320 CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN. each in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington — and were so successful that she had the pleasure of sending to Dr. Bellows, president of the Sani- tary Commission, from the vessel in which she left to return to Europe, a check for the sum of eight thousand two hundred and sixty-seven dollars. " I know no distinction of North, East, South, or West," she wrote in the letter which accompanied this generous gift ; " it is all my country, and where there is most need, there do I wish the proceeds of my labor to be given." One more extract, taken from a letter written to Miss Fanny Seward when the final triumph came, may fittingly close Miss Cushman's record as a patriot. It is her song of exultation : " With regard to my own dearly beloved land, of which I am so proud that my heart swells and my eyes brim over as I think to-day of her might, her majesty, and the power of her long-suffering, her abiding patience, her unequaled unanimity, her resolute prudence, her ina- bility to recognize bondage and freedom in our constitu- tion, and her stalwart strength in forcing that which she could not obtain by reasoning. . . . To-day my pride, my faith, my love of country, is blessed and satisfied in the news that has flashed to us that ' the army of Lee has capitulated ! ' that we are and must be one sole, undi- vided — not common, but wwcommon — country; great, glorious, free ; henceforth an honor and a power among nations, a sign and a symbol to the down-trodden peoples, and a terror to evil-doers upon earth." After a long period of retirement, she returned to the scene of her former triumphs. People wondered why she should continue to act during her last years, when she was tormented by the pain of an incurable disease, and when she had a beautiful home at Newport, where there
