Part 14

He founded a colony near Dresden.

He was well acquainted with Mrs. Stowe, and frequently visited her at her home in Boston.

He wrote his life before she wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

His anti-slavery speeches in England won him a great reputation for oratory.

The last time he was in London, Queen Victoria invited him to an interview with her at Windsor Palace; and after lunch was served to him and his party, he was ushered into the presence of the Queen, in the great drawing-room of the palace, where all the lords- and ladies-in-waiting had been gathered in. The interview was a most interesting one.

When she told him that she was glad to see him, and spoke appreciatively of his services, he responded easily and frankly:--

“I am glad to see you, my sovereign, and to be so graciously received by you. But I do not forget that I am an alien, and that I was a slave. I came flying for life and liberty to your dominion; and when my weary feet touched the soil over which you reign I was a free man. I knelt reverently, and kissed the earth, and thanked my God that wherever your flag floated the slave was free and safe. I desire to assure your Majesty, that among the millions of your subjects, although I am one of the humblest, there are none more true and loyal than Josiah Henson.”

Her Majesty was visibly moved. Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice, two of her children, were on either side of her during this interview, which lasted for some time. She took from the hand of Beatrice a little package and handed it to him, saying:--

“Accept this as a small token of my appreciation of your valuable services to the slaves in America, and as a token of my interest in your race, especially those who have settled in Canada.”

The package contained a small picture of herself set in gold, resting on a gold easel. As that was kept in the safe at the bank I did not see it; but I did see the oil painting of “Uncle Tom,” as everybody called him, presented to him by the Anti-Slavery Society of Boston, about the time Mrs. Stowe’s book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” came out.

SECRETARY STANTON’S GENEROUS GIFT.

In October, 1863, I came up from the hospitals in the front, to attend a sanitary convention at Muscatine, Iowa.

As I was legally commissioned the sanitary agent of the State by Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, having been elected to that position by the Legislature of Iowa, my presence was greatly desired by the workers.

The convention was large and representative. But my own heart was greatly burdened with touching messages from dying soldiers to their wives and children. In the midst of the convention I boldly announced my purpose to try to establish a home for soldiers’ orphan children. The proposition was received with the wildest enthusiasm; and the convention took action at once, not only indorsing the movement, but pledging financial support.

There was no precedent to follow, as there was no institution of the kind in all the world.

I was elected president of “The Orphans’ Home Association,” but declined, and Governor Stone, the newly elected governor of the State, was chosen. The ablest men and women of the State were brought into the organization, and the Home was duly opened in a rented house.

The house, although large, was soon crowded to overflowing, and we could get no larger building that would accommodate the hundreds who were applying for admission.

A committee sent out to search for more commodious quarters reported new, fine barracks on a piece of confiscated land of thirty acres, adjoining the town of Davenport.

The barracks were new and well-built, and had cost $46,000.

The leading men of Iowa, as well as the women, were actively enlisted in the work.

Ex-Governor Kirkwood, and his private secretary, N. H. Brainard, Governor Stone, Judge Lowe, Judge Coles, Chaplain Ingalls, John Parvin, and many others whose names were a guaranty of honest and faithful work, were active.

I was selected to go to Washington and secure these barracks as a gift from the government, if possible. If I could not obtain them as a gift, I was authorized to offer $1,000 a year as rent for them. I protested strongly against being sent on such an important mission; but I was overruled, and was obliged to accept the duty.

When I reached Washington, October, 1865, I went to the surgeon-general’s office, and made known my mission, and secured an official statement that those barracks would not be needed for hospital purposes. I want to say in this connection that Surgeon-General J. K. Barnes had always co-operated with me most heartily in all my work.

I then called on Quartermaster-General Meigs, the man who with such wonderful executive ability fed and clothed the great armies of the republic, furnishing quarters and equipments, and paid their wages with an honesty and fidelity that have never been questioned.

I had often met him before; and no one who ever saw him could forget his honest, rugged, but kindly face.

When I made known my mission, he looked surprised and pleased, and then said,--

“Well, now, that is certainly a good use to put these deserted barracks to.”

“General,” I said, “all I want you to do, is to say officially to the government that they will not be needed for military purposes.”

“They were never needed; they ought never to have been built. It was a waste of money.”

“Then, General, you can certainly say they will not be needed for military purposes. Please say that officially.”

He took up his pen and wrote out a statement, informing the government that the new cavalry barracks at Davenport, Ia., would not be needed for military purposes, “even if hostilities were resumed.” His statement covered over two pages.

Thus armed, I went to the office of the Secretary of War.

I had become acquainted with Mr. Stanton under the most favorable circumstances.

The governor of Iowa had commended me to him, and early in 1862 obtained for me a general order for transportation of myself and supplies and rations. And later, when I called on him personally, I was the bearer of letters of introduction and commendation from some of his most influential and trusted friends.

