A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham

Susanne Valenti download

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-and-greed-
caroline-peckham-susanne-valenti-48588066

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham Susanne Valenti

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-and-greed-caroline-
peckham-susanne-valenti-48570302

A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham Susanne Valenti

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-and-greed-caroline-
peckham-susanne-valenti-49299126

A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham Susanne Valenti

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-and-greed-caroline-
peckham-susanne-valenti-49082858

A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham Susanne Valenti

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-and-greed-caroline-
peckham-susanne-valenti-49948646
Game Of Malice And Greed 1 A Game Of Malice And Greed Caroline Peckham
Susanne Valenti

https://ebookbell.com/product/game-of-malice-and-greed-1-a-game-of-
malice-and-greed-caroline-peckham-susanne-valenti-230698078

A Game Of Malice Gled Browne Kabongo

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-malice-gled-browne-
kabongo-62666756

A Game Of Thrones 4book Bundle George R R Martin

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-thrones-4book-bundle-george-r-
r-martin-45056676

A Game Of Deception Loreth Anne White

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-deception-loreth-anne-
white-46252240

A Game Of Chase Marcus Emerson

https://ebookbell.com/product/a-game-of-chase-marcus-emerson-46642806
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
During the Civil War Henry Bellows (1814-82) founded and
served as president of the United States Sanitary
Commission. He had graduated from Harvard University at
the age of 18 and five years later from Harvard Divinity
 School. He worked first in Louisiana and Alabama, but his
career began in earnest when he became pastor of New
York City’s Unitarian Church of All Souls. Throughout his
life, he was known as an inspirer of people.

In the late 1870s, Barton began to be active again in political affairs.

Her long interest in women’s rights was re-kindled, especially by
Harriet Austin, a doctor at the sanitarium. For a time, Barton adopted
the mode of Austin’s dress reform—loose, corsetless garments, which
included baggy trousers. It pleased her to “shed flannels” and dress
“just as free and easy as a gentleman, with lots of pockets, and
perambulate around to suit herself.” In 1876 she advocated a series
of dress reform meetings and helped Susan B. Anthony compile
biographies of noted women. In 1878, she participated in suffrage
conventions in Washington, D.C., and Rochester, New York.

As Barton’s health improved she also renewed her interest in

establishing the Red Cross in the United States. She knew that her
first step was to obtain the official sanction of the International Red
Cross Committee and spent much of 1877 and 1878 corresponding
with Dr. Louis Appia about a plan for promoting the Red Cross.
Always jealous of her position as sole representative of the cause,
Barton was not above discrediting both Charles Bowles and Henry
Bellows, early advocates of the Red Cross in America. Bowles is
“utterly unreliable ... and ... never worthy of confidence,” Barton
wrote to Appia, and Bellows “wears [his title of representative] as an
easy honor, and it never occurs to him that he is retarding the
progress of the world.” Neither allegation was true. But Barton gained
the official blessing of the international committee, and as their
representative began her crusade for ratification of the Treaty of
Geneva.

Her first concern was to educate the public, for she had found that
“the knowledge of [the] society and its great objects in this 44
country ... is almost unknown, and the Red Cross in America is
a mystery.” In 1878, she published a small pamphlet entitled “What
the Red Cross Is.” She realized that the American public did not
expect to be engaged in another war and emphasized peacetime
uses of the Red Cross. Red Cross action against natural disasters had
actually been proposed by Henri Dunant in the third edition of Un
Souvenir de Solferino, but in her pamphlet she gave it priority. “To
afford ready succor and assistance in time of national or widespread
calamities, to gather and dispense the profuse liberality of our
people, without waste of time or material, requires the wisdom that
comes of experience and permanent organization.”
Frances Dana Gage (1808-84) found time while raising
eight children to write and speak on temperance, slavery,
and women’s rights. Her anti-slavery activities in Missouri
met with a hostile reception. During the Civil War she
helped former slaves adjust to freedom. In her later years
she wrote children’s stories.
Barton also began mentioning the Treaty of Geneva in occasional
lectures to veterans and local citizens. She wrote persuasively to
influential friends, such as Benjamin F. Butler, and former minister to
France Elihu B. Washburne. “I am not only a patriotic but a proud
woman,” she told Washburne, “and our position on this matter is a
subject of mortification to me. I am humbled to see the United States
stand with the barbarous nations of the world, outside the pale of
civilization.” Other friends, among them Frances Dana Gage and Mrs.
Hannah Shepard, wrote articles advocating establishment of the Red
Cross. Barton labored many hours to translate, write, and explain
materials on the Red Cross to influential men in New York and
Washington.

