Description:

U.S. SANITARY COMMISSION BROADSIDE
Printed broadside, 1p. folio, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1865, reprinting a statement by U.S. Sanitary Commission Superintendant of Special Relief Frederick N. Knapp, calling for the establishment of "Disabled Soldiers'' Homes" to provide care for the many thousands of wounded veterans of the recently concluded Civil War. In very small part: "...Now that the excitement of actual war is over, and the demand upon the men and women at home for thought, time, money, and supplies for sick and wounded soldiers has nearly ceased, people are turning their attention to the question of how best to provide permanently for those soldiers who have been disabled in the service... There is a feeling in the community that too much cannot, by any possibility, be done for the men who have become disabled in the war; that do all we may for their comfort, we shall never half repay them for the sacrifices we have made, or half balance our debt of personal gratitude... But on the other hand, if we make these soldiers the recipients of an indiscriminate charity, if we seize upon them as the objects upon which we may work off this nervous philanthropic excitability, and count the benefit rendered by the number we get into asylums... then we shall do more harm than good... What we want in this country, if we are to establish any national or State ''Sanitaria'' or ''Disabled Soldier''s Homes,'' is to have them as truly American as this war has been; we want them to show upon the face of them that the people themselves, with their practical good sense, have been thinking about them, and have really put into them their best and calmest thought, as well as their money and sympathies... A Sanitarium should be not merely an ''asylum'', but also a workshop, and a school, and a home... A central purpose of the institution should be to provide facilities and inducements for the development of productive power in these partially disabled men, so that they may be able as soon as possible to provide for themselves... As to medical and surgical treatment, the aim should be, not merely to secure average skill and care, so as to keep the men comfortable in their present state, but provision should be made at every Sanitarium for an infirmary, where the very highest skill could bring to bear all the arts and appliances of modern surgical and medical science, with large and patient working, furnishing here to the disabled soldier such medical or surgical treatment, and an opportunity for improvement or recovery, such as could not possibly be guaranteed to any individual at his own home..."Knapp goes on to cite several studies performed among soldiers currently under the care of the Sanitary Commission, finding that seventeen percent can be classified as "totally disabled", while a further sixteen percent can be called "seriously disabled". The broadside shows folds with some tears to the edges and paper loss at two corners, else very good.

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April 18, 2018 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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