges are camouflage, a shield to protect the actors in the “tragedy of 1904;” the game as of the cuttle-fish in making the waters murky, when being chased by a superior force;—in this case, that of Truth.
The charges made were:
(a) “That proper books of account were not at all times kept;
(b) “That the property and funds of the Red Cross were not at all times distributed upon the order of the Treasurer of the Society, as alleged to be required by the by-laws of the Society; and
(c) “That a certain tract of land in Lawrence County, Indiana, had been donated to the Society by one Joseph Gardner; that the Society was reincorporated after such donation, and that such donation was never reported to the new corporation.”
It was shown at the investigation that no Red Cross money had been invested in the tract of land referred to; that for reasons the proposed deal was not consummated, and the title lapsed; that proper books of account had been kept, and receipts taken for material and money, but not individual receipts from the sick, the wounded and the dying on fields of disaster—a system of red-tape impossible consistent with good service; that also the by-laws had been complied with in making disbursements through the Treasurer except,—when that too was impossible—during the stress of active relief work in the field. As her every field worker, then living that had at any time served under President Barton, approved her methods in Red Cross work; as the Washington “Society Remonstrants” had no experience in field work, manifesting pitiful ignorance as to what was required, the “charges” of incompetency on the part of the accused received no consideration at the hands of the Committee.
L. A. Stebbins, of Chicago, Illinois, ex-attorney for the Red Cross, in July, 1916, in a written report to the Library Committee of the House, and to which report he makes affidavit, refers to the charges of 1903 and 1904 in words such as follow: “The only witness ever produced to give testimony;—testimony was wholly unworthy of credit—false and untrue;—for blackmailing purposes;—clearly indicating blackmail.”
On February 20, 1903, as elsewhere stated, the “remonstrants” certified in writing (certification of record) as to the “integrity, good name and fame of Clara Barton.” At the investigation held in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Room on April 12, 1904, in re the terrifying twenty-four page “remonstrance” before the Proctor Red Cross Committee, General John M. Wilson, himself a “remonstrant” and representing the “remonstrants” on that occasion, among other things said “We do not charge that anybody has been guilty of malfeasance,” in Red Cross affairs.
Referring to this very occasion, Major-General W. R. Shafter, Commander of the American Army in the Spanish-American War, in 1904 while the case was pending, said: “If the charges made against Clara Barton were true, no gentleman could afford to be mixed up in the affair, but not one word uttered against her is true.” Clara Barton, in 1911, referring to that now historic event, said: “The harvest is not what the reapers expected, and I suspect if it were all to be done over again in the light of their newly-gained experience, it would not be done.”
To the credit of man’s respect for historic truth in official decisions, and his innate American chivalry, since the exoneration in 1904 there is not, at least of record, by any man an adverse criticism of the Red Cross Founder. The perversion of the truth of history, however, by woman is as injurious to the public weal as such perversion by man, and through no ingenuous excuse of chivalry for a live woman, and against a dead woman, should untruth have countenance. The investigation, for want of evidence, was summarily dismissed, on motion of the Committee itself. It thus became a mere farcical episode in American history.
The written certification of the Founder’s “integrity,” by the “remonstrants” in 1903; the oral disclaimer by the “remonstrants” of any Red Cross malfeasance in office officially proclaimed at the investigation in 1904, followed by a unanimous decision adverse to the “remonstrants,” the incident then should have been closed. The “accusation,” however, of even worse import than that originally in the indictment, by the “remonstrants” of 1903 and of 1904, again comes to the attention of the public in a semi-official way, from the same “lone woman accuser,” and is still a living factor in Red Cross policy,—still coming—still going—never ending—
All slander
Must still be strangled in its birth; as time
Will soon conspire to make it strong enough
To overcome truth.
