Good morning, it’s Tuesday, May 21. On this date in 1881, Clara Barton and a group of like-minded exemplars founded the American Red Cross. As the modifier before “Red Cross” suggests, it was an idea borrowed from abroad and imported to these shores. In a moment, I’ll explain how that happened, while also offering a further word on the amazing Ms. Barton.
First, I’d direct you to RCP’s front page, which contains the latest poll averages, political news and video, and aggregated opinion pieces ranging across the ideological spectrum. We also offer the usual complement of original material from our stable of columnists and contributors:
RCP on SiriusXM, Monday edition. Tom Bevan, Andrew Walworth, and I discuss Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse College and Ezra Klein’s NYT piece on his “Seven Theories for Why Biden Is Losing.” We also tackle Sen. Marco Rubio’s endorsement of a mass deportation plan for illegal immigrants, and later I talk with Phil Wegmann about recent swing state polls.
Burgum Blasted ‘Self-Destructing’ Trump in 2016. Now He Is Auditioning for VP. Speculation on the GOP veepstakes is in full gear, and Phil profiles a potential choice near the top of the list.
Israel and U.S. Must Upgrade Their Diplomacy. Peter Berkowitz contends that the only viable path to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves increasing Palestinian self-rule without diminishing Israeli security.
How Lawfare Turned Trump Into a Superhero. Frank Miele writes that Biden has given in to his opponent and now must prove himself mentally fit on the national debate stage.
Joe Biden’s Problem Is in the Pews. Brad Todd and Salena Zito analyze the president’s current standing with church-going voters and find that he and his party are failing to connect.
Smoking Gun in Trump’s New York Prosecution. Lanny Davis highlights a document that could help determine the outcome in the trial of the former president.
Why I’m Skipping My 50th Reunion at Yale. Katrina Lantos Swett laments the ideological collapse of her beloved alma mater and implores fellow graduates to join her in boycotting the institution.
Biden Administration’s Scientific Integrity Policies. At RealClearPolicy, Curtis Schube warns that the recent rule change will undermine the reliability and consistency of work in the science and technology sector.
Making a Case For a Broadband Program That Helps. At RealClearMarkets, James Erwin pitches a plan for an internet connectivity voucher system that can ease the strain on under-resourced families.
A Thinking and Writing Military Is a Better One. At RealClearDefense, Laura Goodroe and Adam Lowther make the case for continued funding of the various journals and reviews produced by the armed forces of the U.S.
Voting Based on Abortion Probably Gets You Policies That You Oppose. At RealClearPennsylvania, Guy Ciarrocchi notes that the only problems getting “fixed” are tied to election strategies and not to taxpayer concerns.
Argentina and Brazil: New Allies and Illiberal Weeds in America’s Backyard. At RealClearWorld, Eloy Vera suggests that the mixed messages the U.S. is getting from the Latin countries could point to deeper issues of instability.
I have written about Clarissa Harlowe Barton several times since beginning this newsletter over a decade ago, but she’s one of those people who is worth revisiting from time to time, as the lessons she taught this country – or tried to teach – are enduring.
She was born on Christmas Day 1821 in the Massachusetts town of North Oxford. The youngest of five children, she was educated mostly by her siblings and was a teacher herself by the age of 17. She pursued a career as an educator, but by the time Abraham Lincoln became president, Clara, as she preferred to be called, was working in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.
When the Civil War broke out, 39-year-old Clara Barton answered the call without waiting to be asked. Hearing that the recruits of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry had been attacked in Baltimore by Southern sympathizers, she rushed to the (then-unfinished) U.S. Capitol where the soldiers were bivouacked, to see if they needed medical attention or other help.
It turned out Barton knew some of the young soldiers – “my boys,” she called them – and had taught some of them back home. Eschewing a salary, she began nursing, cooking, counseling, and caring for the U.S. Army’s wounded warriors. It wasn’t easy work. “My business,” she explained, “is staunching blood and feeding fainting men.”
Union soldiers dubbed her the “Angel of the Battlefield,” but she was more than that. Possessing an organizational genius and can-do attitude that was the envy of most of Mr. Lincoln’s generals, she eventually became the officially designated superintendent of U.S. Army nurses.
Barton’s great gift was perceiving a societal need, a talent she complemented with a willingness to fulfill that need herself. In the waning days of the Civil War, for instance, she received Lincoln’s blessing to launch a letter-writing campaign to identify and find missing soldiers. It was an effort that lasted until 1868.
Seeking some rest afterward, she traveled to Europe in 1869. Some vacation: While she was in France, the Franco-Prussian War broke out. Wearing the insignia of the International Red Cross, she rushed into breach, distributing relief supplies to the people of Strasbourg. Inspired by the work of the Red Cross, Clara Barton brought the idea back to the United States and slowly built support for it.
President Rutherford B. Hayes, fretting over the question of foreign influence, shied away from a formal U.S. affiliation. Barton found a more receptive audience in Hayes’ successor, James A. Garfield, but before he could act, Garfield was cut down by an assassin’s bullet. So it was that Clara Barton, nearly 60 years of age, convened a series of meetings of fellow philanthropists in Washington. The first took place on May 12 at the home of Sen. Omar Conger, a Republican from Michigan. Some of the meetings were hosted by Adolphus Solomons, who really should be considered the co-founder of the American Red Cross. Solomons was a prominent Jewish leader in 19th-century Washington who had helped convince Lincoln to add Jewish chaplains to the Union Army and later housed Charles Dickens in his elegant home at 1205 K Street.
Solomons was a natural Dickens ally – he owned a bookshop. But I digress. On this date in 1881, the American Red Cross was officially formed. It was formally recognized the following year in a presidential decree from Chester A. Arthur, and received its first congressional charter in 1900.
Clara Barton retired in 1904, having served as head of the American Red Cross for 23 years. After stepping down, she lived out the remainder of her life in her Maryland home, which is now a small National Historic Site located in the suburban Washington hamlet of Glen Echo. Some of her sentiments still echo in our hearts.
“It has long been said that women don’t know anything about war,” she once wrote. “I wish men didn’t either. They have always known a great deal too much about it for the good of their kind.”
Carl M. Cannon
Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics
@CarlCannon (Twitter)
ccannon@realclearpolitics.com
