Legislation by Congress is needful to accomplish the humane end that your society has in view. It gives me, however, great pleasure, Miss Barton, to state that I shall be happy to give any (Red Cross) measure which you may propose careful attention and consideration. James G. Blaine, Secretary of State (in 1881).
The first official advocate of the Red Cross measure, and fearless friend from its presentation in 1877, was Omar D. Conger, now Senator from Michigan, then a member of the House.
Clara Barton (Sept. 6, 1882).
JAMES A. GARFIELD
The President, March 4, 1881–September 19, 1881.
Executive Mansion.
Will the Secretary of State please hear Miss Barton on the subject herein referred to? J. A. Garfield.
The first tribute to Clara Barton in her Red Cross measure, March 30, 1881.
Clara Barton, friend and counselor of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, of Garfield, of Hayes, Harrison, Cleveland and McKinley. Organized the American Red Cross and was appointed for life by Garfield. While the republic lives and womanhood is honored, her place is sure among the millions she has blest and whose name and fame they will cherish and revere.
Kate Brownlee Sherwood,
in a letter to the Toledo (Ohio) Times.
CHESTER A. ARTHUR
The President, September 19, 1881–March 4, 1885.
The President in whose administration the American Red Cross was approved by the U. S. Government, also the first President of the Board of Consultation, American Red Cross Society.
Washington, March 3, 1882.
Whereas (certain facts of Red Cross history here detailed)....
Now, therefore, the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do hereby declare that the United States 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.
By the President, Chester A. Arthur.
Frederick T. Frelinghuysen,
Secretary of State.
In 1877 Monsieur Moynier, President of the International Red Cross Committee, decided to make a further effort to obtain the adherence to the Treaty by our Government. For this purpose a special letter was sent to Miss Barton to deliver to President Hayes. Mabel T. Boardman—In “Under the Red Cross at Home and Abroad.”
In 1869 Clara Barton went to Geneva, Switzerland. She was visited there by the President and members of the International Committee for Relief and of the Wounded in War, who came to learn why the United States had refused to sign the Treaty of Geneva.—Years of devoted missionary work by Miss Barton with preoccupied officials and a heedless, short-sighted public at length bore fruit. Mary R. Parkman—Author of “Heroines of Service.”
Miss Barton, 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 (Red Cross) 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 isolation in international movements for extending and universalizing mercy towards the victims in war. Dr. H. W. Bellows (Nov. 21, 1881).