THE PERILS OF SUCCESS
Few people now remember that Clara Barton’s success encountered any
difficulties at this point in her career. Her published writings
make no reference to them. Her book on the Red Cross tells the story
as though events proceeded automatically through this period of
transition. President Garfield became interested and referred the
matter to Secretary Blaine, who became heartily enthusiastic, and he
and President Garfield told her to proceed with assurance that the
United States would approve the treaty. She did so, and, although
President Garfield was shot, his successor made the promise good, and
the Senate unanimously concurred. That would seem to have been the
whole story. But, as a matter of fact the months that followed the
published approval of Secretary Blaine and President Garfield, and
the formal approval of the treaty, were among the most anxious and
sorrowful of Clara Barton’s whole life.
The nation-wide publicity which now was freely accorded the movement
introduced Clara Barton to a new form of difficulty. She was well
schooled in the discipline of disappointment and deferred hope. Now she
came to know of the embarrassments of success. Swiftly after the Red
Cross came to recognition there rose competing organizations, seeking
to capitalize her success. The first day of August, 1881, saw the issue
of Volume I, Number 1, of “The Red Cross.” It was a monthly magazine,
of which there may have been no subsequent issues, the official
organ of a society known as the Red Cross. It copied Clara Barton’s
Associated Press article, and said:
We must say it is rather late for Miss Barton, or any one else, to
talk about organizing the Red Cross.
It then proceeded to tell that this organization had been in existence
since 1879:
We did not attempt to make this a national affair, as we were not in
condition to do so. This country was not going to war, at any time,
and the promoters first considered the propriety of getting the order
on a good foundation. ’Tis true, we have not undertaken any public
work as yet, but it is a very great undertaking when the territory to
be gone over is taken into consideration. We have organized a body of
men that no country in Europe can excel for the purpose of carrying
out our objects.
The real and original Red Cross was, therefore, according to this
journal, ready now to become national, and it warned Miss Clara Barton
that it had the right of way. It also published a portrait of the
real founder of the Red Cross, a gentleman born in England, who had
come to this country when young, and engaged in “several enterprises
which proved successful,” none of which were named; studied law, but
gave it up; studied medicine, but apparently did not practice. He was,
however, according to this journal, a very great and widely known man;
and his portrait showed him with so many badges and decorations upon
his right breast he would surely have had difficulty in drawing his
sword. He was the “Organizer and Supreme Commander.” A “Grand Promenade
Concert” was given in his honor in a very obscure hall in one of the
American cities, with a programme which the magazine printed in full,
consisting chiefly in a recitation (selected) by Miss Sadie Merryman;
a song (selected) by Miss Mary C. Andrews; a reading (selected) by
Miss Mary Prescott; a piano solo (selected) by Miss Mary C. Andrews; a
reading (selected) by Elmer E. Prescott, and selected songs with guitar
by the Misses Biederman and father. Besides these there was an “Address
of Welcome,” and a “Response” by the much-decorated “Organizer and
Supreme Commander.”
Clara Barton had a sense of humor. She could not only smile but laugh
heartily at competition of this bombastic character. She collected and
filed the literature, and it may be presumed that her files contain the
only preserved mementoes of this organization which served notice on
her that her Red Cross was an innovation.
But, nevertheless, this was a warning, and one which she had
occasion to heed. For immediately a considerable number of competing
organizations sprang up in several parts of the country, and some of
them gave her great anxiety.
She was not superstitious, and apparently did not notice that the
second Friday in January, 1882, fell on the 13th. But she recorded
that it was a bad Friday for her. Two days before, she had notice that
the wife of a United States Senator desired to call on her, and bring
one or two other ladies with her. She had moved into her new quarters
that very week, and not all her household goods were in place; so she
hastened to put up her curtains and finish her unpacking; for it had
rained on Monday when she expected to move, and her plans had been
disarranged.
Friday afternoon the wife of the Senator came, and with her another
lady.
She said she had come partly on business; that she had some months
before joined a society called the “Ladies’ National Red Star
Association”;[2] that this society had a meeting this week, and the
question of a counter-society came up; that this counter-society was
said to be called the Red Cross, and appeared to have been organized
to step in and do the work which they were doing; and it was decided
to adjourn the meeting for one week to inform themselves in relation
to this Red Cross Society. What was it? What did it propose to do?