Afterwards he always seemed glad to see me, and graciously granted all my requests.

He was prompt and clear in all his business methods, and was by far the best listener I have ever met. When I talked to him there was no need of repeating; he apprehended my meaning. When he talked, there was no room to misunderstand him. There was no fuss and bluster, or pretence, or attempt to show off himself or his authority; and that pleased me. I went, therefore, to his office with great hope and courage. When I asked to see the Secretary of War, a young, jolly-looking officer came forward and asked,--

“What can I do for you, madam?”

“I wish to see Mr. Stanton.”

“Mr. Stanton is in Boston. I am Major Eccles, acting Secretary of War, and will attend to any business you may have to transact.”

I informed him as to my mission. He laughed heartily.

“That, madam, is a little beyond my prerogative. I don’t feel authorized to give away the property of the government.”

I put myself at once in telegraphic communication with Mr. Stanton. He asked some questions as to the legal status of the institution, and that was all I heard that day.

The next morning I took another requisition to the War Department. It was for hospital supplies. I distinctly remember the first few items, 1,800 blankets; 2,500 sheets; 3,000 pillow-cases; 1,500 pillows, and so on, till everything I could remember that could be of use to the Home were enumerated.

When I handed the document to Major Eccles, I said,--

“Here is a small requisition I should like to have go in with the application for the property.”

“This is a small requisition,” and he laughed heartily as he read the list aloud.

“Yes, sir,” I said with great gravity. “This is a small requisition; but with the help of the generous people of Iowa, I hope we shall be able to get along with that.”

“Now seriously, on what grounds have you a right to ask these supplies from the government?”

“Well, sir, I call your attention to the fact, that at the beginning of the war the government had very few hospital supplies. The loyal people of the North helped to fit them up. The loyal State of Iowa sent nearly $200,000 worth of supplies into the military hospitals. Now, all I ask is that you give us back a few of the supplies that we gave you, as you no longer need them.”

“You are certainly entitled to them. I will do what I can to get this through.”

The Iowa delegation at Washington, and the officers in the War Department, including Major Eccles, became greatly interested, and anxious that Secretary Stanton’s answer should be favorable.

When the answer came it was:--

“Will you accept the property subject to the approval of Congress?”

I flashed back my answer as quickly as possible:--

“Yes; and will get the bill through without annoyance to you.”

As I was obliged to leave the War Department before an answer came, Major Eccles drove up to the house of my friend, where I was stopping, with the telegraphic order, turning over the property to the Association. The gift of the barracks and the hospital supplies aggregated $52,000.

I was lifted to the clouds, figuratively speaking, and rushed to the telegraph-office, and sent off despatches to the newspapers in Iowa. The next morning all the leading papers in Iowa appeared with great head-lines announcing the magnificent gift.

Before Congress met we had bought out the heirs of the confiscated property, remodelled and plastered the buildings, and had nearly five hundred soldiers’ orphan children comfortably housed there.

Hon. Hiram Price, a member of Congress from the Davenport District, took charge of our bill, and carried it through Congress without annoyance to Mr. Stanton.

The fact that we had possession, and were housing and supporting so many soldiers’ orphan children in these barracks, made opposition almost impossible.

With this valuable property in our possession, it was an easy task to induce the State Legislature to take this burden off our hands and make it a State institution. The frame barracks have been replaced by substantial brick buildings; but the Home is still conducted on the cottage plan, and is one of the finest institutions of the State.

Edwin M. Stanton’s generous action in giving this timely help to a weak society secured the success of a worthy institution, that has educated and sent out thousands of children to be good and useful citizens.

Mr. Stanton was one of the strong, true, honest men who made Mr. Lincoln’s administration a success. He was intensely loyal, and intolerant to treason and self-seeking, and he made traitors tremble on both sides of the line. He was, more than any other man, the balance-wheel in the complicated machinery of the government which held and regulated its internal workings.

He was a clear and close thinker, a keen and sagacious discerner of human motives, a tireless worker, and was too open and frank to conceal his opinions of men and things.

Too unselfish to enrich himself, he toiled on, literally killing himself at work, and dying poor. When passion and prejudice have passed away he will receive his full meed of praise.

THE SPECIAL-DIET KITCHEN WORK.

No part of the army service was so defective, during the first two years of the war, as the cooking department in the United States government hospitals.

Few of the men employed as cooks in these hospitals were trained or skilled; most of them had obtained their knowledge of cookery after being assigned to duty, under most unfavorable circumstances, and without the proper facilities for doing their work.

One general kitchen provided the food for all--the sick, the wounded, and the dying, as well as the nurses and convalescents.