A certain letter by a Red Cross official, assuming to represent the Red Cross Society, was mailed from the Washington Red Cross headquarters to the members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. Said letter was written to be used, and was used, as the basis of an argument against the record and fame of Clara Barton before the Library Committee of Congress. On the letter-head was the following:
The American Red Cross
Pointe-au-Pie
Province of Quebec,
Canada. July 29, 1916.
The letter was signed... (unofficially).
From that long letter, certain to be in American annals of peculiar interest as an epistolary curio, are taken the following excerpts:
“Her father died in 1862, leaving property valued at a little more than $1,000, of which she received a few hundred.”
“I may say individually that previous to the war Miss Barton appears, according to her statement to have taught school at Bordentown, New Jersey, where a teacher’s salary was $300 per year. A little later the records show that she and some other woman occasionally did copying in the Interior Department.”
“She obtained from Congress in 1866, $15,000 which she said she had expended of her own money in tracing the missing soldiers. It is difficult to understand where she obtained this money and also upon what her income depended in future years, as she stated she never received any salary or income from the Red Cross and yet she had no other remunerative occupation that we know of.”
“In the 126 volumes of the War Department records of the Civil War no mention is made of Miss Barton’s name or services except in a single letter from her asking information as to prisoners at Annapolis.”
“We have a printed diary of.... This diary was published in 1863. Though the names of a number of efficient women like Miss Dix and others connected with the Sanitary Commission are mentioned in a laudatory way, Miss Barton is never referred to.”
“In many published accounts of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, Miss Barton is not mentioned, though hundreds of other devoted women are given.”
“Just after the Civil War, several gentlemen who had been connected with the Sanitary Commission organized the first American Red Cross Society, but as the Senate had not at that time ratified the treaty of Geneva, this body could hold no official status and shortly went out of existence.”
“In 1881 Miss Barton who, previously when visiting in Vienna, had learned of the treaty of Geneva and the Red Cross societies, with a number of others organized the American Red Cross.”
“The International Committee of Geneva transmitted through her a letter to the President of the United States requesting the ratification of the Treaty.”
“Mr. Blaine interested himself in the matter and in 1882 the Treaty was ratified by the United States Senate.”
“From 1881 until 1904 Miss Barton remained the President of this small American Red Cross, and sometimes acted also as its treasurer.”
“Financial statements were not made public and it is impossible to say what funds were received and expended during the 23 years of its existence.”
“I don’t care to take your time in stating many evidences of the misuse of the Red Cross relief funds under Miss Barton, but I desire to mention two or three incidents.”
“She advertised in the Worcester papers for contributions for relief among the soldiers, but no record was made of what she received or expended during the Civil War.”
“Certain letters we have seem to show that she occasionally had some of the contributed funds invested in the West.”
“It is difficult to obtain data regarding the receipts and expenditure of funds.”
“At the time of the Russian famine in 1892... no financial report was made.”
“Shortly after this time Miss Barton bought real estate in Washington and Glen Echo....”
“I think I have given, however, sufficient evidence to show why dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Miss Barton makes the officials of the American Red Cross strongly opposed to having the memorial of such a woman placed in a building that stands in remembrance of the noblest, finest and most self-sacrificing womanhood of America. Should your committee desire me to go to Washington and lay before it the evidence I have given and more in our possession, I would be willing to do so.”
... would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authorized by her grandam.
The “charges,” including detractions, innuendoes and suspicions (of which the foregoing are only in part), take a wide range, extending from the time Clara Barton taught her first school at Bordentown in 1836 (80 years previous), down to the Sea Islands hurricane in 1893 (22 years previous). These “charges” were segregated by a friend of Clara Barton for the Library Committee. In that form they consist of thirty-one “charges,” including the accuser’s personal verdict, “the dishonest appropriation of relief funds.” In history the “accusation” will be referred to as “The Thirty-One Charges Without a Charge In It.” In legal circles such affirmations are known as “stale charges,” or by a worse name; but, even if presented immediately, such “charges” would have no standing in any court of equity in this country. The “charges” are further negatived by the admissions of the accuser, “It is difficult to obtain data regarding the receipts and expenditures;” “It is impossible to say what funds were received and expended.”