The same year, 1878, she presented information concerning the Red
Cross to President Rutherford B. Hayes. She also delivered an
invitation to the United States from International Red Cross 45
president Gustav Moynier to join the association. But she found
little enthusiasm in the Hayes administration. A fear of “entangling
alliances” with other countries still prevailed and the State
Department shied away from permanent treaties. Furthermore, the
treaty had previously been submitted by Dr. Bellows, and the Grant
Administration had rejected it. Hayes considered the subject closed.

When a Congressional joint resolution to ratify the Treaty of Geneva

was tabled early in 1879, she shelved her own plans for a while,
traveled between New York State and Washington, D.C., lectured
some, and entertained relatives at her Dansville home. But she
remained alert for an opportunity, and when James A. Garfield ran for
President in 1880, she campaigned in his behalf. With his election
that November, she hoped for a more sympathetic administration. To
her relief, she found both Garfield and Secretary of State James
Blaine interested. Plans were made to submit the treaty to the Senate
for ratification, and she continued to lobby senators.

In June 1881, with success in sight, Barton and a few friends formed
the first American Association of the Red Cross. She was elected
president, an office she originally planned to keep only until the
Treaty of Geneva was signed. The organization’s main purpose at this
stage was to promote adoption of the treaty, without which the body
had no international authority or recognition. The first local chapter
of the American Red Cross, and the first to give actual aid, was
established at Dansville, New York, in August 1881.

Even with the organization established, Barton’s trials were not over.
The assassination of President Garfield in the summer of 1881
deterred the process of ratification by several months. She also was
concerned about the many rival organizations that were
mushrooming around her. The “Red Star,” “Red Crescent,” and “White
Cross” all appeared. One group, the “Blue Anchor,” posed a threat to
the treaty ratification, for several senators’ wives belonged to it and
were openly hostile to her. The rival charities irritated her, and she let
herself indulge in self-pity and undue alarm. “There is in all the world,
not one person who will come and work beside me to establish the
justice of a good cause,” she wrote. “It is only natural that I should
long to be out of the human surroundings which care so little for me.”

Barton need not have worried so much. The new President, Chester
A. Arthur, was an advocate of the Red Cross, and when she called
upon the Secretary of State early in 1882 he showed her the treaty,
already printed, awaiting only the recommendations of the Senate
and official signatures. As she read it, Barton began to weep, for, as a
cousin remarked, “her life and hope were bound up in it.” On March
16, 1882, she received a note from Senator Elbridge Lapham
informing her of “the ratification by the Senate of the Geneva
Convention; of the full assent of the United States to the same.”
“Laus Deo,” concluded the note, but to Barton it was almost
anticlimactic. “I had waited so long,” she wrote in her journal, “and
was so weak and broken, I could not even feel glad.”

Clara Barton’s success in securing ratification of the Treaty of 46

Geneva is perhaps her most outstanding achievement. Primarily
through her writing, speeches, and dedication the public and U.S.
officials came to know of the Red Cross. For six years she persisted in
lobbying Congress; the treaty ultimately passed without a dissenting
vote. And, although she “could not believe that someone would not
rise up” to help her, no one ever did. The American National Red
Cross remains a monument to Barton’s singular perseverance and her
powers of persuasion.

Barton and the Red Cross in Action

Clara Barton was 60 years old when the Treaty of Geneva was ratified
by the Senate. She at first considered her work completed. But the
immediate demands made on the young American Red Cross
changed her mind; she felt it would be foolish to put the Red Cross
into other hands.

Barton stamped the early Red Cross decisively with her personality.
She was a woman of strong will and deliberate action, with, as
biographer Percy Epler states, “a just and accurate estimate of her
own power to master a situation.” By the 1880s, she was accustomed
to being in command. She could, and did, inspire great loyalty—
Antoinette Margot’s letters to her customarily begin “My own so
precious, so precious Miss Barton,” or “So dear, so preciously loved
Miss Barton”—though some complained that she demanded, rather
than deserved the fealty. Barton left no doubt that she alone
governed the Red Cross and that all others were subordinate. One of
her most loyal aides referred to her as “the Queen.”
 When many people are closing out their careers, Clara
Barton was just beginning her most important work.

