Who hath a million plaudits won
For deeds of love to many millions done.
In having the fullest confidence of our Presidents, Clara Barton expressed herself in 1909 as follows: “I never before have so fully realized what a pleasure that privilege has been to me through half a century.” That confidence, by the record, existed between her and Lincoln, and Johnson, and Grant, and Hayes, and Garfield, and Arthur, and Cleveland, and Harrison, and McKinley, a record with presidents unequaled by any other American in public life. McKinley expressed the sentiments of nine presidents when he said: “What Clara Barton says and does is always honest and right.”
Nor might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure ’scape; back wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes.
All streams reach the ocean and calumny in the limpid streams of truth is lost in the grand ocean of human thought. Whenever “back wounding calumny” the nation’s heroine strikes, paraphrasing the words of President Garfield to Secretary of State Blaine and relating to Clara Barton, “Will the American people please hear the truth from the truly great and good of America on the subject herein referred to?” General Nelson A. Miles says: “Clara Barton is the greatest humanitarian the world has ever known.” “Clara Barton rendered her country and her kind great and noble service,” says Speaker Champ Clark. “The greatest of American women, the whole world knew and loved her,” says Congressman Joseph Taggart. Says Carrie Chapman Catt: “Clara Barton has won the hearts of the women of the world.” Speaking of her, no less a scholar and statesman than Senator George F. Hoar said: “Clara Barton is the most illustrious citizen of Massachusetts, the greatest man in America.”
General W. R. Shafter says: “She was absolutely fearless. Miss Barton is a wonder; the greatest, grandest woman I have ever known.” Mrs. General John A. Logan, says of her: “One of the noblest, if not the noblest, woman of her time—the greatest woman of the nineteenth century.” Says Senator Charles E. Townsend: “The modest, unselfish and yet undaunted Clara Barton did as much for the highest good of the world as any single individual since the birth of civilization.” Says General Joe Wheeler: “The good work done by Clara Barton will live forever and her memory will be cherished wherever the Red Cross is known.” Mrs. General George E. Pickett says of her: “A veteran of the ’60’s, with all the years since filled with noble deeds, she is a marvel to the world; with all of our executive women, social figures and ambitious Zenobias, we shall never produce her like.”
Living at the same time, and serving in the same great struggle for humanity, the two names alike adored and which for all time will be associated in American history are ABRAHAM LINCOLN and CLARA BARTON. Lincoln was born in obscurity, reared on the farm; so was Clara Barton. Lincoln was inured to poverty, self-educated in mature years; similarly, Clara Barton. Lincoln stands alone,—no type, no famed ancestors, no successors; true of Clara Barton. Lincoln, in the opinion of Robert G. Ingersoll, had the brain of a philosopher and the heart of a mother; likewise Clara Barton. Lincoln was gracious to social aristocracy, but did not court it; far from it, Clara Barton.
As was true of Lincoln, Vice-President Henry Wilson said of Clara Barton: “She has the brain of a statesman, the heart of a woman.” Lincoln was a many-sided man; Clara Barton a many-sided woman. Lincoln had intellect without arrogance, genius without pride and religion without cant; so had Clara Barton. Lincoln stood the test of power, the supremest test of mortal; so did Clara Barton. Lincoln worked seventeen years, paying in instalments a debt incurred in a mercantile adventure; Clara Barton, while serving humanity, disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars without the appropriation of a penny to her personal use.