An Act to incorporate the American National Red Cross.
Whereas, on the twenty-second of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at Geneva, Switzerland, plenipotentiaries respectively representing Italy, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, Prussia, Saxony, and Wurttemberg and the Federal Council of Switzerland, agreed upon ten articles of a treaty or convention for the purpose of mitigating the evils inseparable from war; of ameliorating the condition of soldiers wounded on the field of battle, and particularly providing, among other things, in effect, that persons employed in hospitals and in according relief to the sick and wounded and supplies for this purpose shall be deemed neutral and entitled to protection; and that a distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospitals and ambulances and convoys of sick and wounded and an arm badge for individuals neutralized; and
Whereas, said treaty has been ratified by all of said nations, and by others subsequently, to the number of forty-three or more, including the United States of America; and
Whereas, the International Conference of Geneva of eighteen hundred and sixty-three recommended “that there exist in every country a committee whose mission consists in co-operating in times of war with the hospital service of the armies by all means in its power”; and
Whereas, a permanent organization is an agency needed in every nation to carry out the purposes of said treaty, and especially to secure supplies and to execute the humane objects contemplated by said treaty, with the power to adopt and use the distinctive flag and arm badge specified by said treaty in article seven, on which shall be the sign of the Red Cross, for the purpose of co-operating with the “Comité International de Secours aux Militaires Blessés” (International Committee of Relief for the Wounded in War); and
Whereas, in accordance with the requirements and customs of said international body such an association adopting and using said insignia was formed in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, in July, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, known as “The American National Association of the Red Cross,” re-incorporated April seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and re-incorporated by Act of Congress in June, nineteen hundred; and
Whereas, it is believed that the importance of the work demands a repeal of the present charter and a re-incorporation of the society under the Government supervision: Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Clara Barton, Hilary A. Herbert, Thomas F. Walsh, Charles C. Glover, Charles J. Bell, Mabel T. Boardman, George Dewey, William R. Day, Nelson A. Miles, James Tanner, William K. Van Reypen, John M. Wilson, Simon Wolf, James R. Garfield, Gifford Pinchot, S. W. Woodward, Mary A. Logan, Walter Wyman, of Washington, District of Columbia; George H. Shields, of Missouri; William H. Taft, F. B. Loomis, Samuel Mather, of Ohio; Spencer Trask, Robert C. Ogden, Cleveland H. Dodge, George C. Boldt, William T. Wardwell, John G. Carlisle, George B. McClellan, Elizabeth Mills Reid, Margaret Carnegie, of New York; John H. Converse, Alexander Mackay-Smith, J. Wilkes O’Neill, H. Kirke Porter, of Pennsylvania; Richard Olney, W. Murray Crane, Henry L. Higginson, William Draper, Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts; Marshall Field, Robert T. Lincoln, Lambert Tree, of Illinois; A. C. Kaufman, of South Carolina; Alexander W. Terrell, of Texas; George Gray, of Delaware; Redfield Proctor, of Vermont; John W. Foster, Noble C. Butler, Robert W. Miers, of Indiana; John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi; William Alden Smith, of Michigan; Horace Davis, W. W. Morrow, of California; Daniel C. Gilman, Eugene Levering, of Maryland; J. Taylor Ellyson, of Virginia; Daniel R. Noyes, of Minnesota; Emanuel Fiske, Marshall Fiske, of Connecticut, together with five other persons to be named by the President of the United States, one to be chosen from each of the Departments of State, War, Navy, Treasury, and Justice, their associates and successors, are hereby created a body corporate and politic in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 2. That the name of this corporation shall be “The American National Red Cross,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession, with the power to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity within the jurisdiction of the United States; to have and to hold such real and personal estate as shall be deemed advisable and to accept bequests for the purposes of this corporation hereinafter set forth; to adopt a seal and the same to alter and destroy at pleasure; and to have the right to have and to use, in carrying out its purposes hereinafter designated, as an emblem and badge, a Greek red cross on a white ground, as the same has been described in the Treaty of Geneva, August twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and adopted by the several nations acceding thereto; to ordain and establish bylaws and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of the United States of America or any State thereof, and generally to do all such acts and things (including the establishment of regulations for the election of associates and successors) as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this Act and promote the purposes of said organization; and the corporation hereby created is designated as the organization which is authorized to act in matters of relief under said treaty. In accordance with Article seven of the treaty, the delivery of the brassard allowed for individuals neutralized in time of war shall be left to military authority.
Sec. 3. That the purposes of this corporation are and shall be—