She had a sharp intellect, was able to see issues clearly, and 47
was articulate. Although she had clear-cut opinions on nearly
every subject, she was loath to force her ideas on others. Dr. Hubbell,
writing after her death, maintained that she disliked controversy and
would almost never argue, “but when she did speak she could tell
more facts to the point ... with no possibility of misunderstanding
than any person I have ever known.”

She was confident when she was in control of a situation, but she
had difficulty working with others. She was a perfectionist.
Determined always to do things in her own way, she early decided
“that I must attend to all business myself ... and learn to do all
myself.” Secretaries and servants came and went, but few ever
satisfied her exacting demands. In her own endeavors she could
tolerate no rival, but she did not aspire to widespread power.

Privately Barton was often very different from her public image.
Criticism was taken with apparent calm and stoicism, but inwardly
she burned and fought the temptation “to go from all the world. I
think it will come to that someday,” she sadly noted, “it is a struggle
for me to keep in society at all. I want to leave all.” Her temper was
also controlled and betrayed itself only by a deepening of her voice
and a sharpness in her eyes. She was socially insecure and given to
self-dramatization. She often exaggerated her hardships to elicit pity
or respect. For example, she frequently spoke of sitting up all night
on trains as both a measure of economy and a guard against
unnecessary personal luxury, yet her diaries contain numerous
references to comfortable berths. Several times she wrote flattering
articles about herself, in the third person, which she submitted to
various periodicals. In one, written during the Franco-Prussian War,
she showed the way she hoped the public would view her: “Miss
Clara Barton, scarcely recovered from the fatigues and indispositions
resulting from her arduous and useful duties during the War of the
Rebellion, was found again foremost bestowing her care upon the
wounded with the same assiduity which characterized her among the
suffering armies of her own country.”

Her depression and insecurity were, in most cases, undetectable to

others. What they noticed were her humanitarian feelings and deep
and abiding empathy for those who suffered. Her friend, the Grand
Duchess Louise, thought of her as “one of those very few persons
whose whole being is goodness itself.” Biographer and cousin William
E. Barton recalled that she “did not merely sympathize with suffering;
she suffered.” Others were struck by her witty and spontaneous
sense of humor. She told one friend that she was more thankful for
her sense of humor than for any other quality she possessed, for it
had helped her over hard times.
Another of Barton’s assets was a keen spirit of objectivity. William
Barton noted that she rarely stood on precedent and that she tried to
keep an open mind about people, methods of business, and herself.
This openness is perceptible in her acceptance of startling changes.
Railway travel, typewriters, automobiles, and airplanes were all taken
in stride, and when telephones and electric lights became 48
available she had them installed in her home immediately. She
welcomed dress reform, prison reform, and other social change. Clara
Barton was a determined, sensitive, competent, difficult, and
unpredictable woman, and she brought all of these qualities to, and
etched them on, the American Red Cross in 1882.

During the years that she was president of the American Red Cross, it
was a small but well-known group. Her name lent power and
respectability to the Red Cross cause. The list of relief efforts
undertaken in those early years is impressive—assistance at the sites
of numerous natural disasters, foreign aid to both Russia and Turkey,
battlefield relief in the Spanish-American War. She participated in
nearly all of the field work, which was her métier, for it combined her
humanitarian sentiments with her need to lose herself in her work
and the remuneration of praise.

The first work undertaken by the Red Cross in America was actually
done prior to the ratification of the Treaty of Geneva. In the fall of
1881, disastrous forest fires swept across Michigan. Local Red Cross
chapters at Dansville and Rochester, New York, sent money and
materials amounting to $80,000, and Barton directed Julian Hubbell
to oversee the work. Thus did Hubbell, still a medical student at the
University of Michigan, begin his career as chief field agent for the
American Red Cross.
In early September 1881, Michigan farmers in “the Thumb”
of the State were burning stubble left after the harvest.
Aggravated by drought conditions, the fires spread to the
dry forests. One estimate at the time stated that an area
100 by 30 kilometers (60 by 20 miles) was burned.

From 1881 on, nearly every year saw the Red Cross actively engaged
in the relief of some calamity. In 1882, and again in 1884, the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers flooded, sweeping away valuable
property, leaving hundreds destitute and homeless. Relief 49
centers were established in Cincinnati and Evansville, Indiana,
and the Red Cross steamers, the Josh V. Throop and Mattie Belle,
cooperated with government relief boats to supply sufferers cut off
by water. All along the rivers, families were furnished with fuel,
clothing and food, or cash. The Red Cross also undertook to relieve
starving and sick animals by contributing oats, hay, corn, and
medicine. Lumber, tools, and seeds were left to help the stricken
rebuild their lives. Barton herself supervised the work on the Mattie
Belle as it plowed its way between the cities of St. Louis and New
Orleans.

