Part 7

The invitation to assist at the Conference at Berlin in 1869 was addressed to the Government of the United States, which declined it with thanks, as not having taken part in the Convention of Geneva. The society of which we have just spoken was in like manner invited, but it also was not represented.

This double absence called out a proposition from M. Hepke, privy counsellor of the legation, a proposition, supported by the signatures of thirty-eight other delegates present, and adopted unanimously by the members of the Conference.

The text of it was as follows:

"The Conference having arrived at the end of their labors, express a lively regret at having been deprived of the precious assistance of the delegates from the United States of North America, convinced that the great and noble nation which, one of the first in the world, has rendered eminent services to the great humanitarian work, will welcome with sympathy the results of their labors, the Conference desires that the protocols of these sessions shall be addressed by their President to the Government of the United States of North America, and to the different aid committees which exist in that country."

That step unfortunately remained without results. The society which had its seat at New York, comprehending that its existence would be unnatural and its position false so long as the government refused to sign the convention, finished by dissolving towards the end of 1872.

Since then, the International Committee, which would not despair of success, made upon its part several new attempts, which invariably met with absolute non-attention. Happily the history of the Red Cross was there to prove that the most tenacious resistance is not indefinite, and that sooner or later the sentiments of the most recalcitrant governments are modified under the control of circumstances. How many we have seen who at first believed their adhesion useless, or even dangerous, and who have been led to repentance on the occurrence of wars in which their armies were to be, or had been, engaged, because they comprehended at that moment only to what point their fears were chimerical or their indifference injurious to those depending upon them for protection.

In the United States time has done its work as elsewhere, though peace has long reigned there. The change of sentiment which has been produced in regard to the Red Cross has revealed itself recently on the sixth of December, 1881, in the message of President Arthur at the opening of the fourth session of the Forty-seventh Congress. We read there the following paragraph:

"At its last extra session the Senate demanded the text of the Geneva Convention for aiding the wounded in time of war. I hope that this fact proves the interest which the Senate feels in this question, and that there will result from it, the adhesion of the United States to this humane and commendable treaty."

It seems, then, that we touch the port; the matter is seriously considered, and it will be with lively satisfaction that we shall register the result which has been so long the end of our desires.

We will not terminate these retrospective considerations, without telling what we know of the causes which have recently led to decisive steps in the question.

It is, above all, to a woman that this result is owing, and the name of that woman is not unknown to our readers. We spoke to them several years ago of Miss Clara Barton, one of the heroines of the American war, where she reproduced the 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 Barton's part.

This work was a fitting, even necessary, result of her four years' voluntary and unpaid services on the field, not as an ordinary nurse, but as a sort of independent sanitary commission, whom the government, the soldiers, and the people came at last to implicitly trust, for they never found their trust betrayed nor themselves disappointed by any want of discretion, sagacity, or energy on her part. It cannot be set forth here, it can only be alluded to most briefly. In its details it must form a chapter in the story of a life singularly original, successful, and beneficent.

--[Report of the American (National) Association of the Red Cross of 1883.]

Then, being in Europe at the time of the French and German war, she again flew to the battlefield. Returning at last to her own country with enfeebled health, she determined to give what strength remained to her to the service of the Red Cross, and took for her task to plead its cause with the influential men of the American government. Quitting her home at Dansville, she passed long months at Washington to carry conviction to the minds of the President, of his ministers, of members of Congress, writing for the journals, publishing pamphlets to spread the ideas the triumph of which she had at heart. She had need of much perseverance and energy to avoid renouncing her plan, for she waited long before finding a favorable opportunity. It was not until the accession of President Garfield that she could catch a glimpse of success. She then found in the Chief Magistrate of the nation a man who warmly espoused her cause, and in the Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, an auxiliary as zealous as he was devoted. We have seen by the quotation which we have borrowed from the last Presidential message that Mr. Arthur shares the sentiments and ideas of his predecessor on the subject of the Geneva Convention, and it is hardly probable that he will encounter upon this point opposition from Congress.

The name of Miss Barton will probably not figure in the official documents which will be the fruit of her labors, but here, where we have entire liberty to render homage to her devotion, we are happy to be able to proclaim her imperishable title to the gratitude of the Red Cross.

To the name of Miss Barton we should join that of M. Edouard Seve, who, after having rendered important service to the Red Cross in South America, where he represented Belgium to Chili, has continued to use his activity in favor of the same cause in the United States since he has been called to the position of consul-general at Philadelphia. His efforts have certainly contributed to render the Government at Washington favorable to the Geneva Convention.

The preceding article was already printed when we received from the indefatigable Miss Barton a new pamphlet upon the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. This little work is destined to initiate the Americans into the origin and history of the work, with which they are as yet but imperfectly acquainted, and for which it is the aspiration of the author to awaken their interest; in particular, we find there the confirmation of the steps of which we have spoken above, and especially the text of the two letters addressed by the International Committee, one on the ninth of August, 1877, to President Hayes, the other on the thirteenth of June, to Secretary of State Blaine.