What had it done? She said she learned near the close of the meeting
that I was the head of that society, and she came to ask if it was
true, and what did the Red Cross have to say for itself?
I told her I believed I was the head of the Society of which she
wished to learn.
She asked what Bills we proposed to present to Congress; and I told
her, None.
Why, yes, she said, they told her at the meeting that I had something
before Congress.
I told her I had a treaty, which I had presented for four years.
She wanted to know what work we had done, and I told her of our work
in Michigan.
She said she knew nothing about the Red Cross; had seen something
about it, but thought it was some Catholic thing; where did we get our
authority? Was it a national thing? Had I anything published about it?
I had a little pamphlet of two leaves, four years old. I gave her one.
She said she was sorry not to get the information she came after.
She left, evidently disappointed. I was sorry, also. I have no idea
whether she came officially or at her own option, openly or as a spy.
Whatever the motive of the wife of the Senator who came to Miss Barton,
the organization was one of which she had occasion to learn not a
little. It was one that sprang up on the heels of her first success,
and it crowded her hard before it was left behind and forgotten.
Clara Barton felt uneasy. The treaty was not yet ratified, and she knew
not how many wives of Senators were in this rival organization, pushed
by ambitious women and seeking Government approval. Not very much of
such competition at that stage of the affair would be necessary to kill
the treaty and the Red Cross. She went next day to see a man whose
judgment she felt she could trust. She did not find him in his office,
but on Sunday he called on her:
He had no special advice; was very busy. So are they all. All are
busy; and I am to go on with this alone, as I plainly see. I shall
make up my mind to let them all go, and I must gird myself for the
work and go on with it by myself. I do not believe any member of my
Society will be of any help to me in this hard work. They are all too
busy.
The next day she went to the trial of Guiteau, and heard the closing
pleas. She was recognized, and given a seat inside the rail, and
“treated with marked attention,” which gratified her. That afternoon
she went to see Senator Lapham, and asked him to take charge of the
treaty in the Senate, and he cheerfully consented. She told him frankly
that opposing organizations were already seeking recognition, but he
encouraged her. A day or two later she saw Senator Windom, of the
Foreign Relations Committee, on whose support she had counted; and he
seemed to her to have grown sad and distant, and she felt sure he had
been approached by those who were opposing her.
She found, too, that her return to Washington, with its late dinners,
was not good for her. She resolved to forego heavy dinners; to eat her
last hearty meal at three o’clock, and enjoy a big red apple before
going to bed. A big red apple was always a means of grace to Clara
Barton. On one of the most desolate of these nights, when she came home
late in the rain after a disappointing day, she gratefully records that
her apple was good.
She had cheering word about her finances. Her business affairs, left
in the hands of reliable New York bankers, had prospered during her
absence abroad. She had used while in Europe considerably less than
her income; her principal had swelled somewhat, and her annual income
was more by quite a little than she had expected. About the middle
of January she received her complete account, and found that she had
more money than she thought; and this was a comfort. Her expenses at
Dansville, though much increased by her hospitality, had kept well
within her annual receipts, and she was safely provided for for life.
She need never worry so far as money was concerned.
But she was worried. She began to question whether her dream of an
American Red Cross would ever come true. It was bitter hard to have
it fail after she had won over three Presidents, Hayes, Garfield,
and Arthur; but fail she thought it must, even after it had shown in
Michigan how useful it could be. She seriously thought of returning to
Europe, and letting some one else take up her thankless task. She wrote:
I am so tired. I sleep very poorly. I can only think of some good
way of getting out of this country. I feel as if I should be willing
to let all go, if only I could get out, and hear no more strife and
bickering lies. Why should I let my life be spoiled by those who are
now opposing me, and who take the joy out of my sunshine?
Why, indeed? She had money enough to live upon, in Dansville, or in
Oxford, or for that matter in Washington; and she owned homes in each
of those three places, and had income enough to live upon in any one of
them or in Europe. Why should she expose herself longer to weariness,
misrepresentation, and cruel disappointment?
It will be seen that Clara Barton had some reason to apprehend trouble
growing out of the visit of the wife of the Senator. Powerful backing
had already been secured for the first of the opposing organizations
that gave her pain and sorrow.
