![]() In a moment he looked at me with a good deal of sad severity and said, “Madam, this matter of northern hospitals has been talked of a great deal, and I thought it was settled, but it seems not. When he had finished reading this he looked up, ran his fingers through his hair, well silvered, though the brown then predominated his beard was more whitened. I saw, and silently read his face while he was reading a paper written by one of our senators, introducing me and my mission. The debt we owe to God, to man, to ourselves, when paid, is but a simple act of justice, a duty performed. The word ‘justice’ came into my mind, as though I could read it upon his face – I mean that extended sense of the word that comprehends the practice of every virtue which reason prescribes and society should expect. His face was peculiar bone, nerve, vein, and muscle were all so plainly seen deep lines of thought and care were around his mouth and eyes. It was rather the stern look of the judge who had decided against me. The President took my hand, hoped I was well, but there was no smile of welcome on his face. Lincoln.” So much for republican presentations and ceremony. I hastened forward, and replied, ‘Yes, and I am glad to see you, Mr. When I first saw him his head was bent forward, chin resting on his breast, and in his hand a letter which I had just sent to him. At his side stood a high writing desk and table combined plain straw matting covered the floor a few stuffed chairs and sofa covered with green worsted completed the furniture of the presence chamber of the president of the great republic. He was tall and lean, and as he sat in a folded up sort of way in a deep arm chair, one would almost have thought him deformed. No fault of his tailor, however such a figure could not be fitted. He was plainly clad in a suit of black that illy fitted him. He was alone, in a medium sized office-like room, no elegance about him, no elegance in him. I entered the White House, not with fear and trembling, but strong and self-possessed, fully conscious of the righteousness of my mission. Harvey said:īy the advice of friends and with an intense feeling that something must be done, I went to Washington. ![]() As I said before, the necessity for establishing military hospital in the North had long been an subject of much thought among our people, but it was steadily opposed by authorities.” Mrs. Lincoln and myself, as taken down at the time, for in no other way can I so well picture to you our much loved and martyred president as he then appeared at the White House. She gave “the exact conversations between Mr. Harvey gave a speech in which she detailed her visit to Washington to see President Lincoln in September 1863. President Lincoln opposed her idea because he was afraid that once wounded soldiers got close to home, they would melt away back to civilian life. She became convinced that soldiers should share in her own experience. Harvey fell during this work in 1863 and needed to return to Wisconsin to recuperate. She became a leading champion of the creation of Union hospitals near the homes of Union soldiers where they could recuperate in more healthful environments than were possible near the war front. ![]() Harvey picked up her husband’s concern for the welfare of Union soldiers wounded in battle and was appointed as a sanitary agent by her husband’s successor, Governor Edward Salomon. He died in 1862 – two months into his gubernatorial term when he slipped when crossing between two boats and drowned in Tennessee River. Harvey was a one-time school teacher and the widow of Wisconsin Governor Louis P.
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