Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-05-19

lnent OF ltS having been purchased from {
lady connected with the Commission anC
the agent, taking the name and address o.
the lady, paid her visit, and learned from
her that she had no connection with the
Commission but that she represented
some of the Hospitals in Washington,
which having accumulated large stores OF
this description, had obtained from the
proper authorities permission to dispose of
them, and to purchase with the proceeds
other stores more needed. The operation
was perfectly legitimate one but in no
way connected with the Sanitary Commits
sion. Another report, which was of a
more alarming nature, was the one circu-
lated by the soldiers themselves, that they
mad been purchasing stockings at 33 cents
a pair, which had been knit for the Sani-
tary Commission. In the feet of the
stockings they had in some instances found
balls OF yarn, little pin-cushions, and in
few, slips of paper, with the name and
address of the kntter. Some of the men
amused themselves by writing letters to
those addresses, returning their thanks for
the stockings, and adding that the SO cents
pair which they had paid for them, was
tritiing cost considering who had knit
them. A young man, Sergeant in New
York Battery, wrote to his father, who
was in the Custom House in that city
and exposed the fraud The father see.
ing the injury which such an abuse of the
free gifts of the people would be to the
Commission, and wishing to bring the dis
honestagent to the punishment he murited,
wrote at once 10 DR. Bellows, and placed
the facts before him A special agent
was Immediately dispatched to Falmouth,
vita Instructions to ignominiously dismiss
from the service the guilty party as soon
as discovered. The agent found the state.
ments of Mr.. Ropes and his son to be en-
tirely correct but the explanation of Col.
ingalls, put different face upon the mat
ter 1t seems that in the dead of Winter,
transportation being difficult, the Govern
mentfailed to oiurnish stockingsin sufficient |
quantities to meet the demands made |
upon the Quartermaster by the men, who |
were actually suffering from frost-bitten |
feet for the want of them. In this emer-
gency, Col. ingalls, went to the Sanitary |
Inspector and telling his wants, asked for
the loan of 5000 pairs which request, as
they had $4,000 pairs on hand, was at
once granted. These stockings were sold |
at Government price to the men, by the
Quartermaster S orders, who as soon as
he received the Government supplies re-
turned to the Sanitary Commission the
number he had borrowed. For this hu-
name loan, ISLANDERS concerning the Com
mission have reached ears which will never
hear the denial. But surely the friends of
the Comm 3sion will never help to spread
these injurious reports but on the con-
trary, whenever they hear such, through
any authentic source they will at once la
the facts before some officer connected
with the Commission, that the truth may
be aseertained, and the guilty, if any there
be, be exposed ana punished
But who is there not friendly to the
Commission 1t has won the confidence
of all denominations because built upon
foundations broad national and purely
Christian" Bishop Potter says =" The
operations Of the Sanitary Commission
have been conducted with rare ability
and in the spirit OF enlightened benevo-
lence Acting under the sanction OF the
Government and in some sense with its
aid, it has accomplished wonders, as well
in preventing sickness in the army as
in ministering to the wounded and
Among the many testimonials to the
value Of the system adopted by the Com
mission is that of the General Assembly Of
the Presbyterian Church.
This hiphlv rnspooto Ilo hod,s ,.o,,vns,rt /
ing numerous and most influential de-
nomination of Christians in all parts of the
North and West, adopted, at its meeting
in Cincinnati, in May last, the following
resolution
ReSolced, That the Assembly earnestly
recommend TO all our Presbyteries and
in the United States Sanitary
Commission us he very best channel
through which to reach the sick and woun-
ded of the army 1t is thoroughly Or
ganized, possessed OF all needtu facts and
is now acting with that system an econ
omy which only an enlarged experience
can secure.
We close with few lines from New
York report;
The work of the Commission invites the
closest scrutiny. and it is because those
who have investigated it most thoroughly ;
who have examined its books followed ,
its inspectors into hospitals and camps,
its agents to the battlefield, and its
supplies to the soldiers-are its most :
earnest supporters, that we wish to say to 4
those who stay at home, and by their un- /
wearied labor and patriotic zeal keep this (