The American Red Cross did not attempt to supply every need in
every instance, nor did it try to aid the victims of every calamity. A
notable case in which the Red Cross declined to give aid occurred in
1887. A severe drought had plagued the people of northwestern
Texas for several years; State and Federal aid had been denied and in
desperation a representative of the stricken area applied to Barton for
relief. She went directly to the scene, but she determined that what
was needed was not Red Cross aid but an organized drive for public
contributions. Through the Dallas News she advertised for help and
was delighted to find a quick response.

Besides flood and fire relief, the young American Red Cross helped
tornado victims in Louisiana and Alabama in 1883 and contributed in
the relief of an earthquake at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886.
When a tornado struck Mount Vernon, Illinois, in February 1888,
Barton and her co-workers organized the inhabitants so 50
effectively that they needed to stay at the scene only two
weeks.

An outbreak of yellow fever in Jacksonville, Florida, also in 1888,

precipitated the first use of trained Red Cross nurses, many of whom
worked heroically. In one instance, ten of them jumped from a
moving train to enter the small town of Macclenny, Florida, whose rail
service had been stopped because of the fever’s epidemic
proportions. But unfortunately the Jacksonville episode was not an
entirely happy one. Barton had a lifelong inability to pick qualified
subordinates; in this case the man she chose to supervise the nurses
—a Colonel Southmayd of the New Orleans Red Cross—had
extremely poor judgment. Southmayd found the Jacksonville workers
to be “earnest and warm-hearted,” but all evidence is to the contrary.
Some nurses refused to work for three dollars a day when they could
get four dollars in private hospitals. One got drunk on the whiskey
used as medicine, another was arrested for theft, and several were
accused of immoral conduct. Southmayd staunchly refused to remove
the offending nurses, and for a time the incident put an unfortunate
stigma on Red Cross workers. It also served to strengthen Clara
Barton’s determination to oversee personally as much Red Cross field
work as possible.

The most celebrated peacetime relief work undertaken by the young

American Red Cross was at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889.
Johnstown, at the point where Stony Creek joins the Conemaugh
River, often endured spring floods, but in May 1889 the rains were
unusually heavy. After several days low-lying parts of Johnstown lay
under 1 to 4 meters (3 to 13 feet) of water. Then a dam broke in the
mountains 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the city. A wall of water, 9
meters (30 feet) high, rushed down to kill 2,200 people and destroy
millions of dollars in property.

Barton arrived in Johnstown five days after the tragedy on the first
train that got through. She immediately began work, using a tent as
living and office space, and a dry goods box as a desk. From that
desk she administered a program that amounted to half a million
dollars, conducted a publicity campaign, and joined forces with the
other charitable societies working in Johnstown. One of her aides
recalled the long hours and complex work that characterized their
five months in Johnstown and noted that through it all she remained
“calm, benign, tireless and devoted.”

Barton’s first concern was a warehouse for Red Cross supplies and
under her direction workmen erected one in four days. She then
turned to alleviating the acute housing shortage. Hotels, two stories
high and containing more than 30 rooms each, were built and fully
furnished to serve as temporary shelters. Crews of men were
organized to clean up the wreckage, while women volunteered to
oversee the distribution of clothing and other necessities. As in all its
work, the Red Cross tried to supply jobs and a spirit of self-help along
with material assistance.

51
Floodwaters roamed through Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in
1889, destroying a great number of homes and businesses.
More than 2,200 persons lost their lives.
Clara Barton’s organization was only one of many that came to 52
the aid of Johnstown, but its contribution was outstanding for
its quick thinking and tireless energy. Gov. James A. Beaver of
Pennsylvania noted in a letter of appreciation to the Red Cross that
“she was among the first to arrive on the scene of calamity.... She
was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of her
labors.” The city of Johnstown scarcely knew how to express its
thanks. “We cannot thank Miss Barton in words,” an editorial in the
Johnstown Daily Tribune stated. “Hunt the dictionaries of all
languages through and you will not find the signs to express our
appreciation of her and her work. Try to describe the sunshine. Try to
describe the starlight. Words fail.”