Also, inexcusable ignorance was shown on the part of the accuser of Clara Barton as to her methods in Red Cross affairs. It is certified to by the Red Cross (and of official record) that Clara Barton made her report at the close of every disaster, and in every instance the report was approved by the Red Cross, and was satisfactory to her government and the American people. Besides besmirching the history and good name of the Red Cross and her country, thus to impeach the integrity of the Founder of the Red Cross and for more than a score of years its President, is to impeach also her various boards of officers and her hundreds of other associates, including American Presidents,—all of whom uniformly approved her methods, her reports and the results achieved, while “she remained the President of this small American Red Cross and sometimes acted also as its Treasurer.”
If what the “lone accuser” asserts be true, that “we (Red Cross) have letters that seem to show that she occasionally had some of the contributed funds invested in the West,” they are letters, among other Red Cross effects, that came officially into the possession of the Red Cross, in 1904, through the pleasure and free-will offering of the conscientious-and-honest-to-a-fault-concealing-nothing Clara Barton. And for which also she received a clearance card, a “receipt in full.” As an American citizen and a member of the Red Cross I protest the legal right, or the moral right, of the Red Cross “accuser” now to incriminate her whose lips are sealed, or longer to approve of record, upon what seems to show.... The facts not only seem to show, but do show, that if Clara Barton had not accepted as a present from the twin brothers, Edwin and Edward Baltzley of Glen Echo, Chautauqua, her Glen Echo real estate, and for a house thereon as a present, the wreckage lumber from the people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889, there would have been no free-of-rent home for the Red Cross for the last fifteen years of her Red Cross administration and that of other philanthropies; that, while the accuser was living in a palace and “rolling in wealth,” the accused would have been homeless and penniless, living on charity.
The “lone accuser” has no “letters that seem to show,” save and except such letters be interpreted by an “enemy,” and for an ulterior purpose. There is no truth in cynicism, or but half truth, which is more untruth than no truth. There is no truth in “we (Red Cross) have others in our possession” which the “lone accuser” pretended to have in her post-mortem cruise, in 1916, while trying to thwart the will of the people as to the proposed Clara Barton memorial tablet in the American Red Cross Building; and, still worse, trying to blot out forever the name of the Red Cross Founder. As the sentiment of all the people, but said by the people of Johnstown just after the flood, in 1889: “Try to describe the sunshine. Try to describe the starlight. Picture the sunlight and the starlight, and then try to say good bye to Clara Barton.”
Truth will come to sight.
In re Memorial to Clara Barton in 1916, the Library Committee of the House of Representatives, having before them all charges of whatsoever nature against Clara Barton, but especially those certain post mortem “charges,” wholly ignored each charge, and all “charges,” made by the “remonstrants” of 1902–4, in their memorial to Congress at that time. The report of the Library Committee in 1916 was favorable to Miss Barton, and as disastrous to the cause of the “remonstrants” as was that of the Red Cross Proctor Committee, in 1904.
From the House Records, in the unanimously approved report by the Library Committee, are the following excerpts:
“Miss Barton’s life was given up to the work of relieving the distress in Europe and America, and her place in the affection of her friends and admirers is secure. None of them is willing to admit that she needs any special tablet, or stone, or that either is required to keep alive her memory as a benefactor of all distressed mankind. As one of the women of the Civil War, and a distinguished one, she also is memorialized in the Red Cross Building.”
ATTORNEYS FOR THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SOCIETY UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF CLARA BARTON
The memorial tablet8 was not placed in the Red Cross Building, as requested by the friends of Clara Barton, backed by one and one-half millions of petitioners to have it so placed, the most forceful argument being that one of the largest contributors to the cost of the building—and a friend of the accuser—made objection.
