Clara Barton Speeches & Writings File Speeches & Writing by Others Correspondence, 1880-1918 & undatedRochester Dec 1st 1880 Miss Barton I received from my friend Mrs Nobl, a photo of you with the request that I should try to get something from the ‘other side’ for you. I have succeeded in getting a few [?] which I inclose, hoping that you may find something applicable to yourself in them. I only wish they were more worthy of your acceptance. I owe you many thanks for your kindness in examining and criticising my poems. I was much surprised that you found them so worthy of praise, it has indeed given one new hope, that I may sometime be able To write something of benefit to myself and others. Please accept my sincere thanks for your kindness. I should like to keep your photo for a while; if you are willing. Very Truly Yours Ida May Barker No 10 First st Rochester N.Y. To Miss Clara Barton From the land beyond the vision Of the mortal, past the gateway's Of the borderland elysian, Past the portal; Where the soul's self radiant brightness Fills all spirits, floods this light-robes (Life wrought robes of racist whitness They inherit.) From the height of this fair Heaven Come with blessings, thy inspirers, With sweet messages inwoven With caressings. Dost thy memory hold token, Of a singer, who did'st ever Clasp a lyre whose strings were broken, Yet did linger O'er the chords and strive to fashion Tones of gladness, - while around him Surged the stormy waves of passion, And of madness?? But he found at his transition. His desire-, the sweet tones blended, And today, he finds his mission To inspire. And unto him it is given Thus to be, the message bearer, From thy kindred ones in Heaven Down to thee.O, thou who walketh down the paths of life Where all the blossoms cover hidden thorns, With gentle hands outstretched in sympathy To all Earth’s suffering ones, Know that thy feet are led by unseen Guides. Thou drawest round thee from the [i?less] world, A potent band of workers, earnest, true, With banners wide unfurled. Thou art a' chosen leader, and thy hand Shall ope the long-closed doors of tenderness In human hearts, and let an influence in To heal, uplift and bless. Thine is a glorious work, stay not thy hand, E’en tho thy way seems wrapp’d in hopeless nights Could’st look beyond - thou’dest see - - Fulfillment - [w?t] In glowing lines of light. Adorn the shining pathway paved with thought, Prayer stand and odorous with pure soul’s desire. Thy spirit friends this simple message sends To bless thee, and inspire.Sometime when all thy earthly work is done, The burden and the cross thou shalt lay Down, Fruition’s golden gateways thou shalt pass, And find the waiting Crown! I.M. Barker Amanuensis Miss Ida M. Barker Amuereu Dec 13. 1880 Poem to C.B. Miss Clara Barton Danville Livingston Co N.YAnn Arbor Mich Feb 11th 1881 Dr James H. Jackson Dear Friend: Can you recall the Introductory speech which you made in presenting Miss Barton to the "Boys in Blue" from her balcony Oct 28, 1880? The speech will be reprinted and I would like to see that at its head. I have heard her speak of it, saying that out of the hundreds of public introductions which she has had in Washington, New York Boston, &c, &c, that yours was the best. If you can recollect Keep Tryst. Aug. 17/84 Washington Co. Md. Dear Doctor I submitted the article headed, Natalie, Queen of Servia to Clara Barton, etc., to the Sunday Herald, but the editor wanted to cut it down & throw out the correspondence. I then gave it to the Sunday Post which seemed glad to get it and promised to publish in full. Should the article appear please send me a copy. I mailed a copy to the New York Herald also, on Friday, and if published, will probably appear in the Sunday or Monday Edition. Miss Barton spoke of 50 copies she would like. If the Herald publishes, I think it will be the better version, as I changed the final paragraph somewhat. Wm. F. [Sli??ey]and write it down and hand it to her, or send to me, as you choose, It will be a favor highly appreciated by her as well as by myself and many others. Very truly &c US POSTAL CARD [*HARPER'S FERRY W. VA AUG 18*] [*WASHINGTON, REC'D AUG 18 1030PM 1884*] NOTHING BUT THE ADDRESS CAN BE PLACED ON THIS SIDE Dr. J.B. Hubell 947 T. St. N.W. Washington D.C.[*202?*] Capital Hill Sept 23/84 Dear Dr. I wrote an article yesterday of 20 of these pages and took it to the N.Y. Tribune Correspondent here - who knows me and who said he was very glad to get it - especially when I told him the Herald would likely have a letter from one of the delegates today or tomorrow - I expect to see what I prepared in the Tribune tomorrow and should it be published I think you would do well to go to the Correspondent 1320 f St NW and order 100 copies for mailingto friends of the Red Cross throughout the country - including papers - as the article seemed to me to read well after I had finished it - Unfortunately I made no draft and did not have time to make a copy - so that, if it has gone into the waste basket as not at all unlikely it may in the N.Y. Office. I shall find no little difficulty to rewrite it - We will see - friend Southmayo wants the P.O. address of the members of the Am. Asstn of the Red Cross. I told him I would mention it to you to send them but that he had all it was necessary to make on his letter heading, adding the additional names on page 170 of the "History" and Mrs Taylors, Mr Glineys & Miss [??nn], all of Washington, except himself & Mr Phillips - Yours Truly, [?itz] [* N. Y. Star Sent July 18, 1888 H. *] Whitewater, Wis., Jan. 7. 