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.”)
GROVER CLEVELAND
The President, March 4, 1885–March 4, 1889; March 4, 1893–March 4, 1897
Miss Barton, I want you to represent the United States at the International Red Cross Conference at Carlsruhe, Germany.
Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (in 1887),
Secretary of State, under Grover Cleveland.
I thank you, Mr. Secretary, but I cannot do so; I am ill.—Clara Barton.
Miss Barton, all the country knows what you have done, and are more than satisfied. Regarding your illness, you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton, I recommend salt.—Frederick T. Frelinghuysen.
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.)