[International Bulletin, January, 1882.
THE GENEVA CONVENTION IN THE UNITED STATES.
The friends of the Red Cross are not ignorant that the list of States which have signed the Geneva Convention presents a grave and lamentable lack. One of the most civilized nations of the world, and consequently one of the best prepared to subscribe to the principles of this treaty, that is to say, the United States of America, does not appear there. Their absence is so much the more surprising because the proceedings of the Geneva Convention have only been, in some respects, the partial reproduction of the celebrated “Instructions of the American Army,” edited by the late Dr. Lieber, and adopted by President Lincoln (April 24, 1863), and put in practice by the armies of the North during the war of secession. More than this, it is remembered that the Government at Washington had been represented at the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva in 1864 by two delegates at the debates relative to the Geneva Convention, but without being furnished with sufficient power to sign it. [Protocol of the session of August 9, 1864.] These were Messrs. George J. Fogg, United States Minister at Berne, and Charles S.P. Bowles, European Agent of the American Sanitary Commission.
It was expected, then, that the adhesion of the United States would soon follow, but nothing came of it. Nevertheless, in the hope that this result would not be too long delayed, an aid society was formed at New York in 1866, when the civil war had come to an end, to gather in some way the heritage of the Sanitary Commission, which had just filled with much brilliancy, and during several years, the rôle of a veritable Red Cross Society.
One might have thought that the Berlin Conference in 1869 would be a determining circumstance which would induce the United States to enter into the European concert.
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.