But she prevailed, and the Senate at length ratified the treaty without
a dissenting vote. Either the Senator’s wife was more favorably
impressed than Clara Barton thought, or her husband refused to be
guided by her opposition.
But the opponents of Clara Barton were active to the very hour when the
treaty was ratified, and there were days when it seemed that she was
working at a hopeless task. She went to see influential people, only to
find them out or occupied or indifferent or strangely uncommunicative.
She was almost in despair.
There came a day, Monday, February 6, 1882, when her own feelings
changed:
It did not seem like other days. There was either much to do or
nothing to do. I knelt at my bedside, and asked earnestly, tearfully,
for guidance. I only want to know my way. I feel that I can walk it,
if I can be made to see it. I am so weary of all this strife, this
unrest, this doubt. I am willing to let the work go into other hands.
If all goes as hoped, I can call an executive committee meeting,
announce the ratification of the treaty, hand in my resignation, and
get out of it all. If they want the Society, they can keep it; if not,
it will die if let alone and some other can be organized, or they
can take the one that is now opposing me. Then I can go and rest. It
has been my part to do the work of the treaty. I have tried to do it
faithfully, and it has met with little moral support, even from my own
committee. I will try with God’s help to go on faithfully to the end,
with no support but His; and if He will give it, when this is done,
I shall be ready to lay the burden down, even if my enemies gain the
advantage of it. This has been a day of instruction and discipline,
and, I dare hope, not lost.
She went to the State Department. Mr. Adee reassured her. He did not
think there would be any trouble about the treaty, or that she need
fear the opposition.
She had notice of the committee meeting, and she went to the Senate.
She was misdirected, and went to one or two wrong rooms, but finally
found the Committee on Foreign Relations, with Senator Windom in
the chair. He greeted her cordially, which surprised her after his
recent apparent coldness and evasiveness. He introduced her to Senator
Edmunds, but that Senator insisted upon greeting her as an old friend.
They heard her with sympathy; took her little four-year-old two-leaved
tract, and spoke no word about the opposition.
A few days later Senator Lapham called and told her things were not
going as well as he had hoped. Senator Windom, he said, was favorable,
but troubled. The matter seemed hung up at the State Department.
She told him she would go to the State Department herself and see what
was the trouble.
“His good kind heart was touched, and his eyes were full.”
He did not know any other way than for her to do this. And so she went.
She was admitted immediately to the Department of State, and told
confidentially that it was all right. The Secretary of State had
conferred with the President, and they were all ready to recommend the
treaty to the Senate.
Would she like to see the treaty?
Would she? Indeed, she would!
It must be a secret; unsigned documents were not supposed to be shown;
but the Secretary of State would be pleased to know whether this treaty
was exactly what she wanted.
She had never seen a treaty, and did not know what it looked like. It
was a volume, a kind of unbound book, of soft parchment, something like
fourteen inches square. She sat down and read it, word for word, the
Secretary of State watching her intermittently as he busied himself
about other matters. Line by line the full significance of it came
over her. It quoted in full the text of the 1864 Convention, and
recited in effect the whole situation into which this would bring the
United States in its relation to other nations. It was a great and
solemn document, such as she had never before handled; and her life
and hope were bound up in it. At the very end were the formal words of
ratification, with blank spaces for the signature of the President and
Secretary of State, and a place for the big seal of the United States
of America.
I had kept my eyes clear enough to read to the very end; but then I
could hold up no longer, and how long a cry I indulged in, I do not
know. But I know that it rested me; and after a while he stepped over
and asked, very gently, “How does it suit you?” I told him it was
all I could have hoped for, but I was ashamed to have done so badly
myself. He, laughing, said that was all right. I asked him when it
would be signed, and he said, “Any time, now.”
At last it was done!
Why had she worried so much about it?
She worried because she knew there was reason to worry; and because
there were so few to worry; and because she did not know whether her
worrying would do any good.
For it is necessary to tell a little, a very little, about why she
worried.