The pamphlet which we have announced has been published by the American National Society of the Red Cross, with which we have not yet had occasion to make our readers acquainted. This society, recently established at the suggestion of Miss Barton, and of which she has been made president, is only waiting for the official adhesion of the United States to the Geneva Convention to put itself in relation with the societies of other countries. We will wait until then to speak of it and to give the details of its organization.

ACCESSION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE TREATY OF GENEVA AND TO THE ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

On the first day of March, 1882, the President, by his signature, gave the accession of the United States to the Treaty of Geneva of August 22, 1864, and also to that of October 20, 1868, and transmitted to the Senate the following message, declaration, and proposed adoption of the same:

_Message from the President of the United States, transmitting an accession of the United States to the Convention concluded at Geneva on the twenty-second August, 1864, between various powers, for the amelioration of the wounded of armies in the field, and to the additional articles thereto, signed at Geneva on the twentieth October, 1868._

March 3, 1882.--Read; accession read the first time referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and, together with the message, ordered to be printed in confidence, for the use of the Senate.

March 16, 1882.--Ratified and injunction of secrecy removed therefrom.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate for its action thereon, the accession of the United States to the convention concluded at Geneva on the twenty-second August, 1864, between various powers, for the amelioration of the wounded of armies in the field, and to the additional articles thereto, signed at Geneva on the twentieth of October, 1868.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR. WASHINGTON, _March 3, 1882_.

_Whereas_, on the twenty-second day of August, 1864, a convention was concluded at Geneva, in Switzerland, between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Swiss Confederation, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Empire, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Kingdom of Würtemberg, for the amelioration of the wounded in armies in the field, the tenor of which convention is as follows:

(See treaty and additional articles, already inserted.)

Now, therefore, the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, hereby declares that the United States accede to the said convention of the twenty-second August, 1864, and also accede to the said convention of October 20, 1868.

Done at Washington this first day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and sixth.

(Seal.) CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

By the President. FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN, _Secretary of State_.

The same day the president of the American Association sent by cablegram to President Moynier, of the International Committee at Geneva, the glad tidings that the United States had at last joined in the great humane work of the world by ratifying the treaties of the Red Cross; and on the twenty-fourth of the same month, President Moynier replied as follows:

COMITE INTERNATIONAL DE SECOURS AUX MILITAIRES BLESSES, GENEVA, _March 24, 1882_.

MISS CLARA BARTON, _President of the American Society of the Red Cross, Washington_:

MADEMOISELLE: At last, on the seventeenth instant, I received your glorious telegram. I delayed replying to it in order to communicate its contents to my colleagues of the International Committee, so as to be able to thank you in the name of all of us and to tell you of the joy it gives us. You must feel happy too, and proud to have at last attained your object, thanks to a perseverance and a zeal which surmounted every obstacle.

Please, if opportunity offers, to be our interpreter to President Arthur and present him our warmest congratulations.

I suppose your government will now notify the Swiss Federal Council of its decision in the matter, and the latter will then inform the other Powers which have signed the Red Cross Treaty.

Only after this formality shall have been complied with can we occupy ourselves with fixing the official international status of your American society. We have, however, already considered the circular which we intend to address to all the societies of the Red Cross, and with regard thereto we have found that it will be necessary for us as a preliminary measure to be furnished with a document certifying that the American society has attained the second of its objects, _i.e._, that it has been (officially) recognized by the American Government.

It is important that we be able to certify that your government is prepared to accept your services in case of war; that it will readily enter into co-operation with you, and will encourage the centralization under your direction of all the voluntary aid. We have no doubt that you will readily obtain from the competent authorities an official declaration to that effect, and we believe that this matter will be merely a formality, _but we attach the greatest importance to the fact in order to cover our responsibility, especially in view of the pretensions of rival societies which might claim to be acknowledged by us_.

It is your society alone and none other that we will recognize, because it inspires us with confidence, and _we would be placed in a false position if you failed to obtain for it a privileged position by a formal recognition by the government_.

We hope that you will appreciate the motives of caution which guide us in this matter, and that you may soon enable us to act in the premises.

Wishing to testify to you its gratitude for the services you have already rendered to the Red Cross, the committee decided to offer to you one of the medals which a German engraver caused to be struck off in 1870 in honor of the Red Cross. It will be sent to you in a few days. It is of very small intrinsic value indeed, but, such as it is, we have no other means of recompensing the most meritorious of our assistants. Please to regard it only as a simple memorial, and as a proof of the esteem and gratitude we feel for you.

Accept, mademoiselle, the assurance of my most distinguished sentiments.

G. MOYNIER, _President_.

[Illustration: Copyright 1898, by Clara Barton.

SOME RED CROSS DECORATIONS PRESENTED TO CLARA BARTON.

_The Iron Cross of Merit presented by Emperor William I. and Empress Augusta, in recognition of services in the Franco-German War of 1870-71. The German Medal of Honor presented by the Comité International in recognition of services in securing the adhesion of the United States to the treaty of the Red Cross. The Servian Red Cross presented by Queen Natali of Servia._]

[Illustration: Copyright 1898, by Clara Barton.

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORIC TREE.