Field work took up a large portion of Barton’s time in the 1880s, but
she was able to pursue some other interests and obligations. During
1883, for example, she was superintendent of the Women’s
Reformatory Prison at Sherborn, Massachusetts. She undertook the
position at the request of former general, now Gov. Benjamin F.
Butler, but she took it reluctantly. Her administration was
characterized by the extension of dignity and education to inmates,
rather than punishment. She found the work annoying and
depressing, and she was glad to leave it and get back to the Red
Cross.

Between the burdensome paper work and correspondence of the Red

Cross and actual relief work, Barton found time to be the official
American representative to four International Red Cross conferences
between 1882 and 1902. She enjoyed these trips to Europe, for they
gave her a chance to see friends and to be honored, as she always
was by court and convention. The international congress of 1884, at
Geneva, was especially memorable. An “American Amendment” to
the Geneva Treaty was adopted, and, as the head of the newest
signatory power in the Red Cross she was the center of attention.
The amendment sanctioned Red Cross work in peacetime calamities
and was the direct result of her activities in the United States. The
congress cheered as she was praised as having “the skill of a
statesman, the heart of a woman, and the ‘final perserverance [sic]
of the saints.’”

Barton was also concerned with planning a national headquarters for

the American Red Cross. In the 1880s and early 1890s Red Cross
headquarters were located at various spots in Washington, D.C. After
1891, however, plans were made to build a permanent home for the
organization. Situated at Glen Echo, Maryland, a short distance
outside Washington, the new building served both as office and home
for Barton and her staff.

What few hours she could spare from Red Cross activities she
devoted to raising the status of women. She was proud that the Red
Cross embodied many of her beliefs. In the last two decades of the
19th century, she continued to speak at rallies and join conventions
promoting women’s rights. Her lecture topics generally centered on
philanthropic work done by women, but she spoke out most
vehemently on female suffrage. She was incensed that the decision
to let women vote hinged upon the assent of male legislators, but
she remained optimistic about the ultimate outcome. She told one
lecture audience that “there is no one to give woman the right to
govern herself. But in one way or another, sooner or later, she is
coming to it. And the number of thoughtful and right-minded men
who will oppose will be much smaller than we think, and when 53
it is really an accomplished fact, all women will wonder, as I
have done, what the objection ever was.”

Barton’s prestige lent respect to the feminist cause, and she was in
much demand as a lecturer and author. In 1888 alone, she spoke in
Montclair, New Jersey; Dansville, New York; Boston and Dorchester,
Massachusetts, and was a vice president and featured speaker at the
First International Woman’s Suffrage Conference in Washington, D.C.

Red Cross activities in the 1890s followed much the same pattern as
those of the previous decade. Hubbell and Barton oversaw relief to
tornado victims in Pomeroy, Iowa, in 1893, and helped those ravaged
by a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in late 1893 and 1894.
When news of a famine in Russia reached the United States, the
American Red Cross obtained supplies, including 500 carloads of corn
given by Iowa farmers, and shipped them to Russia. The actual relief
was relatively little, but it pioneered the concept of peacetime foreign
aid.
Despite bouts of nervousness Clara Barton enjoyed public
speaking and was in great demand as a lecturer, talking
either about her Civil War experiences or women’s rights.
 LECTURE!
MISS CLARA BARTON,
OF WASHINGTON,
THE HEROINE OF ANDERSONVILLE,
The Soldier’s Friend, who gave her time and fortune during the war to the
Union cause, and who is now engaged in searching for the missing soldiers
of the Union army, will address the people of

LAMBERTVILLE, in
HOLCOMBE HALL,
THIS EVENING,
APRIL 7TH, AT 7½ O’CLOCK.
SUBJECT:
SCENES ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.
ADMISSION, 25 CENTS.

American money and supplies also were used to help victims of

religious wars in Turkey and Armenia during 1896. Although Turkey
had signed the Treaty of Geneva, Red Cross efforts were at first
resisted there. Under strong pressure from the American public,
however, Barton and field workers of the American Red Cross sailed
for Turkey. They gained admittance to the country and spent ten
months helping the wounded and distributing tools and medical
supplies. It was, in many ways, a harrowing experience, and the
safety of the Americans was repeatedly threatened. At least one of
Barton’s biographers, Blanche Colton Williams, thought that the 54
Armenian relief work was the height of Barton’s achievement.