1888. Dr. Hall. Dear Madam. I am getting material together for an article on the "Red Cross Army' and, through[t] the suggestion of a friend of your cousin, Miss Mary Walker. I write to you asking if you can aid me any in my research. I have at hand the article in the Nov. Atlantic and two articles in the June and July numbers of the Arthur's Home Magazine for '86 and a short sketch in the annual encyclopedia. If you can send me any articles or books on the subject I would gladly pay all expense.and return the article or books in a short time, if you desire. I want to know the manner of work just the methods employed and any incidents of interest connected with the subject - what particular cases they have reached. I would like to awaken an interest in the subject here as scarcely any one seems to know any thing about it. May I hear from you soon? Hoping I have not imposed too greatly on your kindness I remain, Yours sincerely, (Miss) May J. Maxon. [*Eliz Porter Gould*] [*32*] 100 Huntington Avenue Boston, May 21, 1898 My dear Clara Barton. I have thought of you so many times since those full days when I was privileged to see you in your Washington home. Perhaps you felt the wave of feeling, which such a thought put in motion, in a layer impulse of love towards others? (if that were possible). As I looked over some copies of my lines “Don’t Worry,” this morning it occurred to me you might find a use for them in your blessed work - You may meet some tender, sensitive Christian whose only fault is to worry!(Ah! such do suffer so needlessly, after all, don’t they?) We all know the moments, surely, if we aspire to reach the climax of result as well as of endeavor, don’t we? I used to find myself preaching the thought, embodied at last into form - I now repeat it, as put into form, just as though someone else wrote it! Please save a copy for your “Stray Pebbles_” as another “Pebble” gathered from the shores of thought. When dining with Mm. Harriet Prescott Spoffard last Tuesday, in her peaceful island home in the Merrimack river, we spoke of you and wished you the success you deserved. Did you not feel it vibrate through your soul? I have to confess that this war does not inspire me as it does some. I have not fully recovered my shock that we, as a nation, were not civilized enough to settle matters by the power of the spirit rather than by the sword. Well, my ideal is shattered and my judgment still sees the better way -but I try to look outward and onward, and remember that with God a thousand years are but as one day, and a day as a thousand years. Surely our nation has pened the splendid union of its heroes who once fought against each other. That is a glory indeed. After I left you in Washington, I enjoyed a stay in Richmond (lecturing before the State Conference of the D. A. C and the Woman's Club) also a visit to the unique University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, where I was invited to lecture, the first woman in the history of the institution to be so honored. So the good work goes on in spite of the remnants of barbarism which sometimes annoy! Now, dear Miss Barton, I must not take any more of your time. Do not pause to answer this, only perhaps to drop a postal to say whether the lines are received. With much love, I am, Most Sincerely, Elizabeth Porter Gould DON'T WORRY. Why shadow the beauty of sea or of land With a doubt or a fear? God holds all the swift-rolling worlds in His hand, And sees what no man can as yet understand, That out of life here, With its smile and its tear, Comes forth into the light, from Eternity planned, The soul of good cheer. Don't worry -- The end shall appear. --ELIZABETH PORTER GOULD. Boston, Mass.[in3d] - March 1, 1907 40 My Dear Celara Barton [CB f] Do unto others as you would that they shall do unto you I was very sorry not to have seen you while I was in D.C. before starting around the world again, but I was unable to manage. I write now to say that I am preparing a souvenir of the 19th Century. It is composed of the favorite quotation of the individuals who have helped to make the century great. Will you write your favorite quotation on enclosed, from any source whatever. Give the name of the author and sign your own name. If you have a photo of your self and send it I will also make room for it. I will be very glad if you will send before long, for it will aid me greatly in the arrangement of my matter. I hope this New Year isfull of blessed promise and finds you well and strong for continued service for humanity. With all good wishes and much love Afftly Yours Jessie Ackermann 4512 Osage Ave Philadelphia Penn. Glen Echo June 16 - 1911 Mrs John A Logan. Washington D.C. My Dear Mrs Logan: I shall fail in adequate expression of the gratification that came to me through your letter announcing that you were writing a book, to be known as “The part taken by the Women in American History.” The very title sends a thrill of exultation - a sense of justice long defered. Through the heart of every thinking American of either sex. From the storm lashed decks of the Mayflower, The severe years of toil and privation of the Revolution, Bunker Hill, and frozen blood tracked Valley Forge, and the still more heart breaking half decade, when brother faced brother, and loving sisters parted hands across the line, and even to the present hour. Woman has stood like a rock for the Welfare, and the glory of the history of the Country, and one might well