William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[657] poor, high or low, but in which the real sacrifices came upon those least favored; and, to their honor be it said, by them was the greater part of the work done. But it is not as a question of proportions that the work deserves to be considered; rather it should be looked at from the point of view of its harmony and its universality. Those who had money to give, gave that; those who had only time, gave that most precious of all things. The little girl set her first stitches on the comfort-bag for the soldier; the little boy picked blackberries for his mother to convert into jam or wine, or spent his pocket-money in some article of use.

‘An associate manager in Maine,’ says a report of the Association, ‘writes, “Some of the towns in this neighborhood do not even rejoice in a name: their only distinction is a number. We have had a contribution of one dollar from little children, in two of these nameless settlements: the postmaster of the nearest town sent the money, with the names of the children. The sums given ranged from three to five cents each.”’

A lady who had lived to see her ninetieth winter prepared with her own hands a cask of pickles to send to ‘the boys’ in the army. The school-boy on holidays went to the store-house, and helped to pack the boxes, which many an express agent and railway company conveyed to their destination, free of charge. Telegraph companies offered their wires without cost; editors of newspapers opened their columns freely. A Boston gentleman gave the use of his building at 22 Summer Street, for nearly two years and a half to the association, for office and storerooms; and, when he could no longer extend such liberality, two corporations of gentlemen gave free use of rooms at 18 West Street, and in the Savings Bank in Temple Place, until the close of the work. And so on, the association seems most fully to have proved the power of the words, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive,’ and, more than that, to have received freely and constantly when it did not even ask; and all this was done from the highest sentiment of patriotism, and for love of those who were doing their utmost to save the country, and keep it worthy of our love and our sacrifices. If this record of the work could preserve a memory of the spirit with which it was carried