The foregoing is the authentic record presented to Congress in 1916, and a complete statement of facts—all the important recorded facts—relating to the “charges” of 1903–1904, with no official charges succeeding that date. Nor have I found in many months of examination in the Library of Congress, consisting of 2,800,000 volumes, or anywhere else of record, any detraction of early American Red Cross history or the slightest intimation that the Red Cross Founder was dishonest or a malfeasant in office, except from the pen of this “lone accuser.”
Every officer, under oath sworn to conduct his office to the best of his ability, that knowingly conceals “dishonest appropriation” of public funds becomes particeps criminis, in the dishonest transaction. If true, therefore, as the “lone accuser” asserts over her signature in her letter to the Members of Congress, that “we (i.e., Red Cross) have letters that seem to show”—“dishonest appropriation of relief funds” then, inasmuch as no effort was made to recover from her or her estate these alleged losses, Clara Barton’s successors as Red Cross executives, in their capacity as trustees of a public trust, Mrs. John A. Logan, W. H. Taft and Woodrow Wilson become involved.
“Charges”? Yes, Reductio AD Absurdum
If not true, what could have been the object hoped for by the accusing Red Cross official, in her perversion of Red Cross history? Was it that she might dictate to one hundred millions of people the sentiment of a government building, known as The American Red Cross Building? It is somewhat significant that a few months later the United States put four millions of soldiers in the field, to make “The World Safe for Democracy.”
Since this chapter was written and in type, there came into the possession of the author a letter, unsolicited, and relating to the possible motive. The letter was written by the Honorable Francis Atwater, the well-known Journalist and Ex-State Senator of Connecticut, and who for 40 years was Clara Barton’s co-worker and financial adviser. The letter, sworn to, follows:
October 14, 1921.
Mrs. Marietta B. Wilkins,
359 Boylston Street,
Boston, Mass.
My dear Mrs. Wilkins:
Miss Andrews informs me that —— has been in communication with you in regard to Miss Barton. I would like to say a few words about ——. About 1900 she became interested as a member of the American Red Cross. Miss Barton, some fifteen years previous, had founded the association after years of effort. She furnished the funds for the purpose, as she did for many years afterward for its support. It became a very popular institution. Miss Barton was honored by the world as no other woman had ever been.
—— having great wealth and connected with the social elements of Washington, coveted Miss Barton’s position and honors. She used her every endeavor to accomplish this purpose. She visited me in my office at Meriden, Conn., knowing I had great influence with Miss Barton, and offered, if I would get her to become honorary president of the Red Cross, to raise a million dollars for a Red Cross temple to be built in Washington and Miss Barton could have any sum she chose as an annuity, expecting, of course, to succeed Miss Barton as president. If we did not accept her offer she insinuated we would be sorry. Her proposition was spurned.
From that day she hounded and persecuted Miss Barton until her wicked design was completed. Since Miss Barton’s death —— has made the most damaging, slanderous statements, well knowing there is no law to which she is amenable. If there was we would avenge Miss Barton’s memory quickly.
I will say that Miss Barton when she died was several thousand dollars poorer than when she established the Red Cross. She had the friendship and confidence of every president from Lincoln to McKinley, also Gen. B. F. Butler, Vice-President Wilson, Charles Sumner, Senator Hoar and Richard Olney of Massachusetts, the most influential men of the country, and the crowned heads of the world. Many, like myself, gave years of our time and paid our own expenses, not for the Red Cross, but for Miss Barton and humanity. With friends of great wealth who offered and sent her checks for large amounts to her individual order to be used as she pleased (I opened many such letters) could any one imagine that Miss Barton would stoop to steal a few paltry dollars?
If —— persists in vilifying Miss Barton’s character, I wish you would ask her to make her statements in my presence.
Our Saviour was crucified, but has been remembered affectionately ever since.
—— is down and out in the Red Cross, which since her removal has printed much in Miss Barton’s favor.
—— seems obsessed with only one idea, to besmirch the memory of Clara Barton but, like Abraham Lincoln, who in life was so sadly traduced, Miss Barton’s name will be blessed more and more as the years pass by, while —— will pass away practically unknown and unmourned.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Francis Atwater.
