The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
History
The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)
Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
American National Red Cross -- Biography; Barton, Clara, 1821-1912; Nurses -- United States -- Biography
“His good kind heart was touched, and his eyes were full.”
He did not know any other way than for her to do this. And so she went.
She was admitted immediately to the Department of State, and told
confidentially that it was all right. The Secretary of State had
conferred with the President, and they were all ready to recommend the
treaty to the Senate.
Would she like to see the treaty?
Would she? Indeed, she would!
It must be a secret; unsigned documents were not supposed to be shown;
but the Secretary of State would be pleased to know whether this treaty
was exactly what she wanted.
She had never seen a treaty, and did not know what it looked like. It
was a volume, a kind of unbound book, of soft parchment, something like
fourteen inches square. She sat down and read it, word for word, the
Secretary of State watching her intermittently as he busied himself
about other matters. Line by line the full significance of it came
over her. It quoted in full the text of the 1864 Convention, and
recited in effect the whole situation into which this would bring the
United States in its relation to other nations. It was a great and
solemn document, such as she had never before handled; and her life
and hope were bound up in it. At the very end were the formal words of
ratification, with blank spaces for the signature of the President and
Secretary of State, and a place for the big seal of the United States
of America.
I had kept my eyes clear enough to read to the very end; but then I
could hold up no longer, and how long a cry I indulged in, I do not
know. But I know that it rested me; and after a while he stepped over
and asked, very gently, “How does it suit you?” I told him it was
all I could have hoped for, but I was ashamed to have done so badly
myself. He, laughing, said that was all right. I asked him when it
would be signed, and he said, “Any time, now.”
At last it was done!
Why had she worried so much about it?
She worried because she knew there was reason to worry; and because
there were so few to worry; and because she did not know whether her
worrying would do any good.
For it is necessary to tell a little, a very little, about why she
worried.
There lie before me as I write certain letters written to Clara Barton
by a woman who came to her in the latter part of her struggle to secure
the recognition of the Red Cross, and who wrote to Miss Barton that to
be associated with her in such work would be the crowning glory of her
life:
I should think it a greater glory to be a doorkeeper in such a society
as the Red Cross than to be--well, Mrs. President of the United
States. If in the humblest way I can help you, I am at your service.
There may be nothing for me to do, but if there is, command me.
Sadly, in after years, Clara Barton gathered up these and other
documents, arranged them neatly in order, and endorsed them:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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