© APClinton waves after speaking to the Children's Defense Fund in Washington
'I will admit coming here tonight wasn't the easiest thing for me,' she said at the Children's Defense Fund's gala in Washington, D.C.
The failed presidential candidate added: 'There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do is just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again.'
Clinton arrived and left the event at the Newseum through a private entrance and didn't stick around to be hounded by her traveling press corps.
The failed presidential candidate said 'there have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do is just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again'
They had been invited to cover the event by campaign staff, several of whom were with her last night. One said they're still on payroll through the end of this week.
Quoting the organization's founder, Marian Wright Edelman, Clinton said, 'Service is the rent we pay for living.'
'You don't get to stop paying rent just because things don't go your way', Clinton said.
Clinton said she drew inspiration from Edelman as she prepared for the speaking engagement she agreed to before her stunning defeat in the presidential election.
'If there's anyone who knows how to pick yourself up, and get back on your feet and get to work, it is Marian,' Clinton said. 'She has been doing it all of her life, and she has been helping the rest of us do it, too.'
Clinton interned for Edelman during law school. She came back to work for her at the newly formed, Massachusetts-based non-profit, the Children's Defense Fund, when she graduated.
Edelman and others in the room last night reminded her that when 'you get knocked down, you get back up,' Clinton said.
The arc of moral universe can 'feel awfully long,' said Clinton, reciting Martin Luther King, Jr's famed observation that it 'bends toward justice.'
'Believe me - I would know,' she said to laughter.
Clinton told attendees, 'I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election. I am too, more than I can ever express.
'Our campaign was never about one person or even one election - it was about the country that we love and about building an America that is hopeful inclusive and big-hearted.'
In spite of her defeat at the ballot box, Clinton said, 'We have work to do.'
'I ask you to stay engaged, stay engaged on every level,' she said. 'We need you. America needs you, your energy, your ambition, your talent. That's how we get through this. That's how we help to make our contributions to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.'
Clinton told them, frankly, 'I know this isn't easy. I know that over the past week a lot of people have asked themselves whether America is the country we thought it was.
'The divisions laid bare by this election run deep. But please listen to me when I say this: America is worth it. Our children are worth it. Believe in our country, fight for our values, and never, ever give up.'
The former first lady and secretary of state who has been criticized for her dogged pursuit of high-profile positions told gala attendees, 'I didn't get into public service to hold high office.'
Forty-five years ago, when she began her work at the Children's Defense Fund, Clinton, the first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination, said 'that would have seemed an absolute, incredibly wrong-headed view.
'But I did decide to be an activist to use my law degree to help kids.'
Clinton said in the short, 20-minute speech that lasted half as long as the ones she delivered daily on the stump, that she still believes that Americans are 'stronger together' - her campaign slogan - 'when we are lifting people up.'
'I believe the measure of any society is how we treat our children,' she said. 'And as we move forward into a new, and in many ways, an uncertain future, I think that must be the test for America and for ourselves.'
A nod to the nation's sitting president, who will see much of his work unraveled in the next administration, Clinton said she had 'hoped to have had the opportunity to build on the progress that President Obama has made.
Clinton imagined the other woman who she said she draws 'hope and sustenance from', mother Dorothy, now deceased, travelling to California alone on a train when she was eight with her five-year-old sister to begin a new life.
'Ended up on her own working as a housemaid. She beat the odds, she found a way to offer me the boundless love and support she never received herself,' Clinton reflected.
The 69-year-old former senator, secretary of state and two-time White House contender said, 'I think about her every day. And sometimes I think about her on that train.
© APSpeaking at the event she said: 'America is still the greatest country in the world,' she said. 'This is still the place where anyone can beat the odds. It's up to each and every one of us to keep working to make America better and stronger and fairer'
'I wish I could walk down the aisle and find the little wooden seats where she sat, holding tight to her younger sister, all alone and terrified. She doesn't yet know how much more she will have to face and even suffer.'
It would be years before Dorothy would find the strength to escape, Clinton said. At that moment, on the train, 'her whole future is unknown.'
'I dream of going up to her and sitting next to her and taking her in my arms,' she said and telling her, 'you will survive, you will have a family of your own...and as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will...win more than 62 million votes for President of the United States.'
'America is still the greatest country in the world,' she said. 'This is still the place where anyone can beat the odds. It's up to each and every one of us to keep working to make America better and stronger and fairer.'
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