AFFIDAVIT
Personally appeared before me Francis Atwater, and made oath that the facts set forth in the above statement are true to the best of his knowledge and belief.
(Signed) Edward B. Whitney.
Notary Public.
Meriden, Conn., Oct. 21, 1921.
The probable motive of the “lone accuser” was the subject of much comment on Capitol Hill. Soon after the defamatory letter reached the Members of the National Legislature there came a near-explosion in the House that promised to rival that of the Petersburg mine explosion of Civil War days; and to which scene, in the blackness of night, midst thunder and lightning and blinding storm, and on her horse with one attendant taking her life in her hands, Clara Barton rushed to the scene of death and mangled bodies, to save the lives of her country’s patriots. Accompanying the near-explosion, there also was predicted a tidal-wave as destructive to the Red Cross management as was that at Galveston in 1900 to her stricken people; and hard-following which, from what was then thought to be her death-bed, Clara Barton was on that storm-swept coast, in charge of the life rescue station.
Especially tense was the consternation on the part of the members from fifteen or twenty states whose peoples respectively (from 1881 to 1900), had been the beneficiaries to the extent of thousands of lives saved and untold sufferings assuaged, at the hands of that “small American Red Cross.” What really quieted the five hundred legislators on Capitol Hill was the rumor that the sensation came from a luxurious summer resort in Canada, where there had been summering merely a harmless phenomenon—an incinerator with a “continuous performance” furnace-flame, containing no heat units. But just what happened, and why, at the Nation’s Capital with threats, impendent, of a criminal suit and in the “jungle of intrigue” following, is a story for the novelist, not a subject for this pen picture.
One patriot-Congressman, however, for days kept revolving in his mind the many awful scenes, in which Clara Barton was her country’s “Angel of Mercy”; of the Michigan forest fires of 1881; of the two Mississippi River floods of 1882 and 1883; of the Ohio and Mississippi River flood of 1884, in which Clara Barton came near losing her life; of the Charleston earthquake of 1886; of the Mt. Vernon cyclone of 1886; of the Florida Yellow Fever scourge of 1888; of the Johnstown flood of 1889; of the Cuban scourge of famine and war of 1898, where “The Angel of Mercy” again lay at death’s door; nor could he forget the many other national, and international, disasters in which the woman-patriot served her country.
Her fitful days of war were over; in far-away New England, she was sleeping her sleep of harmless peace; her character was being assailed in the very Capitol Building where fifty-five years before she had cared for the unfortunate boys of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, who had fallen in service to country. In all the world was there ever such tragedy? But the “assassin” lives to a purpose; he serves to perpetuate to posterity the virtues of his victim; in contrast, his victim seems the more glorious. In such atmosphere of near-treason, as did many other Congressmen, “Fighting Joe,” of Kansas, tried to be “reasonable,” but his “Fighting Irish” got the best of him. He was too chivalric to give his pent-up feelings vent to a woman; but he was less considerate of one of the most distinguished of his men compatriots, as is shown in the following letter (letter of record in “Sears’ Report to the Library Committee of Congress”—page 139, but text given by Taggart from memory):
September 6, 1916.
Major-General Arthur Murray, U.S.A., Retired,
American Red Cross Society,
Washington, D. C.
My Dear General:
After a careful perusal of the enclosure on the subject of a tablet for Miss Clara Barton, I find it my duty to say to you that I am profoundly astonished that an officer of your rank would lend himself to the publication of such an unseemly screed against one who is esteemed the greatest of American women.
As one who served as a soldier in the least of capacities, I am astonished that a distinguished soldier should have a shame in belittling and accusing the dead—not simply the ordinary and common dead, but a glorious woman who has departed.