Despite all of Clara Barton’s peacetime achievements, the Red Cross

remained officially connected with the military, its chief function being
to give medical aid in time of war. The Spanish-American War in 1898
provided the first chance for the American Red Cross to serve in this
official capacity. Unfortunately, the Red Cross effort was fragmented,
marked by contention and controversy, and it ultimately led to the
entire reorganization of the Red Cross in America.

The Red Cross, under Barton, sent various types of assistance to

Cuba. The earliest efforts, starting in January 1898, were in behalf of
the thousands of Cuban nationalists who had been herded into
concentration camps by the Spanish colonial government. Barton was
giving civilian aid in Cuba when the battleship USS Maine blew up.
When war was declared on April 25, 1898, Barton and her small crew
went to work in field hospitals and hospital boats. She was distressed
to find that once again the Army Medical Department had sent
inadequate personnel, and that cots, food, and bandages were all
lacking. “It is the Civil War all over,” she lamented, “no improvement
in a third of a century.”

Meanwhile a controversy of distressing proportions had developed

within the Red Cross. A powerful local auxiliary of the American Red
Cross, in New York, felt that the handful of workers led by 77-year-
old Barton was not adequate to meet the needs of troops and
civilians. This chapter, which became known as the Red Cross Relief
Committee of New York, was, in many ways, more powerful than
Barton’s small national organization. Where Barton’s group had
concentrated on “hand to mouth” relief efforts—those in which funds
and supplies were given as soon as received—the New York
organization had gathered stores and funds, and had established a
hospital and school for nurses, and formed nearly 200 relief
auxiliaries. It collected and shipped many more articles to Cuba
during 1898 than did the national society and sent several times the
number of trained nurses and doctors. The Red Cross Relief
Committee of New York was professionally run and its leaders were
distressed by Barton’s lowscale personal style, which had changed
little since the Civil War.

As she tried to retain control of the relief efforts, the New York group
fought for government sanction as the sole agency of the Red Cross
working in Cuba. Surgeon General George Sternberg favored the New
Yorkers, but the secretary of state upheld Barton’s claim. Little was
resolved and the two organizations continued to work independently.
When the New York Committee requested an accounting of funds
spent in Cuba, of which it had supplied the bulk, Barton wired to a
subordinate: “If insisted on refuse co-operation with [New York]
committee.” Rivalry and jealousy took the place of collaboration.

Continues on page 56

55

Scenes from the Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War took place between April 25, 1898, and
August 13, 1898. Battles were fought in the Philippines and Puerto
Rico, but most of the fighting was in Cuba. Public reaction to the
oppressive Spanish rule of Cuba initiated the conflict, when the
battleship USS Maine exploded in February 1898. Although it was
never proven, the widespread belief was that the ship had been
torpedoed by the Spaniards. Clara Barton visited the Maine a few
days before the disaster, and was nearby when the explosion
occurred: “The heavy clerical work of that fifteenth day of February
held [us] ... busy at our writing tables until late at night. The house
had grown still; the noises on the streets were dying away, when
suddenly the table shook from under our hands, the great glass
door opening on to the ... sea flew open; everything in the room
was in motion or out of place, the deafening roar of such a burst of
thunder as perhaps one never heard before, and off to the right,
out over the bay, the air was filled with a blaze of light, and this in
turn filled with black specks like huge specters flying in all
directions. A few hours later came ... news of the Maine.

“We proceeded to the Spanish hospital San Ambrosia, to find thirty

to forty wounded—bruised, cut, burned; they had been crushed by
timbers, cut by iron, scorched by fire, and blown sometimes high in
the air, sometimes driven down through the red-hot furnace room
and out into the water, senseless, to be picked up by some boat
and gotten ashore.... Both men and officers are very reticent in
regard to the cause, but all declare it could not have been the
result of an internal explosion....”

The earliest efforts of the Red Cross in Cuba were to aid the civilian
reconcentrados who were being detained by the Spaniards. Medical
aid, clothing, and food were distributed, and hospitals and
orphanages established. When fighting broke out, however, the
Red Cross moved to supply the needs of the wounded. Clara
Barton described the scene of one hospital camp in July 1898:
“[We] reached here [General William Shafter’s headquarters]
yesterday. Five more of us came today by army wagon and on foot.
Eight hundred wounded have reached this hospital from front since
Sunday morning. Surgeons and little squads have worked day and
night. Hospital accommodations inadequate and many wounded on
water-soaked ground without shelter or blankets. Our supplies a
godsend. Have made barrels of gruel and malted milk and given
food to many soldiers who have had none in three days.”

