l conviction
that the charity inaugurated by the Sanitary Commission is at once
marvellous in its extent and unique in the history of war. All, perhaps,
are prepared to allow that the heart which conceived such an enterprise,
and the mind which organized it, and the persistent will which carried
it to a successful issue, are entitled to all the praise which we can
give them. Few will deny now that this and kindred associations, by
decreasing the waste of war, will affect in an important degree our
national fortunes. And most, indeed, know something even about the
details of Sanitary work. They comprehend, at least, that through its
agency many a homely comfort and many a home luxury find their way to
the wards of great hospitals. They have seen, too, the Commission step
forward in great emergencies, after some terrible battle, when every
energy of Government was burdened and overburdened by the gigantic
demands of the hour, and from its storehouses send thousands of
packages, and from its offices hundreds of relief agents, to help to
meet almost unprecedented exigencies.

But what people wish to know, and what, despite all that has been
written, they do not know fully and definitely, is how and when and
where, and through what channels and by what methods, the Commission
works: precisely how the millions which have been poured into its
treasury from public contributions and private benefactions have been
coined into comfort for the soldier,--how the thousands and hundreds of
thousands of garments which have gone forth to unknown destinations have
been made warmth for his body and cheer to his soul. The whole height
and depth and length and breadth of Sanitary work, what varied
activities and what multiform charities are included in the great
circumference of its organization,--of that not one in twenty has any
adequate conception. And all about that is what everybody wishes to
know. The curiosity, moreover, which dictates such queries, is a natural
and laudable curiosity. Those who have given at every call, and often
from scanty means, and those who have plied the needle summer and
winter, early and late, have a right to put such questions. The
Commission wishes to answer all proper inquiries fully and unreservedly.
It would throw open its operations to the broadest sunlight. It believes
that the more entirely it is known, in its successes and its failures
alike, the more sure it is to be liberally sustained. To bring t