To my mind, Miss Clara Barton gave expression to the sympathy and tenderness of all the hearts of all the women in the world. If she was overwrought, and did more than she might have done, who will say that it was a fault? The whole world knew and loved her; and I daresay that her own dear land, that she served with such unremitting devotion as an angel of mercy, is the only place under all the stars where harsh words were ever written or said about her.
General, I know you are not responsible for the inscrutable jealousy that gnaws at the hearts of women. You did not write the article. I have no commission to defend Miss Barton, except what I trust is the best impulse of an American citizen. Her name should not perish and no one should listen with patience to an attack upon her record, much less her character.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Joseph Taggart, M.C. 2nd Kansas District.
THE LIST OF NAMES OF TRIBUTES IN THE WAY OF BADGES, MEDALS, DECORATIONS AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF ESTEEM PRESENTED TO CLARA BARTON.
No. 1. Masonic Emblem. Given to Clara Barton by her father, and worn by her through the Civil War, 1861–1865.
No. 2. The German Official Red Cross Field Badge. Presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden, and worn by Clara Barton through the Franco-German War, 1870–1871.
No. 3. The Iron Cross of Germany. Conferred by Emperor William I and Empress Augusta, 1871, in recognition of Clara Barton’s services for humanity in the Franco-German War.
No. 4. The Gold Cross of Remembrance. Conferred by the Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, Germany, 1871.
No. 5. Royal Brooch. Presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden, Germany, 1897. When presenting this brooch to Clara Barton, the Grand Duchess said: “An unbroken friendship of 26 years deserves to be tied by a knot of gold.”
No. 6. The Official Medal of the International Red Cross. Presented by The International Committee of Geneva to Clara Barton when, through her efforts, the Congress of the United States adopted the Treaty of Geneva in 1882.
No. 7. Servian Decoration. Conferred by Queen Nathalie of Servia, 1883, in recognition of Clara Barton’s services for humanity.
No. 8. Gold Badge. Presented by the National Woman’s Relief Corps to Clara Barton, the sole Honorary Member of the Relief Corps, 1883.
No. 9. Silver Medal. Conferred by Augusta, Empress of Germany, 1884.
No. 10. The Gold Badge of the “Waffengenosen.” German soldiers in America, who took part in the Franco-German War 1870–1871, presented to their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, 1885.
No. 11. Silver Medal. Of the Mass. Charitable Mechanics Institution. Presented 1887.
No. 12. Turkish Decoration. Conferred by the Sultan Abdul-Hamid 1897, through the State Dept., with the request that if America desired to send further relief to his domains please send back the missionaries of humanity they sent before.
No. 13. Gold Badge of “Sorosis,” N. Y. Presented to Clara Barton, their Honorary Member, 1890.
No. 14. Red Cross Insignia. In Commemoration of the Armenian Relief Field, 1896. Presented by Clara Barton’s Assistants on the field, in memory of the same.
No. 15. Gold Brooch and Locket. Presented by the Ladies of Johnstown, Pa., at the close of the Relief Work of the Johnstown Flood, 1889.
No. 16. Amethyst Pendant—Royal jewel. Given by the Grand Duchess of Baden and constantly worn by Clara Barton.
No. 17. Royal Jewel—Smoky Topaz surrounded by perfectly matched pearls. Presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden, 1884.
No. 18. Royal Jewel—Topaz brooch with Red Cross. Presented by Augusta, Empress of Germany, 1887.
No. 19. Belgian Decoration. Conferred by the Red Cross of Belgium, in 1892.
No. 20. Spanish Decoration of Honor. Conferred by the Spanish Government in 1898.
No. 21. Gold Badge of “The Clara Barton Lodge of the Sisters of the G. A. R. of Gloucester, Mass.” Presented to Clara Barton, their Honorary Member, 1890.
No. 22. Armenian Decoration. Conferred by the Armenian Prince Guy Lusignan, 1896, in recognition of services in relief of the Armenian Massacres.
No. 23. Russian Decoration. Conferred by the Czar Nicholas and the Dowager Empress Dagmar, 1892.
