e charitable exploits of Miss Nightingale; she was
honored at the conclusion of the war with a national recompense.[A]

[A] This statement is not exact; indeed, it does some injustice as well
to Miss Barton as to the American Congress, and was doubtless derived
from misstatements promulgated in the United States, the result of a
general misunderstanding of the facts, and an error, of course, unknown
to a foreign writer.

Precisely what the Thirty-seventh Congress did was to pass the following
joint resolution of both houses, and in accordance with the same to pay
over to Miss Barton the sum mentioned in it for the uses and purposes
therein set forth:

                                                          March 10, 1866.

_A resolution providing for expenses incurred in searching for missing
soldiers of the Army of the United States, and for further prosecution
of the same._

_Whereas_, Miss Clara Barton has, during the late war of the rebellion,
expended from her own resources large sums of money in endeavoring to
discover missing soldiers of the armies of the United States, and in
communicating intelligence to their relatives; therefore,

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the sum of fifteen
thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated out of any
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to reimburse Miss
Clara Barton for the amount so expended by her, and to aid in the
further prosecution of the search for missing soldiers, and the printing
necessary to the furtherance of the said object shall hereafter be done
by the Public Printer.

Approved March 10, 1866.

[14 Vol. U.S. Statutes at Large, p. 350.]

This, therefore, was not recompense for services; it was reimbursement
for money expended; it was money expended by a private citizen for
public uses, and this, mainly, after the close of the war. The
government recognized its value to the people, and refunded the money,
and that without solicitation on Miss Ba