add, almost as silent, and uncomplaining,Letter to Mrs Mary A. Logan Concerning her forth coming Book. 1911. Glen Echo, June 26, 1911. Mrs John A. Logan, Vernon St., Washington, D.C., My dear , Mrs Logan: I have held a copy of Mr. Epler's book, a day or two to look it carefully over, and see if I am mistaken in believing it to contain the principle points which you could desire in making up your sketch of insignificent me. There are a few points, which might be more clearly set forth, or, which, perhaps Mr. Epler knew nothing of: and which to you who know my past, far better than he, might seem,- for reasons existing- worth making a trifle more prominent- and which I will name by themselves. As you suggest there are addresses, and reports made through all the twenty years of the Red Cross work in which, I must think, I told all that needs to be told, concerning its introduction into the U.S., and the unwillingness of the Government to receive, or to admit it. Mr. Epler does not seem to have gotten hold of, or, indeed, to have known, of the labor and the importance of having had to deal with, and gain the consent, of all the Governments in the Treaty to get permission to do Red Cross work in great calamities; and though this, the addition of an "Amendment" to the original International Treaty itself known as "The American Amendment," under which all our work excepting in the Cuban War, has been and is being done; from then until the present time. Neither does he understand, that without the Red Cross, as one of our Treaties; which it required such years, and labor to gain, we could not, in the Spanish War, have floated a Relief Boat without danger of capture, as a privateer- which was our National law. Even the sur-[*2 4*] unwritten, unrewarded, and almost unrecognized, and yet, no injustice has been intended: no one to be blamed, rather it seems to have gone by default: There [were] was none to tell her story. She had no recorder. Allegory tells us that an artist once exultingly showed The King of The Forest his painting of a magnificent dead lion with a mans foot on his neck. The living Lion retorted, with the simple, sad remark, "Alas we lions have no painters." We women have had no painters, but if it should be asked of us today - Who shall paint us? Whose pen shall tell our story? I feel that I make no mistake when I estimate the verdict - Mary A. Logan . - No other living woman has been so long, and so personally a part of our historic past, no one has lived so near the crater where the seething lava is thrown out, that cools into nuggets of history. My dear Mrs Logan let me congratulate you, upon the thought to write this book, and bless you for the effort. It will be hailed as a boon by all American women. I predict that you will see the day when your book will lie on the tables of every well appointed home in the country. Respectfully and Cordially Yours, Clara Barton. [*2*] surgeons, and doctors on those boats did not know by what right they were there. I only name these, as among the things not understood. It would require a diplomat to point them out, as characteristic of that twenty years, of effort, and strategy. Among other things, I will send you a copy of [a copy of] a slip of two or three pages, entitled "Clara Barton and her work." I do not quite know by whom it was compiled; but Dr. Hubbell must have furnished the data, for it is so strictly correct: but it reminds me of an incident I recall of our blessed "Susan B."- Susan was writing some argument for her cause, and wanting something from me as testimony, wrote me, asking me to send her a "sketch of my work, past, and present". - I did so, in a terse, off hand letter, thinking no more of it. In a few days, my own letter came back to me, with this pitiful appeal from Susan. Oh' " Clara; for Heavens' sake put some clothes onto "this skeleton; It makes my back ache to "read it") I dont know but some parts of that little paper might be used, with some such proviso. (Let the readers strengthen their own backs we have had to, ours. Friday Morning. I must interrupt my penciled scrap, to acknowledge your soulful letter which has just come. I am glad if you think you can make my letter of any use to you. I cannot fully express the relief which the clear statements of your letter, is to me. I see by it, just what is wanted of me; and that you will generously take upon yourself the labor of putting my scraps into the form in which you wish them to appear. This relieves me in so many ways' First, I question my own physical strength just yet to undertake a consecutive task even if I could do it half as well; which I could not. And even greater than all, it relieves me of[*3*] the necessity of speaking of myself, and my own little doings; a thing so distasteful to me; I am so rejoiced that you will come out to see me again. Not expecting this favor, I [am] have been measuring myself up, to see if I thought it would do for me to go to call on you; but the measure fell too far short to think of yet. But some day D. V. I will. Again, I wish you could know, how entirely indifferent I am to the "honors" confered; Indeed I am glad, that after thirty years, our country, with all other countries for examples, has been awakened to the thoughts that it could confer an honor on the Red Cross, Until now, it has serenly "slept the sleep of the just," in spite of all it [has] done for it, and the examples of other countries, - I consider it a most appropriate return on the part of President Taft. Miss