There lie before me as I write certain letters written to Clara Barton
by a woman who came to her in the latter part of her struggle to secure
the recognition of the Red Cross, and who wrote to Miss Barton that to
be associated with her in such work would be the crowning glory of her
life:
I should think it a greater glory to be a doorkeeper in such a society
as the Red Cross than to be--well, Mrs. President of the United
States. If in the humblest way I can help you, I am at your service.
There may be nothing for me to do, but if there is, command me.
Sadly, in after years, Clara Barton gathered up these and other
documents, arranged them neatly in order, and endorsed them:
The enclosed papers will serve to show in part what the Red Cross had
to meet in its incipiency before we had the treaty. This woman had
been our secretary and trusted friend, but by some means became a
strong competitor, and organized an opposing society.
That is all she said about it; no word of bitterness or of
self-justification. But this was not the only woman who rushed to her
when she first gained publicity, proclaimed that she would be a servant
of the servants of Clara Barton, learned all her confidential affairs,
and then betrayed her.
This volume will make no catalogue of those who ate of her bread and
accepted her confidences and who proved base and ungrateful. This
particular woman is mentioned because it seemed to Clara Barton that
she might very possibly defeat all that Clara Barton was working for.
She gained friends in high places, and she knew just whom Clara Barton
counted to be her friends, and how to approach some of them.
There lie before the author, also, certain anonymous letters, received
at this time, some of them written in one city and sent to other cities
to be mailed. There were also some vicious newspaper articles, one of
them first published in a remote Southern city, and later copied into
Washington and Philadelphia papers, and these Clara Barton clipped,
and labeled with the name of the person who, without any question, she
believed to be their author. These and the anonymous letters and the
letters of affection are all in the same package. Clara Barton arranged
them, and she thought she knew.
Now, on the day that Clara Barton visited the office of the Secretary
of State, she was so overjoyed that she went straight to the White
House to thank the President. Mr. Arthur was not in, but her little
note was accepted by his secretary, who smiled and assured her that he
understood, and that the President would be glad to receive it. And she
went home with a happy heart. And Senator Lapham sent her a big bouquet
of roses that night.
The next Monday was the day set for Mr. Blaine to deliver the memorial
address on President Garfield, and she had a seat in the gallery of the
House of Representatives; which was a much-coveted honor. She rose in
full expectation of going; and she went.
But at breakfast she received her mail; and there was a letter from her
rival:
It was the most abusive of all I have ever received from her. She
charged me with all little meannesses, and warned me if I do not stop
people’s tongues, she will take redress upon me, either through the
press or by law.
It had the effect to stun or daze me until I did not want to go to the
Address. But I did go.
That was one of the things that was oppressing Clara Barton in those
days. That was why she was troubled when the wife of a Senator came
to see her and ask whether there was such a thing as the Red Cross,
and what it was, and why it was opposing another organization of which
the Senator’s wife was a member. That was why she was worried when the
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations grew strangely distant.
But she went to hear Mr. Blaine, and she met prominent people, some of
whom knew her.
Two days later she had confidential tidings that the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee had _unanimously_ approved the treaty, and that it
would doubtless be discussed in executive session of the Senate on the
following Tuesday.
But it hung on for another month, a month through which it was hard for
her to go, but through which she went bravely.
On Thursday, March 16, she felt as though hope was almost hopeless.
She “had no heart to speak” that day; “had more tears than words.” “It
has been a sad day.”
She wrote these words that evening, “weary and heart-sick”; but at this
point was interrupted by a note from Senator Lapham. The note will bear
printing:
U.S. SENATE CHAMBER
WASHINGTON, March 16, 1882
MISS BARTON:
I have the gratifying privilege of informing you of the ratification
by the Senate of the Geneva Convention; of the full assent of the
United States to the same, by the action of the Senate this afternoon.
I had the injunction of secrecy removed so that it could be published
at once. The whole is in print, and if I get time I will send you some
copies in the morning. I go home to-morrow to be gone a week.
LAUS DEO!
Very truly
E. S. LAPHAM
It ought to have brought her joy; but she wrote:
I had waited so long, and was so weak and broken, I could not even
feel glad. I laid down the letter, and wiped my tired eyes.
Before she got to bed she had another sad tale to hear, of dissensions
among those who should have been rejoicing with her, but were
displeased. And she went to bed ill.