Barton, as always, pursued her work with impartiality: Cubans,

Spaniards, and Americans all received her care. Henry Lathrop, a
doctor who worked for the Red Cross Committee of New York felt
this had a direct bearing on the outcome of the war. “Miss Barton
was everywhere among the Spanish soldiers, sick, wounded and
well. She was blessed by the enemies of her country and I
seriously doubt if [General] Shafter himself did more to conquer
Santiago with his men, muskets and cannon, than this woman....
The wounded men told their comrades about the kind treatment
they had received at the hands of the Americans, and the news
spread through the Army like wild-fire, completely changing the
conditions. Those that preferred death to surrender were now
anxious to surrender.”

Despite such words of praise, Barton encountered some of the

same prejudices that had hindered her work during the Civil War.
Lucy Graves, Barton’s secretary, recorded that “some of the
surgeons called on us; all seemed interested in the Red Cross, but
none thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldier’s
hospital. Indeed, very much out of place.”

Most of the doctors changed their tune and were very happy to
receive Barton’s help and supplies during a battle. Another grateful
recipient of Red Cross supplies was Col. Theodore Roosevelt,
commander of the celebrated “Rough Riders.” One day Roosevelt
showed up at Red Cross headquarters requesting food and supplies
for his sick men. “Can I buy them from the Red Cross?” he asked.

“Not for a million dollars,” Barton said.

The colonel looked disappointed. He was proud of his men, and

said they needed these things. “How can I get them?” he insisted.
“I must have proper food for my sick men.”

“Just ask for them, colonel,” she said.

“Then I do ask for them,” he said.

“Before we had recovered from our surprise,” related Barton, “the

incident was closed by the future President of the United States
slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off ... through the
jungle.”

Probably no thrill in Barton’s life was greater than the honor

accorded her after the fall of Santiago, Cuba. When this city was
conquered, the first vessel to enter the harbor was the Red Cross
relief ship The State of Texas. A proud Barton stood on the deck of
the ship and led the little band of Red Cross workers in singing the
Doxology and “America.”

56
Barton viewed the New Yorkers as insurgents trying to usurp her
glory. “The world in general is after me in many ways,” she wrote. “I
only wish I could draw out of it all.” She believed that the New
Yorkers’ function should have been one of supply and support for her
own group, and she could not understand why they criticized her for
rushing off to give relief rather than staying at home to direct the
organization. And she did not appreciate the problems that her
absence from Washington caused. The Army, irritated by the internal
strife in the Red Cross, supported neither group and offered little
cooperation. Thus, the relief effort in Cuba ended with minimal relief
given and a divided American Red Cross.

Storm and Controversy

To many members of the American Red Cross the work in the
Spanish-American War exemplified all that was wrong with their
organization: lack of coordination, and the arbitrary and short-sighted
rule of Clara Barton. Yet she seemed perfectly satisfied. In her book,
The Red Cross in Peace and War (1898), she contended that the Red
Cross took a major and laudatory part in the hospital operations in
Cuba. She made no attempts at conciliation or compromise with her
critics and continued to run the American Red Cross in the same
individualistic style.
 Clara Barton insisted that assistance and relief during
peacetime become a standard Red Cross practice. Here the
Red Cross gives help after the hurricane at Galveston,
Texas, in 1900.

It came as no surprise to those who knew Barton when she rushed

once more to a scene of a disaster. In September 1900 a hurricane
and tidal wave nearly submerged Galveston, Texas, and Barton,
though 80 years old, did not hesitate. Six weeks later she returned to
Glen Echo laden with praise and testimonials that her achievements
in Galveston were “greater than the conquests of nations or the
inventions of genius.”
Her desire to remain in the field stymied the growth of the American
Red Cross because she failed to delegate authority. When she spent
six weeks or ten months away from Washington she left behind 57
no organization to continue day-to-day activities, solicit
contributions, or expand programs. Local chapters felt alienated from
the national group and resented that they often provided the material
support but saw little of the praise. One critic, Sophia Welk Royce
Williams, wrote: “The National Red Cross Association in this country
has been Miss Clara Barton, and Miss Clara Barton has been the
National Red Cross Society.... [The Red Cross] has been of great
service to suffering humanity, but when one asks for detailed reports,
for itemized statements of disbursements ... these things either do
not exist or are not furnished.” The better course, Williams believed,
would have been for the Red Cross to adopt the organization of the
Sanitary Commission. Barton’s group clearly lacked a national
organization, a national board, and reports that would stand as
models and guides for relief work.

