THE TRIALS OF A TREATY
The methods of treaty-making in the United States have varied. In
a few instances the Senate has taken the initiative and asked the
President’s concurrent action. In at least one instance the President
has negotiated the treaty without the assistance of the Senate and
requested the Senate to adopt it without change. In several cases the
coördinate treaty-making powers have moved together, the President
concurring with the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations. In the
matter of the Red Cross Treaty, as we have seen, the President took the
initiative in coöperation with the Secretary of State, and the Senate
in due time requested the Secretary of State to submit the documents
bearing upon the matter. This was the status when President Garfield
was shot. During the weeks of his illness the Nation’s interest
centered in his sick-room.
It is interesting to know that the first local organization of the Red
Cross was established at Dansville, New York. Clara Barton returned
thither after the shooting of President Garfield, and without waiting
for his death or recovery, called the people of that village together
and established a local organization, the first in the United States.
Some years afterward the Dansville “Express” went back over its files
and found material for this brief article:
THE RED CROSS IN DANSVILLE
_The First Local Society in the United States was Organized in
Dansville_
From the files of the Dansville Express of Aug. 25, 1881, we find the
first local Red Cross Society in the United States was organized in
this village Aug. 22d, 1881, at a meeting held in St. Paul’s Lutheran
Church, called for that purpose. Rev. P. A. Strobel, pastor of the
church, presided and Dr. B. P. Andrews acted as secretary. Miss Clara
Barton, then a resident of Dansville, explained the objects of the
society.
Rev. Geo. K. Ward, Dr. J. H. Jackson, Rev. P. A. Strobel, Rev. A. P.
Brush, Mrs. Mary R. Smith, and Mrs. James Faulkner, Jr., were made
a committee to present a constitution, and they reported the same.
Wm. Kramer and Dr. J. H. Jackson were a committee to secure names of
members and 57 were recorded.
The officers elected were: President--Geo. A. Sweet;
vice-president--Mrs. Fanny B. Johnson; secretary--Mrs. Mary Colvin;
treasurer--Jas. Faulkner, Jr., executive board--Miss Clara Barton,
Major Mark J. Bunnell, G. Bastian, Jas. H. Jackson, Major E. H. Pratt,
Mrs. Geo. Hartman, Thomas E. Gallagher, Wm. Kramer, Oscar Woodruff,
Mrs. Reuben Whiteman, Mrs. L. Q. Galpin.
Later, Major Bunnell was made secretary of the executive board and
Hon. J. A. VanDerlip consulting counsel.
The society was active in good works for a few years and when Miss
Barton moved to Washington it was allowed to die.
Soon after the inauguration of President Arthur, Clara Barton returned
to Washington from a summer spent at Dansville. She was already
acquainted with President Arthur; she had met him at the White House,
and he had expressed interest in her undertaking. She now called on
him again and reminded him that President Garfield had promised her
his assistance; that there already had gone forth a letter signed by
the Secretary of State, committing the United States to the Red Cross
Treaty; and that there still lay on the President’s desk the official
request of the Senate for information concerning the Treaty of Geneva.
President Arthur gave to Miss Barton a most cordial reception. He
assured her of his own personal interest and of the obligation under
which he felt to carry out every promise made by President Garfield.
He promised her to call the attention of the Senate to the matter in
his first address to Congress, and he kept his promise in the following
paragraphs:
I cannot too strongly urge upon you my conviction that every
consideration of national safety, economy, and honor imperatively
demands a thorough rehabilitation of our Navy.
We have for many years maintained with foreign Governments the
relations of honorable peace, and that such relations may be permanent
is desired by every patriotic citizen of the Republic.
But if we heed the teachings of history we shall not forget that in
the life of every nation emergencies may arise when a resort to arms
can alone save it from dishonor.
No danger from abroad now threatens this people, nor have we any cause
to distrust the friendly professions of other Governments.
But, for avoiding as well as for repelling dangers that may threaten
us in the future, we must be prepared to enforce any policy which we
think wise to adopt.
