The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 3, March, 1864

We cannot believe that there is the least necessity to urge upon our generous people the absolute duty of contributing largely to the support of the Sanitary Commission, the strong and helpful angel of our bloody battle fields. Our sick soldiers, burning with fever, shivering with the debility of disease, with pallid faces and emaciated frames, ask from us that its healing dews shall still be suffered to descend upon them. Stricken down upon the battle field in the full bloom of manly vigor, lying festering in their ghastly wounds among the dead and dying, exposed to the dews of night, the broiling fervors of the midday sun, we may hear them implore us that the ambulances of the Sanitary may be allowed to aid in bringing them shelter, aid, strength to live, or patience to die. Bleeding stumps of manly limbs are piteously held forth to us that surgeons may be supplied for amputation, that balls buried in the flesh or lodged in the bone may be extracted by hands skilful in the use of knife and probe. Let these brave fellows feel that the arms of the men and women of this country are clasped around them in sustaining love. Ah, have we not all dear ones in this grand army? answer me, fair and true daughters of our soil.

'The subtile sense, the faith intense, of woman's heart and brain,Give her a prophet's power to see, to suffer, and maintain.'

Let us not stop to measure what is prudent for us to give, but let us give freely, promptly, as we would do if we saw before us the suffering victims of this holy war! Every dollar may save a life, every penny a pang. O God! shall we stop to count pence with our stricken brave dying and bleeding before us? Every gift, however small, from a loyal soul, will be greeted, every good giver welcomed. Let us listen to the most sublime of all music, the great heart-throbs of a free people chiming together in the vigorous rhythm of the Divine charities. Let our nation comprehend from within the march of its vast destinies, its true and ever-growing force in the love and self-sacrifice of its children. Let the benediction of our American Evangel, 'All men are born free and equal,' sound on until all voices swell in the grand diapason of everywhere harmonious and united Humanity, for this is the strength of man and the true meaning of our Union.

'From the vine-land, from the Rhine-land,From the Shannon, from the Scheldt,From the ancient homes of genius,From the sainted home of Celt,From Italy, from Hungary,All as brothers join and come,To the sinew-bearing bugleAnd the foot-propelling drum:Too glad beneath the starry flag to die, and keep secureThe Liberty they dreamed of by the Danube, Elbe, and Suir.'

Let us at least prove ourselves worthy of the century in which we live, and show the astonished world how a free people honors, guards, cares for, and shelters its suffering heroes.

1

Or Black Head. There is great confusion in names in this part of the range.

2

Dr. Neumann has removed from Munich to Berlin within a year past.

3

Now over 3,000 miles.

4

Now 2,907 miles.

5

For most of these facts, see Article on the Sanitary Commission in the North American Review for January, 1864.