Bo[a]dman, has been especially courteous and generous to him and to his family, and what better return could he make, then to ask this recognition from his Alumni. It is right, all around; As your book is to deal more especially with the part taken in the history of the country it would seem fitting that such points in my sketch as had directly to do the Government should be more strongly brought out. Up to the time of my entering the service of the patent offices, The Government, was to me, an unknown quantity. I never knew, until then, that the simple writing of my name could affect the smooth running of the wheels of one of its most important departments. I could have written it on paper until now, and no one would have cared, but when I wrote it on a sheet of parchment, which showed me as a women with a position, and entitled to a salary, [under the S] [*4*] under the Government, it was quite another thing: What one was doing others might do; It was an open Sesame. A women to draw a Government Salary, over her own name: By what right? And it was unpleasantly remarked, and frequently got to my sensitive, tingling ears, That, A women presumed to have something to do with the Government." When a few years later, war broke over us, with an empty treasury, and its distressed head, Salmon P. Chase, was personally trying in New York, to borrow money to pay our first seventy five thousand soldiers, and I offered to do the work of any two disloyal clerks whom the office would discharge, and allow the double salary to fall back into the treasury, it might have been thought to "have something to do with the Government." And when no legal way of accomplishing this could be found, and I refused to draw money from the Treasury for myself, and resigned, and went unpaid to the field, it had something to do with the Government. When in the four years of this work the Military authorities unquestioning, provided me transportation, teams, men, and an open way to every field in the service; I had something to do with the Government." When, at is close, the President, over his own signature, "A. Lincoln" informed all of the people of the United States, that I would, voluntarily, search for the record of the 80,000, missing men, of whom the Government, nor the army, had any record, and asked the people to write to me. It had something to do with Government. When, in the search, I learned the true condition of the dead at Andersonville, and informed the authorities, that, through the Death Records of Dorence Atwater the graves of the 13,000 buried there could be identified, and I was requested by the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, to take an expedition to Andersonville, to mark the graves, and inclose a Cemetery, and I did so, it had "Something to do with the[*5*] Government." Without this, there could have been no Cemetery of Andersonville, which the Government now, so worthily owns, as a gift from our active corps of women. And, when in this long search for the missing men' of the Army, carried on at my own cost until I had invested the greater part of my own moderate means, and the brave thirty ninth congress stepped into the beach, and unsolicited, voted remuneration, and aid in the sum of $15,000, and sent it to me with thanks, it had, "something to do with the Government." When a few years later weary and weak from the war sacked field of Europe- I brought the germs of the thrice rejected Red Cross of Geneva: and with personal solicitations from the "International Committee" sought its adoption- I had very little to do with the Government, for it steadily, declined to have any thing to do with me, or with the cause I brought to it. It had been "officially declined;" - books of the state department were produced to show this, "we wanted no more war, neither "Entangling Alliances". Then followed five years of toil, cost and explanations with the people as well as the Government to show that the Red Cross could mean neither war nor Entangling alliances, and when at length one martyred President promised, and, a successor made his promise good, and Congress again acted, and the Treaty was signed, proclaimed and took its place among the foremost treaties of the county, and we became thenceforth, and forever, a Red Cross Nation, it surely had something to do with the Government. But this Treaty covered only the relief of suffering from war, and realizing the far greater needs we might have in the calamities of civil life, I personally addressed the Governments through the "International Committee of Geneva" asking their permission for the American Red Cross to act in our National calamities, as in war. This request was gravely considered in the Congress of Berne, and granted by the powers, as the "American Amendment" to the International Treaty of Geneva. In as much, as it became a law, under which all Nations act today, it might be said not only to have had "something to do with the Government", but with all Governments. Later on when another Martyred President requested, and opened the way for me to take The Red Cross to the starving reconcentradoes of Cuba; and a little later, when war desolated its fields, to take ship, join in the fleet, and seek an entrance for humanity, and the highest Admiral in the service bade it go alone with its cargo of food to the starving of the stricken city, and Santiago lay at our feet, it might be said that "it had something to do with the Government." During the twenty [years], or more years of such efforts, was mingled the relief of nearly an equal number of fields of disaster, none of which [were] was unserved, and for which relief, not one dollar in all the twenty years was drawn from the Treasury of the United States; the munificence of the people through their awakened charities [were] was equal to all needs. This, in comparison with the custom of previous years, had certainly "something to do with the Government." I might add, that in all my life, and its various activities, I have never received, nor have desired, remuneration for services, and with the exception of the $15,000 returned to me by the Thirty ninth congress, nothing for personal expenditures.- Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, thoseopposites, with a fortune at hand, fail to do. If it has been granted me to be of never so little service to those about me, or in need of my help, He who granted the privilege alone knows how grateful I am for it. For the multitude of failures I have encountered, I am sorry. Clara Barton [*R-11*] [*W. E Barton article*] [*Copy*] Francis Atwater 41 Dwight Street New Haven, Conn. February , 1918. Mr. Roy D. Mock, 111 West Monroe St., Chicago, Ill. Dear Sir:- May I be permitted to thank you for myself and the old Red Cross Guard for the timely correction printed in Oak Leaves from the talented pen of Rev. Wm. E. Barton. Having been associated with Clara Barton since boyhood, I knew her before she ever contemplated the establishment of the Red Cross in this country, and had knowledge of her persistency, practically unaided and alone, in bringing our government to realize the benefits that would accrue in signing the treaty of Geneva. In undertaking this enterprise she had not yet recovered from participation in the humanitarian work of the Franco- Prussian battlefields and relieving the distress later at the siege of Paris. When this war of 1870 occurred Miss Barton was in Switzerland, whither she had gone to recover from a breakdown brought on by the tribulations of alleviating suffering in our civil war, then looking up the thousands of missing soldiers, and several seasons in the lecture field. Even though she was far from having recovered, she could not resist from undertaking on foreign soil the work which she was so well qualified to perform. After having administered to the war-stricken victims of two horrible and terrible conflicts who could know better and appreciate the benefits to be derived from the methods used by the Red Cross than this frail little woman whose ever instinct was to bring relief to suffering wherever it existed. In your "Story of the Red Cross," published January 19, 1918, you speak of the organization in its present form as being only twelve years old, yet you say "San Francisco, Galveston and Halifax can testify to the effectiveness of Red Cross relief work." The Galveston flood occurred in 1901, some seventeen years ago. The foundation of the American National Red Cross was laid in permanent form in 1881. Between that time and 1904 it had administered on twenty-two fields of disaster, participated in relief of the Russian famine, the Armenian massacre and the Spanish-American war. Whenever on any of these occasions the Red Cross flag waved over the ruins of quake, flood, yellow fever of famine there could always be found Clara Barton. It was not her mission simply to succor the unfortunate victims, but she came as a teacher to guide them in rehabilitating themselves and become self-supporting. No other woman has ever equalled the doings of Clara Barton, who served in the civil war, the Franco-Prussian, and the Spanish- American war, established the First Aid society in America, attended to all her duties as president of the Red Cross from 1881 to 1904, besides was the most prodigious writer not only in correspondence but of books, newspaper articles, poetry, essays and lectures. No wonder she has a following in Red Cross membership of nearly fifteen million, of which your Oak Park Red Cross branch is a shining example. Francis Atwater 41 Dwight Street New Haven, Conn. #2. Mr. Roy L. Mock. When the Red Cross first took root in this country the question was asked what had it been organized for, because our country at that time was at peace with the world, there was no war cloud in sight and but few believed the United States would ever be embroiled again, so Miss Barton set about to demonstrate its usefulness in other way. It is due to her careful nurturing and nursing that it is the big, the great and the noble institution it is to-day. Yours truly, Francis Atwater [signature] Glen Echo, Md. May 6, Mrs. Norman B. Allen, Gowanda, N.Y. Dear Mrs. Allen: - I regret that the mistake in your address should have been made; but if it did not inconvenience you, it is a favor to me, as I had not know of Gowanda. There is no haste whatever attending the return of the little typewritten sketch, neither to your having it read at one of your meetings, if you think it worth the time. I think, however, that the little girl who wrote it, who is now Mrs. Myrtis Burton Butler of New York would blush deeper than the pretty colors she wears if she thought her little girl scribble was coming to such honors. In justice to her I think she should be invited by me to write it over in her more mature days of the present and bring it to date. Thanking you for your courtesy, I remain, dear Mrs. Allen, Sincerely yours, P.S. Our mutual friends, your illustrious neighbors of dear old Rochester form a very strong and loving link between you and I.