At its last extra session the Senate called for the text of the
Geneva Convention for the relief of the wounded in war. I trust that
this action foreshadows such interest in the subject as will result
in the adhesion of the United States to that humane and commendable
engagement.
This part of the message was immediately taken up in the Senate and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, consisting of the
following named gentlemen, to wit: Hon. William Windom, Minnesota;
Hon. George F. Edmunds, Vermont; Hon. John Miller, California; Hon.
Thomas W. Ferry, Michigan; Hon. Elbridge G. Lapham, New York; Hon.
John W. Johnston, Virginia; Hon. J. T. Morgan, Alabama; Hon. George H.
Pendleton, Ohio; Hon. Benjamin H. Hill, Georgia.
The Committee on Foreign Relations opened its door wide to Clara Barton
and listened with the greatest interest to her story. President Arthur
followed the recommendation of his message with a special communication
in response to the Senate’s request of the preceding May:
(Senate Ex. Doc. No. 6, 47th Congress, 1st Session)
Message from the President of the United States, transmitting in
response to Senate resolution of May 17th, 1881, a report of the
Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, touching the Geneva
Convention for the relief of the wounded in war.
December 12, 1881.--Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and
ordered to be printed.
_To Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the Senate of
the seventeenth of May last, a report of the Secretary of State, with
accompanying papers, touching the Geneva Convention for the relief of
the wounded in war.
CHESTER A. ARTHUR
EXECUTIVE MANSION
WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1881_
_To the President_:
The Secretary of State, to whom was addressed a resolution of the
Senate, dated the seventeenth of May, 1881, requesting him “to furnish
to the Senate copies (translations) of Articles of Convention signed
at Geneva, Switzerland, August 22, 1864, touching the treatment of
those wounded in war, together with the forms of ratification employed
by the several governments, parties thereto,” has the honor to lay
before the President the papers called for by the resolution.
In view of the reference made, in the annual message of the
President, to the Geneva convention, the Secretary of State deems it
unnecessary now to enlarge upon the advisability of the adhesion of
the United States to an international compact at once so humane in its
character and so universal in its application as to commend itself to
the adoption of nearly all the civilized powers.
JAMES G. BLAINE
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
WASHINGTON, _December 10, 1881_
With such support from the President and the Secretary of State,
and with the Senate a unit in support of the treaty, the end of the
struggle appeared to be in sight. But many anxious months had yet to
pass before Clara Barton’s dream came true.
Even after the movement was inaugurated and recognized by Congress,
very few people in America attached to it any considerable degree of
importance. Among those who appreciated its full significance and
hastened to give Clara Barton full credit for her splendid achievement
was the man who had labored so faithfully for the organization of an
American Red Cross at the close of the Civil War, Dr. Henry W. Bellows.
He had labored in earlier years and had given it up, but rejoiced in
the prospect of her success:
NEW YORK, 232 E. 15
Nov. 21, 1881
MY DEAR MISS BARTON:
It has been a sore disappointment and mortification to those who
inaugurated the plan of organized relief, by private contributions,
for sick and wounded soldiers in our late war, since so largely
followed by other nations, that they should still find the United
States the _only_ great Government that refuses to join in the treaty,
framed by the International Convention of Geneva, for neutralizing
battle-fields after the battle, and making the persons of surgeons
and nurses flying to the relief of the wounded and dying free from
arrest. This great international agreement for mitigating the horrors
of war finds its chief defect in the conspicuous refusal of the
United States Government to join in the treaty! The importance of our
national concurrence with other Governments in this noble treaty has
been urged upon every administration since the war, but has thus far
met only the reply that our national policy did not allow us to enter
into entangling alliances with other powers. I rejoice to hear from
you that our late President and his chief official advisers were of a
different opinion, and encouraged the hope that in the interests of
mercy and humanity it might be safe to agree by treaty with all the
civilized world, that we would soften to non-combatants the hateful
conditions that made relief to the wounded on battle-fields a peril
or forbidden act. I trust you will press this matter upon our present
administration with all the weight of your well-earned influence.