_Showing the development of the Red Cross during the first twenty-five years of its existence. The city of Geneva, its origin. The central branch represents the work of the Comité International. The right branch the formation of the national societies or committees. The left branch the date of adhesion to the treaty by the various nations._]

The requirements contained in the foregoing letter, in regard to the recognition of the American Association of the Red Cross, were fully and generously complied with by the various branches of the Government of the United States, and the documents conveying the official recognition were transmitted by the Honorable Secretary of State to the American consul at Geneva, with instructions to deliver them to the International Committee.

The following is the proclamation by President Arthur announcing to the people the adoption by the United States of the Treaty of Geneva, and the Additional Articles concerning the Navy:

By the President of the United States of America:

A PROCLAMATION.

_Whereas_, on the twenty-second day of August, 1864, a convention was concluded at Geneva, in Switzerland, between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Swiss Confederation, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Empire, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Kingdom of Würtemberg, for the amelioration of the wounded in armies in the field, the tenor of which convention is hereinafter subjoined:

_And whereas_, the several contracting parties to the said convention exchanged the ratification thereof at Geneva on the twenty-second day of June, 1865;

_And whereas_, the several states hereinafter named have adhered to the said convention in virtue of Article IX. thereof, to wit:

Sweden, December 13, 1864; Greece, January 5-17, 1865; Great Britain, February 18, 1865; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, March 9, 1865; Turkey, July 5, 1865; Würtemberg, June 22, 1866; Hesse, June 2, 1866; Bavaria, June 30, 1866; Austria, July 21, 1866; Persia, December 5, 1874; Salvador, December 30, 1874; Montenegro, November 17-29, 1875; Servia, March 24, 1876; Bolivia, October 16, 1879; Chili, November 15, 1879; Argentine Republic, November 25, 1879; Peru, April 22, 1880.

_And whereas_, the Swiss Confederation, in virtue of the said Article IX. of said convention, has invited the United States of America to accede thereto;

_And whereas_, on the twentieth October, 1868, the following additional articles were proposed and signed at Geneva, on behalf of Great Britain, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, North Germany, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Würtemberg, the tenor of which Additional Articles is hereinafter subjoined (see page 74);

_And whereas_, the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, did, on the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, declare that the United States accede to the said convention of the twenty-second of August, 1864, and also accede to the said convention of October 20, 1868;

_And whereas_, on the ninth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, in virtue of the final provision of a certain minute of the exchange of the ratifications of the said convention at Berne, December 22, 1864, did, by a formal declaration, accept the said adhesion of the United States of America, as well in the name of the Swiss Confederation as in that of the other contracting states;

_And whereas_, furthermore, the Government of the Swiss Confederation has informed the Government of the United States that the exchange of the ratifications of the aforesaid Additional Articles of the twentieth October, 1868, to which the United States of America have, in like manner, adhered as aforesaid, has not yet taken place between the contracting parties, and that these articles cannot be regarded as a treaty in full force and effect;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Convention Treaty of August 22, 1864, to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof; reserving, however, the promulgation of the hereinbefore mentioned Additional Articles of October 20, 1868, notwithstanding the accession of the United States of America thereto, until the exchange of the ratifications thereof between the several contracting states shall have been effected, and the said Additional Articles shall have acquired full force and effect as an international treaty.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and seventh.

(L.S.) CHESTER A. ARTHUR. By the President, FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN, _Secretary of State_.

_United States of America, Department of State, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting_:

I certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the original on file in the Department of State.

In testimony whereof I, John Davis, Acting Secretary of State of the United States, have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this ninth day of August, A.D. 1882, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventh.

(L.S.) JOHN DAVIS.

Thus was the American branch of the Red Cross welcomed into the fellowship of kindred associations in thirty-one other nations, the most prosperous and civilized on the globe, its position assured, and its future course made simple, direct and untroubled.

The official bulletin of the International Committee also hailed the accession of the United States to the treaty, in an article of characteristic caution and of great significance. In that article, which is quoted in full hereafter, the distinction was carefully pointed out between that which had already been fully agreed to, and had become invested with all the force and solemnity of international treaties, and the proposed amendment which had been drawn up and considered with a view to ultimate adoption. This proposed amendment had received the sanction and signatures of the International Committee at Geneva, without ever having been formally adopted by any nation. The United States had, at the same moment adopted both, thus becoming the thirty-second nation to adhere to the treaty of August 22, 1864, and the _first_ to adopt the proposed amendment of October 20, 1868.

[_International Bulletin for April, 1882._]

ADHESION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE CONVENTION OF GENEVA.

Referring to the article inserted in our preceding bulletin, p. 42, we are happy to be able to announce that the act of adhesion which we presented was signed at Washington the sixteenth of March, in pursuance of a vote by which the members of the Senate gave their approval with unanimity. Our readers will doubtless be surprised, as we are, that after the long and systematic resistance of the Government of the United States against rallying to the Convention of Geneva, there cannot be found in the American legislature a single representative of the opposition. So complete a reversal of opinion cannot be explained, unless we admit that the chief officers of the nation had cherished, up to the present time, prejudices in regard to the Convention of Geneva--prejudices which vanished as soon as they fully comprehended what was expected of them, and recognized that there was nothing compromising in it to the political condition of their country.