Many of the people who from this time came to Clara Barton with an
earnest desire to be permitted to share in her labor were thoroughly
and permanently loyal, and some of them are to this day among the
foremost of those who hold her name in reverence. There were others,
however, not less sincere, who were an embarrassment to her, coming in
some cases with a maximum of enthusiasm and a minimum of discretion.
There were still others who, after working with her long enough
to gain her confidence, became fired with an ambition to organize
societies of their own. There was a Blue Anchor Society, now entirely
forgotten, but which caused her a great deal of anxiety. It was
established by a woman whom she counted a sincere friend, who learned
about the Red Cross from Clara Barton and utilized her knowledge in the
formation of a rival society which at one time threatened to be more
prominent in high places than the Red Cross itself. Later there was
organized a White Cross Society, which gained such recognition that, in
one of the Dewey parades at the end of the Spanish War, it was placed
ahead of the Red Cross. It had powerful friends, and the bill for its
recognition by Congress passed the Senate, but did not pass the House.
These rival organizations appear very puerile and futile now, but
at the time they were a source of great anxiety to Clara Barton. It
sometimes seemed to her that there were not many people whom she could
trust to maintain permanently high and unselfish motives like her own.
If she failed, as she was charged with failing, to share responsibility
with her associates, that failure had behind it some very unhappy
experiences that need not here be recorded.
Just at the point when her success, as we now view it, was practically
assured, she went one Saturday to call on an influential woman whose
friendship she had won in the work for the sufferers from the Michigan
fires. Her heart sank within her when she found on this friend’s desk
the literature of an opposing organization with an invitation to join.
She wondered if this friend too would desert her, and she went home
greatly depressed. So far as that friend was concerned, her fears
were groundless. This woman and her husband had seen her work and
they remained loyal to her through life. The next day was a family
anniversary, and it set her to remembering her childhood. She wrote in
her diary that day:
I wish I had always remained a little girl. I did not begin like
other children; did not learn how to be a child, still less how to be
a young girl and woman; and so had no knowledge of the right way to
get on in society. I have made only mistakes, and have always been
so sensitive that I could not bear the consequences of my mistakes.
The longer I live the worse it gets, until now the menacing spirits
hover about my poor beset pathway, darkening it with the shadows
of approaching night; there is not a ray of brightness nor even of
safety; they wait like robbers to see me far enough along to set upon
me and slay me outright. But there is no way but to go on; I cannot
hide. I wonder if it would not have been better if I had gone, the
little five-year-old girl that was snatched from death? I often revert
to that sharp illness, which I can remember, as the time when perhaps
it would have been better if no remedy had been found. What years of
unrest, pain to myself and to others it would have wiped out, and all
the world would have been as well if not better! Looking at it as
calmly as I am able and with my best judgment, I can only see failure
of it all. There have been no successes in my life, only attempts at
success and no realization.
At such times she felt her lack of experience in social matters. The
women who organized these opposing societies were able to hold parlor
meetings in aristocratic homes; to organize committees with long lists
of names of society women as patronesses; to secure publicity, and to
enlist strong political influence. She wrote in her diary:
I am very low-spirited. I am cold, alone, surrounded by harmful
spirits. All the society people of the city and country seem to be
arrayed in arms against me, with only my single hand, sore heart, and
silent tongue to make my way against misrepresentation, malice, and
selfish ambition.
These were some of the reasons why Clara Barton was not jubilant when
her success finally came. She was too tired, too heart-sore to care
very much. She was weary of Washington, and she thought she was ready
now to go to one of her other homes and live the rest of her life
in peace. The Red Cross was now an established fact; the treaty was
signed and ratified. She had only to hand in her resignation and leave
the work to be carried on by others; whether they were her enemies or
friends, she did not greatly care, her part was done.
That was what she said in her diary, but a few days later the meeting
occurred for the perfecting of the organization in its new and
accredited character. She went to the meeting only partially recovered
from her depression, but she returned in high spirits. “This has
been a red-letter day for me,” she wrote; “the meeting was largely
attended.” Quite a number of prominent people seemed eager to sign the
constitution and become members of her organization. The cry from the
flooded district along the Mississippi was loud and strong; there was
work to be done immediately; it was no time for Clara Barton to resign.
