The Mother: My little girl was born in Clara Barton’s birthplace; in the very room.
Reverend Barton: Bring her to me and I will christen her at once, “Clara Barton.”
CIII
Honorable Charles Sumner Young’s address was an eulogy surpassing anything ever heard in Oxford on the woman whom the town delights to honor—Clara Barton. Worcester (Mass.) Telegram, May 31, 1917.
There is properly no history—only biography.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
CLARA BARTON
(Delivered by Charles Sumner Young, at Oxford, Massachusetts, Memorial Day, 1917)
The inspiration of this historic day originated in the mind of woman. To the credit of womanhood there is a woman at the beginning of every great undertaking, sentimental and humanitarian. Today we pay the floral tribute to the late soldier-patriot. Equally befitting is it, amidst flowers of memory and at her birthplace, to pay tribute to the soldier’s comrade, the greatest woman-patriot of the Civil War.
In ancient days woman was the cultivator of the soil, the guardian of the fire, the creator of the home, the oracle of the Temple, and not infrequently the leader of men. Countless women in closing their career could similarly say as, according to Greek legend, said Semiramis: “Nature gave me the form of a woman, my actions have raised me to the level of the most valiant of men.” Artemisia was a heroine, wise in the councils of war, and had Xerxes not scoffed her advice he would not have gone down to eternal disgrace at Salamis. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, who of her two sons said “These are my jewels,” lives honored as the highest type of Roman motherhood.