Where there were women nurses in a hospital, and they could get a little stove of their own, special dishes were prepared for the worst patients; but there was no general system of providing dainty and suitable diet for the thousands in need of delicate food in home-like preparation.

The supplies coming from the generous people of the North occasioned great anxiety.

The surgeons forbade their distribution at the bedside of the patients, on the ground that something might be given which would endanger their lives or retard their recovery, and ordered them turned over to the commissary. Often supplies thus turned over failed to reach the sick or wounded.

It was under these trying circumstances that the plan of a system of special-diet kitchens came to me,--clearly and definitely, as a flash from the skies,--like a divine inspiration.

It was in December, 1863, that the thought came to me, and I hastened at once to put the plan into execution.

Everybody seemed to accept the plan with enthusiasm; and the Sanitary and Christian Commission, and the officers and surgeons of the army, all hastened to co-operate with me in inaugurating and accomplishing this great reform.

The plan in itself was very simple and practical, and was entirely satisfactory to all parties.

1. The food for those needing special diet was prescribed by the ward surgeons. A bill of fare was provided, with the name of the patient and the number of his bed, for every patient put on special diet; and on this bill the surgeon prescribed his diet by making a mark opposite the articles the patient was allowed. This plan gave the sick or wounded man a chance to express his own wants in regard to food, which was a great advantage.

2. These bills of fare were consolidated by the ward-master, and a copy sent to the superintendent of the special-diet kitchen, and the bills were returned to their places again. So with these consolidated lists before them, the managers of the special-diet kitchen knew just what to cook, and just the quantity.

3. The food thus ordered was prepared in the special-diet kitchen, which, although under separate management, was a part of the hospital, and as completely under the control of the authorities as any other part of the hospital.

The kitchens were fitted up with ranges and other suitable conveniences, and were under the management of suitable ladies employed by the surgeons in charge. A storeroom conveniently near or adjoining was provided, where the commuted rations of soldiers put on special diet were stored, also the supplies furnished by the Sanitary and Christian Commissions; and the woman in charge of the special-diet kitchen carried the keys.

4. These dietary nurses were _not cooks_; they only superintended the work. Many of those who worked in these kitchens were soldiers who were somewhat disabled, or convalescent soldiers who were not able to join their regiments.

In large hospitals, where one thousand or fifteen hundred were furnished meals three times a day, the work was divided up, and each man had his part of the work, and soon became an expert in it. There were in the large kitchens from twenty-five to thirty men required to do the work.

The food thus systematically prepared under the watchful eyes of women competent to govern such a force and direct the work, was brought to the bedside of the patients in home-like preparation.

No mistake would likely be made in the distribution, as each patient had at the head of his bed the list of articles of food prescribed by the surgeon of his ward.

The first kitchen was opened at Cumberland Hospital, Nashville, Tenn.

The Christian Commission of Pittsburg, Pa., sent me the lumber to build a kitchen, storeroom, and a ladies’ room, and two of the largest ranges in the market.

Mary E. Moorhead, a wealthy lady of that city, daughter of Hon. J. K. Moorhead, at that time a member of Congress, and one of Pittsburg’s most honored citizens, and Hannah Shaw, who has since distinguished herself in missionary work in China, took charge of that kitchen. Miss Moorhead has since the close of the war devoted herself to benevolent work.

The change wrought in that hospital was so marvellous that all the leading surgeons from Louisville to Chattanooga were anxious for the establishment of special-diet kitchens in connection with their hospitals. Many of them could not believe the wonderful stories circulated as to the great reform wrought in Cumberland Hospital, and, like the Queen of Sheba, came long distances to see for themselves as to the truth of the matter, and, like her, confessed that “the half had not been told them.”

I was most generously sustained in this work by the Christian Commission, who turned all their supplies into these kitchens, and paid all the expenses of this service. I was chosen superintendent of the special-diet kitchen work, which rapidly extended all along the lines from Vicksburg to Petersburg.

The surgeons accepting this help, agreed to employ the women selected by me, and allow them to have charge of the supplies furnished for use in the special-diet kitchens, from the government and the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. The surgeons had charge of the kitchen, appointed these women, and directed their work, as in all parts of their hospitals.

There was no opposition to this work. Mr. Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, Surgeon-General Barnes, and Assistant-Surgeon-General Wood, gave me their indorsement and all the aid I needed. It soon became an admitted fact that thousands of lives were being saved by this supply of better food, which many of them needed more than they did medicine.

Surgeon-General Barnes became so enthusiastic over the plan that he appointed a commission of United States army surgeons to consider it, with a view of adopting it and ingrafting it upon the United States general hospital system.

I was invited by the surgeon-general to meet with them. The committee received me most graciously at their regular sittings in Washington, D. C., and listened with great respect to my explanations; and after carefully considering my plans, adopted them as a part of the regular United States hospital system.