She wrote no more of the cruel things which she had been suffering, but
went straight forward in her work of relief. It was many years before
she had time to think again of resigning.
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!
[Here followed the treaty and additional articles.]
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
When the Senate finally took favorable action and President Arthur
added his signature, Clara Barton did not wait for mail, but cabled the
joyful news to Geneva, and received in reply the following official
letter:
GENEVA, _March 24, 1882_
MISS CLARA BARTON
_President of the American Society of the Red Cross_
MADEMOISELLE: At last, on the 17th 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 with 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
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
your 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 cooperation 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 patronize,
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 recognizance of 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
On the 26th of July, 1882, the following proclamation was issued by the
President:
_By the President of the United States of America_:
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas, on the 22d 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 ratifications thereof at Geneva on the 22d 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 2, 1866.
Hesse June 22, 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 20th 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;
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 22d 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 22d
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 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 9th 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 Association 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 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 treaty, which
had been drawn up and considered with a view to ultimate adoption.
This proposed treaty had received the sanction and signature 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 that of October 20,
1868.[3] We quote the entire article:
ÉTATS-UNIS
ADHÉSION DES ÉTATS-UNIS A LA CONVENTION DE GENÈVE
Nous référant à l’article inséré dans notre précédent Bulletin, nous
sommes heureux de pouvoir annoncer que l’acte d’adhésion, que nous
pressentions, a été signé à Washington le 16 mars, à la suite d’un
vote par lequel les membres du Sénat l’ont approuvé à l’unanimité. Nos
lecteurs seront sans doute surpris, comme nous, qu’après la longue
et systématique résistance du gouvernement des États-Unis pour se
rallier à la Convention de Genève, il ne se soit pas trouvé dans la
législature américaine, lorsque la question a été portée devant elle,
un seul représentant de l’opposition. Un revirement d’opinion aussi
complet ne peut s’expliquer, que si l’on admet que les chefs de la
nation avaient nourri jusqu’à présent des préjugés à l’égard de la
Convention de Genève, préjugés qui se sont évanouis le jour où ils ont
bien compris ce que l’on attendait d’eux, et reconnu qu’il n’y avait
là rien de compremettant pour la politique de leur pays.
Dans leur zèle de néophytes, ils ont même dépassé le but, car ils ont
voté leur adhésion, non-seulement à la convention du 22 août 1864,
mais encore au _projet_ d’articles additionnels du 20 octobre 1868,
qui n’était pas en cause puisqu’il n’a jamais eu force de loi. Nous ne
donnons du moins cette nouvelle que sous toute réserve, car nous avons
reçu à son sujet des renseignements contradictoires. Si ce vice de
forme se trouve dans la pièce officielle qui sera envoyée au Conseil
Fédéral Suisse, on peut craindre qu’il ne retarde la conclusion tant
désirée de cette importante affaire, mais il ne faudra pas trop le
regretter, puisqu’il aura permis de connaître l’opinion de la grande
république transatlantique, sur les questions maritimes relatives à la
Croix rouge.
[Translation]
UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN FOR APRIL--
No. 50, p. 92
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 16th 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.
With the zeal of new converts, they have even gone beyond the mark,
inasmuch as they have voted their adhesion not only to the convention
of the 22d of August, 1864, but also to the plan of Additional
Articles of the 20th of October, 1868, which was not the matter in
question, since that had never had the force of law; we give this
news only under every reserve, because we have received contradictory
information on the subject. If this defect in form is found in the
official document which will be sent to the Swiss Federal Council one
could fear it might retard the so much desired conclusion of this
important affair, but it need not be too much regretted, since it
will enable us to understand the opinion of the great Transatlantic
Republic upon maritime questions as they relate to the Red Cross.
We have seen how the final vote of the Senate, approving the treaty,
found Clara Barton too weary and too ill to feel at the moment any
thrill of joy in her success. The strength of will that held her to the
end of these struggles was not born of sustained enthusiasm; it was the
tenacity of a courage that had grown very weary, but that never gave
up. It was not the joy of success that called her back to interest in
life, but the stern call of duty. While the Senate was considering the
treaty, the Mississippi River was rising higher and higher. That was
her call back to life and labor.