Having myself somewhat ignominiously failed to get any encouragement
for this measure from two administrations, I leave it, in your more
fortunate hands, hoping that the time is ripe for a less jealous
policy than American self-isolation in international movements for
extending and universalizing mercy towards the victims of war.
Yours truly
H. W. BELLOWS
Public sentiment in America is a strange and somewhat capricious thing.
Clara Barton issued her little booklet in 1878 and it appeared to fall
flat. The newspapers paid no attention to it; Congress treated it with
complete indifference if not with hostility, and the President and his
Cabinet ignored it. She reissued it in 1881 with added matter, and
not less than three hundred newspapers and periodicals spoke kindly
of it, many of them more than once, so that more than five hundred
press clippings were collated as the result of that and Miss Barton’s
little article written for the Associated Press. Congress, that had
been partly hostile and where not hostile apathetic, became suddenly
and unanimously interested. The Honorable William Windom, Chairman of
the Committee on Foreign Relations, and afterward a member of President
Garfield’s Cabinet, became a stanch friend, perhaps the first genuinely
interested and largely influential friend of the movement. Senators
Hoar and Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Hawley, of Connecticut, and
Edmunds, of Vermont, lent to the movement intelligent and vigorous
support. The Honorable Omar D. Conger, of Michigan, first in the
House and afterward in the Senate, took an active part in promoting
the cause. When the matter began to be discussed in Congress as the
body which alone could declare war, and later came before the Foreign
Relations Committee of the Senate on the proposal to ratify the Geneva
Treaty, there was not a dissenting voice in either house, nor was
there in the press through the country, so far as is known, a single
unfavorable comment. Clara Barton’s campaign of publicity had been a
little handful of corn upon the top of the mountains and the fruit
thereof shook like the Cedars of Lebanon. The whole Nation was suddenly
converted to faith in the Red Cross.
Foreign nations stood in amazement when they saw this change of
sentiment. They were unable to account for it, nor could any one else
explain it to them. After eighteen years of indifference and hostility
America came over to the banner of the Red Cross with whole-hearted
acceptance of its humane principles.
But still the question was asked why America need concern herself with
an organization for war, when she was never going to have another war.
The answer to this question contained one of the distinctive principles
of the American Red Cross as compared with the Red Cross in other
countries. In Europe, the Red Cross was organized solely for relief in
time of war. In America, it was organized to meet any great public need.
As yet, however, the Red Cross was proceeding without official
authority. The death of President Garfield delayed for several months
the official adherence of the United States to the Treaty of Geneva.
Meantime, the Red Cross was in existence, by advice of President
Garfield. It had, however, only a single local organization, but it
cherished national and international aims and hopes. Miss Barton
herself recorded the history of the organization:
The National Red Cross of America was formed nearly a year before the
accession to the treaty. This was done by the advice of President
Garfield, in order to aid as far as possible the accession.
“Accordingly a meeting was held in Washington, D.C., May 21, 1881,
which resulted in the formation of an association to be known as the
American National Association of the Red Cross.”
Several years of previous illness on the part of its president had
resulted in fixing her country home at Dansville, New York, the seat
of the great Jackson and Austin Sanitarium and the acknowledged
foundation of the hundreds of health institutions of that kind which
bless the country to-day. The establishment of the National Red Cross
in Washington had attracted the attention of persons outside, who,
of course, knew very little of it; but among others, the people of
Dansville, the home of the president, felt that if she were engaged
in some public movement, they too might at least offer to aid.
