"In compliance with General Smith's suggestion I published his letter, with a card, stating that any desiring to contribute to a fund for such a purpose, that the Western Sanitary Commission would receive the same and see that it was judiciously appropriated as intended. In response to his communication liberal contributions were received from colored soldiers under the command of General J. W. Davidson, headquarters at Natchez, Miss., amounting in all to $12,150. This was subsequently increased from other sources to $16,242."
"Marietta, Ohio, June 29th, 1865.
"Mr. James E. Yeatman, President Western Sanitary Commission, St. Louis:
"My Dear Sir: I have learned, with the greatest satisfaction, through Brigadier-General T. C. H. Smith and the public press that you are devoting your noble energies in giving tone and direction to the collection and appropriation of a fund for the erection of the Freedmen's National Monument, in honor and memory of the benefactor and savior of their race.
"The general also informs me that you desire, and have requested through him that the five dollars deposited with the Rev. C. H. Battelle, of this city, by Charlotte Scott, should be used as the original and foundation subscription for this most praiseworthy purpose; and Mr. Battelle assures me that he will most cheerfully remit it to you this day. As a slave-holder by inheritance, and up to a period after the outbreak of the rebellion, and as an ardent admirer of our lamented president, the author of universal emancipation in America, I feel an enthusiastic interest in the success of the Freedmen's National Monument. I hope it may stand unequalled and unrivalled in grandeur and magnificence. It should be built essentially by freedmen, and should be emphatically national. Every dollar should come from the former slaves, every State should furnish a stone, and the monument should be erected at the capital of the nation. Nothing could be better calculated to stimulate this downtrodden and abused race to renewed efforts for a moral and national status.
"Charlotte Scott, whose photograph General Smith will forward, was born a slave in Campbell County, Virginia. She is about sixty years old, but is very hale and active. Her reputation for industry, intelligence, and moral integrity, has always been appreciated by her friends and acquaintances, both white and colored. She was given, with other slaves, to my wife, by her father, Thomas H. Scott. When we received the news of Mr. Lincoln's assassination, the morning after its occurrence, she was deeply distressed. In a conversation with Mrs. Rucker, she said: 'The colored people have lost their best friend on earth. Mr. Lincoln was our best friend, and I will give five dollars of my wages towards erecting a monument to his memory.' She asked me who would be the best person to raise money for the purpose. I suggested Mr. Battelle, and she gave him the five dollars.
"I am, my dear sir, truly and respectfully,
"WILLIAM P. RUCKER."
"Marietta, Ohio, June 29th, 1865.
"Mr. J. E. Yeatman.