tunate people. The building secured by the Society, has been place under the supervision of Miss Mary Venard, of Terre Haute, Ind a lady who for some fifteen months has served the Commission s Natchez, Miss. Under her careful management it is doing well. HOSPITAL BOATS. In the year 1862, five hospital steamers were dispatched by the Governor for the relief of our troops. They were furnished with i sanitary stores, and with all the conveniences required for the transportation of sick and wounded soldiers. They visited the battle-fields of Pittsburg Landing, Island No. 10, Memphis and Helena, and returned freighted with hundreds of our wounded. In like manner, in the year 1863, seven steamers were sent out on similar errands, abundantly supplied and furnished, carrying physicians and nurses. These boats were sent to Memphis, Helena, Vicksburg, Natchez, New Orleans, and to all other points on the Mississippi river where we had troops, distributing to all who were in need, and bringing home hundreds of sick and wounded. It can not be doubted that your foresight and promptitude, in resorting to this mode of relief, have saved the lives of many gallant officers and soldiers; and it has always been our pleasure to co-operate with you in making it as effectual as possible. ASYLUMS. There are instances of suffering having the strongest claim, not merely to the charity of the public, but to that sense of justice always so strong in a brave people. These, although not within the limits. of our trust, are, from the nature of our duties, brought incessantly before our eyes. There are many of our soldiers disabled by wounds, or through diseases contracted in the service, who are wholly in some cases, in others partially, incapable of providing for their wants. They are many of them indigent. The pension given them by the General Government is inadequate to their support. What are they to do? They must beg or go to the country poor houses. Another class are the orphans of soldiers whose lives have been given to the country-whose mothers are dead-who have neither property or friends. There are many children in this unhappy condition. We are sure there could be no claim upon the public conscience stronger than that of these unfortunates. We are too just, too enlightened, too rich, to excuse ourselves from the duty of providing for the broken soldier, and the soldier's orphan child, such asylum as befit their condition, and will secure the support of the one and the education of the other. STATE SANITARY FAIR. In the autumn of 1864 a Sanitary Fair was held at this city, in connection with the State Agricultural Fair. Some weeks before the time of having the Fair, Major Erie Locke, of Indianapolis, was appointed its Superintendent, when he entered vigorously and at once into the business. To accommodate the Sanitary Fair, a building was erected within the Agricultural Fair enclosure 350 feet long and 70 feet wide, having an ell 100 feet long, 70 feet wide, and 16 feet high. Major Locke organized a complete system of Committees to draw contributions from the various departments. Contributions came in well. The Masonic fraternity sent in $2,000 in cash. The county most distant from the Capital, Vanderburg, bore away the prize banner, offered to any county except Marion, that should make the largest contribution. The exhibition was a success, the total receipts being something over forty thousand dollars. Handsome as was the sum realized, it would have been much larger had not the public been occupied with the pending elections, and also in raising money to fill the quotas on the draft ordered about that time. The citizens of Indianapolis alone gave nearly $100,000 to supply the draft, at the time the demand was made upon them to contribute to the Sanitary Fund. This great draw upon the people throughout the State greatly lessened our receipts, and it is only a matter of surprise that so much was gathered at such a juncture. CONCLUSION. The Indiana Sanitary Commission is still in full vigor, prosperous and successful. The need of its continued activity is as great as at any former period. We have still many soldiers in the field and in the hospitals, and the sad exigencies of war contrive to yield their harvests of wounds, disease and death. The claims of the men who in the flower of life give up their business, and postpone for our good the natural effort to secure a competence before the evil days come and the night of decrepitude darkens about them, in which no man can work; who leave the sweet security of home, and the pleasant society of wife and children; who suffer! manifold privations, in heat and hunger, cold and thirst, through mu and dust, amid the death storm of battle, enduring the slow torture of wounds and illness, or the more lingering and horrible pains of s southern prison; who, when they return to us, come back, many of them, noble ruins of their former manhood, torn by shot and shell, or broken by disease-the claims of these men, we repeat, come as heretofore, with solemn cogency, not to our sympathies alone, but to! our consciences. For every where they have carried our country's flag the symbol of victory and herald of peace, while the blood they shed and the sacrifices they make are the pledges of Union restored and treason overwhelmed and punished. The people of Indiana read in this report a record not of what we, but they have done. We point to the Commission as work of their hands, assured that the increasing demands ɛteadily made upon it will be abundantly supplied by the same generous hearts to which it ewes its origin and growth. All of which is respectfully submitted. WM. HANNAMAN, Pres't. ALFRED HARRISON, Treas. |