Accordingly, on her return to them in midsummer, they waited upon
her with a request to that effect, which resulted in the formation
of a society of the Red Cross, this being the first body in aid of
the National Association formed in the United States. It is possible
I cannot make that more clear than by giving an extract from their
report of that date, which was as follows:
In reply to your request, given through the secretary of your
association, that we make report to you concerning the inauguration
of our society, its subsequent proceedings and present condition, the
committee has the honor to submit the following statement:
Dansville, Livingston County, New York, being the country residence
of Miss Clara Barton, president of the American Association of the
Red Cross, its citizens, desirous of paying a compliment to her, and
at the same time of doing an honor to themselves, conceived the idea
of organizing in their town the first local society of the Red Cross
in the United States. To this end, a general preliminary meeting was
held in the Presbyterian Church, when the principles of the Treaty of
Geneva and the nature of its societies were defined in a clear and
practical manner by Miss Barton, who had been invited to address the
meeting. Shortly after, on the twenty-second of August, 1881, a second
meeting, for the purpose of organization, held in the Lutheran Church
and presided over by the pastor, Rev. Dr. Strobel, was attended by the
citizens generally, including nearly all the religious denominations
of the town, with their respective pastors. The purpose of the meeting
was explained by your president, a constitution was presented and very
largely signed, and officers were elected.
Thus we are able to announce that on the eighteenth anniversary of
the Treaty of Geneva, in Switzerland, August 22, 1864, was formed the
first local society of the Red Cross in the United States of America.
While the Red Cross hung, like the coffin of Mohammed, between heaven
and earth, a disastrous forest fire occurred in Michigan. Clara Barton
at once issued, in the name of the Red Cross, an appeal for help. The
first city to respond was Rochester, forty miles from Dansville, and
Syracuse followed. The money was placed in the hands of the County
Clerk of Livingston County, New York, who went at once to Michigan,
and distributed financial help under direction of Clara Barton. She
also went to Michigan, and took care of the distribution of food and
clothing.
Here, in Michigan, for the first time on American soil, the banner of
the Red Cross was displayed above the supply tent of Clara Barton. A
part of the report of that first effort follows:
Before a month had passed, before a thought of practical application
to business had arisen, we were forcibly and sadly taught again the
old lesson that we need but to build the altar, God will Himself
provide the sacrifice. If we did not hear the crackling of the
flames, our skies grew murky and dark and our atmosphere bitter with
the drifting smoke that rolled over from the blazing fields of our
neighbors of Michigan, whose living thousands fled in terror, whose
dying hundreds writhed in the embers, and whose dead blackened in
the ashes of their hard-earned homes. Instantly we felt the help and
strength of our organization, young and untried as it was. We were
grateful that in this first ordeal your sympathetic president was with
us. We were deeply grateful for your prompt call to action, given
through her, which rallied us to our work. Our relief rooms were
instantly secured and our white banner, with its bright scarlet cross,
which has never been furled since that hour, was thrown to the breeze,
telling to every looker-on what we were there to do, and pointing to
every generous heart an outlet for its sympathy. We had not mistaken
the spirit of our people; our scarce-opened doorway was filled with
men, women, and children bearing their gifts of pity and love. Tables
and shelves were piled, our working committee of ladies took every
article under inspection, their faithful hands made all garments whole
and strong; lastly, each article received the stamp of the society and
of the Red Cross, and all were carefully and quickly consigned to the
firm packing-cases awaiting them. Eight large boxes were shipped at
first, others followed directly, and so continued until notified by
the Relief Committee of Michigan that no more were needed.
Among the fruits of Clara Barton’s work in Michigan was the confidence
and friendship of Senator Omar D. Conger and of Mrs. Conger, who,
seeing the actual workings of the Red Cross, under direct control of
Clara Barton, became its enthusiastic supporters, and her fast friends.
The Michigan experience also exhibited to the Nation the value of such
an organization, and showed that a country which did not intend ever to
have another war might still find use for the Red Cross.
But still the treaty halted. No one was opposing it. Every known
influence was favorable to it. Its adoption and signature were the
merest formality. Clara Barton was at liberty to go on with her work
with the full approval of the President and his Cabinet, and wait for
the adoption of the treaty which was certain to follow.
It did follow; but before it was adopted the heart of Clara Barton was
well-nigh broken. She had learned the weariness and pain of working
alone; she was now to learn the keener sorrow which emerges when one
undertakes to work with others.
Clara Barton had succeeded; no one questioned her success. But the
treaty was not yet adopted.