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.