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for some systematic plan for the collection and distribution of these products of busy fingers was immediately apparent; and at a meeting of fifty or sixty women, in the
city of New York, on the 25th of April,
a Central Relief Association was suggested.
A plan was formed, and the women of New York were addressed by a committee, and invited to assemble in council, at the Cooper Institute, on the morning of the 29th.
The response sponse was ample.
No such
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The Havelook. |
gathering of women had ever been seen in this country.
David Dudley Field presided, and the object of the meeting was explained by
H. W. Bellows, D. D., when the assemblage was addressed by
Mr. Hamlin,
Vice-President of the
United States, and others.
Then a benevolent organization was effected, under the title of
The Women's Central Association for Relief, with the late venerable
Dr. Valentine Mott as
President,
Dr. Bellows,
Vice-President,
G. F. Allen,.
Secretary, and
Howard Potter, Treasurer.
Auxiliary associations of women were formed in all parts of the Free-labor States; and when wounds and sickness appealed for relief, a few weeks later, a general system for the purpose was so well organized that all demands were, at first, promptly met. It was soon discovered, however, that a more perfect system, to have an official connection with the Medical Department of the
Government, and under the sanction of the War Department, was needed, and, after much effort, the United States Sanitary commission was organized, and entered upon its great and beneficent labors.
A fuller history of the organization and labors of this Commission, and also of its kindred society, the sturdy offspring of the Young Men's Christian Association, called the
United States Christian commission, will be found in another part of this work.
Before any of these propositions or efforts for giving aid to the sick and wounded were publicly made, a woman who for many years, Howard-like, had been laboring unceasingly for the poor, the unfortunate, and the afflicted, had obtained the sanction of the War Department for the organization of military hospitals, and the furnishing of nurses for them.
That woman was
Miss Dorothea L. Dix, whose name was familiar to the people throughout the land.
She offered her services gratuitously to the
Government, and they were accepted.
So early as the 23d of April, or only eight days after the
President called for troops to
put down the rebellion, the
Secretary of War issued a proclamation, announcing the fact of such acceptance;
1 and on the 1st of May, the
Surgeon-General (
R. C. Wood), “cheerfully and thankfully ”