To give some idea of the magnitude of the work, out of over one hundred special-diet kitchens established by me, I give the amount of food in rations issued from sixteen special-diet kitchens, a record of which I happen to have now on hand for February, 1865.

RATIONS. Tea 100,350 Coffee 54,818 Cocoa 4,770 Milk, Cold 12,194 Milk, boiled 9,860 Milk, Thickened 7,517 Bread and Milk, Boiled 2,689 Beef Tea 7,548 Beef Essence 1,699 Bread and Butter 133,938 Toast, Buttered 28,539 Toast, Dry 23,809 Toast, Milk 33,611 Crackers 18,999 Corn Bread 15,714 Biscuit 5,458 Warm Cakes 2,629 Rice 9,239 Barley 492 Farina 8,424 Gruel 1,589 Corn Starch 17,150 Mush 10,831 Soup, Chicken 8,472 Soup, Mutton 856 Soup, Beef 10,716 Soup, Barley 599 Soup, Oyster 10,193 Soup, Potato 2,301 Soup, Vegetable 4,885 Beef Steak 27,623 Roast Beef 36,599 Ham 3,585 Chicken 11,389 Turkey (only occasionally) 809 Mutton 2,357 Veal 1,510 Pork 2,208 Hash 7,925 Oysters 5,086 Fish 5,721 Eggs 15,538 Potatoes 47,725 Turnips 7,785 Carrots 1,070 Onions 12,356 Beets 271 Cabbage 15,059 Krout 1,296 Beans 494 Parsnips 1,291 Tomatoes 7,312 Puddings 34,249 Pies 5,113 Cakes 3,485 Tapioca 2,772 Sago 60 Blanc-Mange 807 Custard 1,616 Jellies 1,763 Canned Fruit 12,816 Stewed Fruit 29,266 Apple Sauce 7,618 Apples, Baked 11,774 Pickles 20,343 Lemons 127 Cheese 825 Cordials, etc 1,940 -------- Total, 899,472

This was the regular bill of fare in all the special-diet kitchens. If any one of these articles could not be obtained, they were marked off. Turkey was only on the list occasionally. It will be seen by the great variety that the appetites of the patients were consulted. Nothing, however, was issued without it being ordered by the surgeon in attendance upon the patient.

Some of the articles furnished on the above list may seem unfit for sick men; but when we take into consideration that there were many wounded men who were allowed by the surgeons to eat anything they might choose, and others who were homesick, or hopelessly ill, or dying, who in the loneliness of suffering remembered and craved something because a kind mother’s hand had once prepared such dainties for them, it is no longer a matter of wonder.

And since the loved ones at home could not cheer them with their presence and love in their dark hours of suffering, it was a delightful task for these noble women to substitute home food and words of cheer.

It is the verdict of history that this system of special-diet kitchens saved thousands of lives. During the last eighteen months of the war, over two million rations were issued monthly from this long line of special-diet kitchens, established, many of them, almost under the guns.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC--ITS GLORIES AND ITS DANGERS.

The remarkable growth of the American Republic is without a parallel in the history of the world.

A hundred years ago she was a feeble nation--in her infancy, and scarcely recognized by the other nations of the earth. Now she stands foremost among the governments of the world, and _leads_ the nations in almost everything.

Her territory is extensive and contiguous, lying between two great oceans, and bounded on the north and south by navigable lakes and seas.

Her resources are almost boundless. She gluts the markets of the world with her silver and gold. Her iron and copper ores are rich and abundant, nearly all the metals needed for the use of her people may be had for the digging, and she may bedeck her children with the jewels gathered from her own fields.

She can produce an abundance of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk. She is already the chief competitor in the cotton markets of Asia, and from her own looms is clothing her people in muslins and fine linen, and her daughters in royal purple from her silk factories. Her food supply is immense. Her grain-fields are broad and rich enough to supply bread to the millions of her own people, and to meet the needs of the needy nations of the earth. Her meat supply is so large that she is glad to share it with all the world. Her fruit yield is ample, sufficient in variety and abundance to meet the needs of all. Only a few luxuries are denied her. She could shut herself in, and live luxuriously on her own products. There is not one thing that comes from abroad that her people could not live comfortably without. Tea, coffee, spices, and tropical fruits are not necessary to human life.

Her woods are abundant and fine, equal to any reasonable demand. Her furniture goes to the ends of the earth.

Her building material is abundant and of superior quality. She has granite and marble in variety, nearly all kinds of valuable building-stones, and clays of almost every description. Her potteries are now doing credible work, and her china and glass wares are attracting attention in other lands. The new process by which _glass china_ is produced is a marvellous success.

Her people are intelligent and enterprising. The rich resources of the country have stimulated their activities and awakened their inventive genius till they are the leaders in the work of the world, and the most thrifty and enterprising nation on the face of the globe.