No. 24. Gold Medal of the Vanderbilt Benevolent Association of South Carolina. Presented to Clara Barton, their Honorary President, 1894.
In addition to the above pictured decorations, the original collection as arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe G. Wells for exhibition at the first annual meeting of The National First Aid Association of America contained
Gold Badge of the War Veterans and Sons Association, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Presented to their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, April, 1899.
Badge of the Loyal Legion of Women of Washington, D. C. Presented to their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, 1893.
American Red Cross Pin. Presented by a Friend.
Silver Ink Stand. Presented to Clara Barton on her departure for Armenia, 1896, by Mr. Spencer Trask.
Ivory Sealing Wax Set with Gold Trimmings. Presented to Clara Barton on her departure for Armenia in Relief of the Sufferers of the Massacres in 1896 by Mrs. Charles Raymond, President Red Cross Hospital.
Top.—Picture of Clara Barton taken in Paris in 1871.
Clara Barton was also the recipient of many diplomas of honor, resolutions, votes of thanks and commendations from rulers of nations, legislative bodies, relief Committees and distinguished or titled personages. In her home at Glen Echo the visitor could see many of these, together with great flags of foreign nations which had been presented to her as tributes to, and testimonials of, Clara Barton’s great work for humanity.
The unintentionally offending official, on receiving the foregoing letter, forthwith resigned his position in the Society; but the author of the “unseemly screed” continues “full of honors”—a shining Red Cross light to the youth of this country, while the “screed” remains of record as a blot on the fair name of the Red Cross Founder.
Contrasting Patriotic West towards the memory of the Father of his Country and Political Washington towards the memory of the Mother of the Red Cross, about this time there appeared the following pertinent-to-the-occasion Associated Press dispatch:
JAIL WASHINGTON’S LIBELER
Tacoma Man Must Serve 4 Months for Attack on First President.
Olympia, Wash., Dec. 29.—As a libeler of George Washington’s memory, Paul Haffer, of Tacoma, must serve four months in the county jail, the Washington supreme court today upholding the conviction of Haffer on a criminal libel charge.
Haffer published an article accusing the first President of the United States of drunkenness and other irregularities.
Washington Post, Dec. 30, 1916.
It might be of interest, both to the friends and “enemies” of Clara Barton, by way of contrast to this pathetic picture of her closing years and of the more recent years, to know that three years before her passing she deeded her “Glen Echo Red Cross Home,” the gift to her by friends, to Dr. Julian B. Hubbell, who had served her cause for more than thirty years without compensation, but with the expressed wish that eventually it should revert to the American Red Cross. It can, therefore, be said of Clara Barton and the Red Cross as similarly it was said of that bond of “love eternal” between Theodosius and Constantia, “They were lovely in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.”
At no time in her life did Clara Barton seek preferment;—she said, “I wish you could know how entirely indifferent I am to personal honors conferred.” She did not seek the Red Cross Presidency; she accepted it, under protest, from President Garfield. Resigning the position several times, she still continued to hold it because no one else acceptable to the Society was found to take her place. She appealed to no jurist nor politician to protect her, for she had always lived and moved in the full glare of the public gaze and could safely trust her character and good name to the care of the American people. She entrusted her all—her Red Cross and her good name—to the Government she had “loyally tried to serve:” and so long as the Red Cross banner is held sacred as the emblem of America’s humanity God have mercy on her country and ours, if that trust of woman shall have been misplaced.
