Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian: Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of AmericaYoung, Charles Sumner
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Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian: Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of America
Young, Charles Sumner
Barton, Clara, 1821-1912
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
Lincoln—not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul!
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
Lincoln now belongs to the ages. EDWIN M. STANTON.
TREASON—LINCOLN ASSASSINATED—GRANT PROTECTS CLARA BARTON
On the evening of the 14th of April, 1865, Clara Barton was at 488½
Seventh Street, Washington, D. C. She saw two men on the opposite side
of the street, talking, and then excited men and women running up and
down the street. Not long afterwards she heard the footsteps of a man
pacing up and down the hall outside of her door, on the third floor. She
cautiously opened the door to see who it was. In the hall she saw a
sentinel, with his gun, passing—she wanted to know what it was all
about. He said that he had been sent there to guard her, but could only
tell her that a general massacre was feared. The sentinel stood guard
there all night.
The news came sometime in the night that Lincoln had been assassinated,
and that there was a plot to assassinate W. H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase,
U. S. Grant, and Andrew Johnson; that they were protecting her because
they felt sure that she was also to be attacked, as she was close to
Lincoln. She did not close her eyes in sleep, but paced the floor until
morning. In the morning she opened the door and saw another sentinel
outside the door. This other sentinel said it would not be safe for her
to leave her room; that if she would give him her order for breakfast he
would see that it was served; that if she had any letters to mail to
pass them out, but she must remain a prisoner for the present.
The first person that came to see her in the morning was a messenger
from General Grant—to see if she were all right. Soon after this she
heard that Lincoln had died,—another messenger brought her the news.
Describing the terrible events of the saddest of all nights at the
Capital, Miss Barton said: “I heard a great commotion in the street and
looking out the window I saw strong men standing everywhere, crying.”
The people still feared there was going to be a general massacre. At the
end of three days Miss Barton was told she might leave her room. The
body of Lincoln was taken to Philadelphia to lie in state at the old
State House, Sixth and Chestnut streets. Miss Barton received a letter
from General Grant, asking her to go to Philadelphia. The General sent a
companion to accompany her on the trip. Clara Barton attended the
memorial in the “City of Brotherly Love,” and there paid her last
tribute of respect to her friend, the immortal Lincoln.
XC
It is a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace
for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.
CLARA BARTON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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