untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G. Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary Commission agents." In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California, and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money like water."[19] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile, quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time. His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous, charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr. King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did