The records, in the “reign of terrorizing,” show that the so-called “charges” before the Library Committee were made by one person, unofficially, not by the Red Cross; by the same person, of record in 1903, who made similar “charges” before the Red Cross Committee, the accuser by the Committee discredited; by the same person who appeared before the Red Cross Proctor Committee, and there unceremoniously “turned down”; by the same person referred to by Clara Barton’s successor to the Red Cross Presidency, as to the motive of the accuser in the affidavit herein presented; by the same person whom Clara Barton refused to support as her successor; by the same person who has taken the rostrum since Clara Barton’s death to traduce the country’s benefactor; by the same “enemy” who has relentlessly persecuted Clara Barton and traduced her memory for nearly twenty years; by the same person whom Clara Barton received in her Red Cross household, and in her personal household, as her friend; by the same person who, on February 20, 1903, wrote to their mutual “friend,” Mrs. General John A. Logan (letter of record): “Miss Barton is in town.... I know you will use all your influence to have her accept the position of Honorary Presidency for Life, with an annuity.”
The affidavit by Clara Barton’s immediate successor to the Red Cross Presidency, Mrs. John A. Logan, as to the conspiracy and the object hoped for, in the persecution; the statement by the “remonstrants” themselves in 1903 as to the “integrity” of Clara Barton; the statement of ex-Secretary of State Richard Olney; the summary dismissal by the Proctor Red Cross Committee, and on motion of the Committee itself, of the investigation of all “charges” whatsoever made by the “remonstrants”; the unchallenged sworn statement by Attorney L. A. Stebbins; the unchallenged signed statement by Attorney W. H. Sears; the official statement by the American Red Cross that “There was no foundation for such a “charge”; the exceeding high compliment by the Library Committee of Congress;—all these facts of public record make officially conclusive the vindication (no, the spotless record), of Clara Barton.” As her reputation has been three times in jeopardy, Clara Barton has been thrice-vindicated, thrice officially complimented, every time unanimously.
Truth is truth
To the end of the reckoning.
Previous to the date of the so-called “charges” in 1904, as tributes unsolicited and graciously tendered, Clara Barton had received twenty-seven decorations and other official honors; had received tributes from nine American presidents, nine foreign rulers; also by eleven foreign nations and several of our American States and Cities, through official resolutions. Since 1904, the year in which the conspiracy occurred, Clara Barton has been commended by two American Presidents, at the laying of the corner stone of The Red Cross Building at Washington by the U. S. Government through the then Acting Secretary of War; by the Commander of the largest American army ever mobilized; by at least three thousand American newspapers, not one newspaper in the country commenting on the “charges” with approval; by America’s great statesmen; by America’s great women; by a memorial representing a million and one-half of American citizens; by the Civil War veterans, North and South; by the United Spanish War Veterans; by the Sons of Veterans; by the Legion of Loyal Women; by the National Woman’s Relief Corps; by the National Army Nurses; by the National Woman Suffrage Association; by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; by the Protestant, Catholic and other religious organizations; and by all other public and private institutions whose attention has been called to this matter of national interest.
Whether in art, literature or philanthropy the pride of a nation is in the realized ideal. That which must live longest and best serve the race is the highest ideal, realized. American philanthropy, the realized ideal obtained through “a movement the most philanthropic of the age and an intrinsic part of world-civilization,” is the nation’s chiefest moral asset. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that the memorial tributes to the Founder and petitions by the people be heeded,—the schemers discredited officially—that the record of untruth may not stand against this nation through envy of “one of God’s noblest.”
Justice is the end of government, womanhood the crown of American civilization,—and the spirit of the woman “whose movement spanned the globe,” a heritage to this nation priceless. That spirit through wars and national disasters should be the saving spirit in untold suffering among “the countless millions and uncounted generations throughout the civilized world.” “Unfounded charges,” inhumanity’s foul blot, must be and will be removed from the scroll of The American Red Cross, off the escutcheon of the American nation—that the name of humanity’s luminary may shine throughout time as the guiding star in American philanthropy.
Notes
8. As a substitute for the proposed memorial tablet in the Red Cross building, the statue of Clara Barton, representing American philanthropy, should be placed in the “Hall of Fame” in the National Capitol, alongside that of Frances Willard, representing temperance; and the name of the Red Cross Founder also should be recognized as President In Memoriam of the American Red Cross, as her name is now recognized by The National First Aid Association of America.