The work done in Michigan had served widely to advertise the Red Cross,
and it made way for a wider appeal. The first funds distributed by it
were collected locally, in the two cities nearest to the summer home of
Miss Barton.
The disastrous Mississippi flood occurred in the spring of 1882. Clara
Barton at once called together her advisers and laid her plans for
relief. It seemed to them wise that public appeal should be delayed
until the Senate, then considering the treaty, should have taken
favorable action; lest precipitate effort for temporary relief might
prejudice the success of the greater end that now was almost in sight.
But the preparations for relief were made, even though the public
appeal was, for good reason, a little delayed. Indeed, before there was
any official recognition, the Red Cross had its agents on the ground,
effecting local organizations that became permanent. Of this Clara
Barton wrote:
Again our infant organization sent its field agent, Dr. Hubbell, to
the scene of disaster, where millions of acres of the richest valley,
cotton, and sugar lands of America, and thousands upon thousands of
homes were under the waters of the mightiest of rivers--where the
swift rising floods overtook alike man and beast in their flight
of terror, sweeping them ruthlessly to the gulf beyond, or leaving
them clinging in famishing despair to some trembling roof or swaying
tree-top till relief could reach and rescue them.
The National Association, with no general fund, sent of its personal
resources what it was able to do, and so acceptable did these prove
and so convincing were the beneficences of the work that the cities of
Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans desired to be permitted to form
associate societies and work under the National Association. This was
permitted, and those societies have remained until the present time,
New Orleans organizing for the entire State of Louisiana. The city of
Rochester, proud and grateful of its success in the disaster a few
months before, again came to the front and again rendered excellent
service.
A few days were required to complete the official recognition. Then the
American Red Cross issued its first national appeal to the American
people, a copy of which appeal is still preserved:
APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
The President having signed the Treaty of the Geneva Conference, and
the Senate having, on the 16th instant, ratified the President’s
action, the American Association of the Red Cross, organized under
provisions of said treaty, purposes to send its agents at once among
the sufferers by the recent floods, with a view to the ameliorating of
their condition so far as can be done by human aid and the means at
hand will permit.
Contributions are urgently solicited. Remittances in money may be
made to Hon. Charles J. Folger, Secretary of the Treasury, chairman
of the board of trustees, or to his associates, Hon. Robert T.
Lincoln, Secretary of War, and Hon. George B. Loring, Commissioner of
Agriculture. Contributions of wearing apparel, bedding, and provisions
should be addressed to “The Red Cross Agent,” at Memphis, Tenn.,
Vicksburg, Miss., and Helena, Ark.
CLARA BARTON
J. C. BANCROFT DAVIS
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
ALEX. Y. P. GARNETT
MRS. OMAR D. CONGER
A. S. SOLOMONS
MRS. S. A. MARTHA CANFIELD
R. D. MUSSEY
_Committee_
WASHINGTON, D.C., _March 23, 1882_
The response to this appeal was generous. The Red Cross immediately
effected its permanent organization; and during the next twenty years
it was seldom without a task of some kind.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] This is not precisely the name which this rival organization
assumed. There would appear to be no good reason for recording it;
but the fact that there were several such organizations which sprang
into being immediately after President Garfield’s recognition of Clara
Barton should not be forgotten.
[3] Of this proposed treaty of October 20, 1868, the 9th article was as
follows:
ART. IX. The military hospital ships remain under martial law in all
that concerns their stores; they become the property of the captor, but
the latter must not divert them from their special appropriation during
the continuance of the war.
[_The vessels not equipped for fighting, which, during peace, the
Government shall have officially declared to be intended to serve as
floating hospital ships, shall, however, enjoy during the war complete
neutrality, both as regards stores, and also as regards their staff,
provided their equipment is exclusively appropriated to the special
service on which they are employed._]
In the published English text, from which this version of the
Additional Articles is taken, the paragraph thus marked in brackets
appears in continuation of Article IX. It is not, however, found in the
original French text adopted by the Geneva conference, October 20, 1868.
By an instruction sent to the United States minister at Berne, January
20, 1883, the right is reserved to omit this paragraph from the English
text, and to make any other necessary corrections, if at any time
hereafter the Additional Articles shall be completed by the exchange
of the ratifications hereof between the several signatory and adhering
powers.