If the organization suffered, the quality of relief did not. At least one
initially skeptical correspondent saw much to praise in the one-
woman show. While visiting the hurricane-devastated Sea Islands in
South Carolina, Joel Chandler Harris wrote that the Red Cross’s
“strongest and most admirable feature is extreme simplicity. The
perfection of its machinery is shown by the apparent absence of all
machinery. There are no exhibitions of self-importance. There is no
display—no tortuous cross-examination of applicants—no needless
delay. And yet nothing is done blindly, or hastily or indifferently.”

What Harris also saw was a concerted effort to assist without the
demeaning effects of charity. Barton developed a knack for leaving a
disaster area at the right time: “It is indispensable that one know
when to end such relief, in order to avoid first the weakening of effort
and powers for self-sustenance; second the encouragement of a
tendency to beggary and pauperism.”
During her 23-year tenure as president of the American Red Cross,
Clara Barton was both its chief asset and its greatest liability. As
founder and president she promoted the Red Cross cause with all of
her considerable talent, and she brought zeal and idealism to Red
Cross relief work.

At the same time, her domineering, and sometimes high-handed,

ways hindered organizational growth. As Red Cross historian Foster
Rhea Dulles notes, her methods of administration were not always
based on sound business practices and did not command the
confidence of many people who might have given the association
broader support.

Barton’s failure to delegate authority and to acknowledge popular

contributions more formally provided the basis for the criticism that
overwhelmed her between 1900 and 1904. It also accounted, at least
in part, for the bitter personal attacks that led to a deepening feud
between her friends and foes. Despite her adaptability in earlier days,
it was almost impossible for her to adjust to the new conditions of
Red Cross activity.

The group that opposed her was made up of prominent Red Cross
workers and was led by Mabel Boardman, an able and ambitious
society woman. Boardman’s group was anxious to see the Red Cross
reorganized and their cause gained momentum during 1900 and
1901. Barton refused to consider it. Instead she divided the 58
Red Cross into camps of “friends” and “enemies.” She accused
her foes of seeking power and of trying to gain admission to the royal
courts of Europe through the Red Cross. At the annual meeting in
1902 after anticipating a move to force her resignation, she rallied
her forces and emerged with greater powers and the presidency for
life. “Perhaps not quite wise,” she wrote, “in view of ugly remarks
that may be made.” For the opposition, who believed that the new
charter had been railroaded through, this was the last straw.

After the 1902 meeting Barton thought that “the clouds of despair
and dread” had finally lifted, but events moved swiftly against her.
Boardman’s group succeeded in convincing President Theodore
Roosevelt that she was mishandling what was, by then, a quasi-
governmental office. On January 2, 1903, his secretary wrote to
Barton stating that the President and Cabinet would not serve—as all
of his predecessors had—on a committee of consultation for the Red
Cross. The President directed his secretary to announce publicly his
withdrawal from the Red Cross board.

Barton was humiliated by the President’s clear endorsement of the

opposition faction, but she was absolutely devastated by the
subsequent decision to have a government committee investigate the
Red Cross. The official charges maintained that proper books of
accounts were not kept, that funds and contributions were not always
reported to the Red Cross treasurer, and that money was distributed
in an arbitrary and inconsistent manner. There was also a question
about a tract of land located in Indiana that had been donated to the
Red Cross but never reported to the organizational board. The
charges were serious. Barton knew that she had often used only her
own judgment to apportion relief funds and that she seldom kept
accurate records in the field. She was so much a part of her
organization that she often failed to differentiate between personal
and Red Cross expenses—using her own funds for relief work and
donations for private needs. Unofficially her foes also contended that
she was too old and infirm to lead the Red Cross; they felt new blood
was desperately needed.

Barton was deeply wounded by the controversy swirling around her.

A loyal and patriotic woman, she felt that her friends and country had
deserted her and that she had been scrupulously honest. For a time,
she even considered fleeing to Mexico, but she was dissuaded by
friends. Though the investigating committee dropped the charges,
thereby completely exonerating her from any wrongdoing, she felt
the indignity for the rest of her life.

It is ironic that the qualities Clara Barton cherished and exemplified

most—loyalty and friendship, honesty and individual action—were the
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com