The Red Cross in Peace and War

by Clara Barton

Since then, the International Committee, which would not despair of success, made upon its part several new attempts, which invariably met with absolute non-attention. Happily the history of the Red Cross was there to prove that the most tenacious resistance is not indefinite, and that sooner or later the sentiments of the most recalcitrant governments are modified under the control of circumstances. How many we have seen who at first believed their adhesion useless, or even dangerous, and who have been led to repentance on the occurrence of wars in which their armies were to be, or had been, engaged, because they comprehended at that moment only to what point their fears were chimerical or their indifference injurious to those depending upon them for protection.

In the United States time has done its work as elsewhere, though peace has long reigned there. The change of sentiment which has been produced in regard to the Red Cross has revealed itself recently on the sixth of December, 1881, in the message of President Arthur at the opening of the fourth session of the Forty-seventh Congress. We read there the following paragraph:

“At its last extra session the Senate demanded the text of the Geneva Convention for aiding the wounded in time of war. I hope that this fact proves the interest which the Senate feels in this question, and that there will result from it, the adhesion of the United States to this humane and commendable treaty.”

It seems, then, that we touch the port; the matter is seriously considered, and it will be with lively satisfaction that we shall register the result which has been so long the end of our desires.

We will not terminate these retrospective considerations, without telling what we know of the causes which have recently led to decisive steps in the question.

It is, above all, to a woman that this result is owing, and the name of that woman is not unknown to our readers. We spoke to them several years ago of Miss Clara Barton, one of the heroines of the American war, where she reproduced the charitable exploits of Miss Nightingale; she was honored at the conclusion of the war with a national recompense.[A]

Then, being in Europe at the time of the French and German war, she again flew to the battlefield. Returning at last to her own country with enfeebled health, she determined to give what strength remained to her to the service of the Red Cross, and took for her task to plead its cause with the influential men of the American government. Quitting her home at Dansville, she passed long months at Washington to carry conviction to the minds of the President, of his ministers, of members of Congress, writing for the journals, publishing pamphlets to spread the ideas the triumph of which she had at heart. She had need of much perseverance and energy to avoid renouncing her plan, for she waited long before finding a favorable opportunity. It was not until the accession of President Garfield that she could catch a glimpse of success. She then found in the Chief Magistrate of the nation a man who warmly espoused her cause, and in the Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, an auxiliary as zealous as he was devoted. We have seen by the quotation which we have borrowed from the last Presidential message that Mr. Arthur shares the sentiments and ideas of his predecessor on the subject of the Geneva Convention, and it is hardly probable that he will encounter upon this point opposition from Congress.

The name of Miss Barton will probably not figure in the official documents which will be the fruit of her labors, but here, where we have entire liberty to render homage to her devotion, we are happy to be able to proclaim her imperishable title to the gratitude of the Red Cross.

To the name of Miss Barton we should join that of M. Edouard Seve, who, after having rendered important service to the Red Cross in South America, where he represented Belgium to Chili, has continued to use his activity in favor of the same cause in the United States since he has been called to the position of consul-general at Philadelphia. His efforts have certainly contributed to render the Government at Washington favorable to the Geneva Convention.

The preceding article was already printed when we received from the indefatigable Miss Barton a new pamphlet upon the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. This little work is destined to initiate the Americans into the origin and history of the work, with which they are as yet but imperfectly acquainted, and for which it is the aspiration of the author to awaken their interest; in particular, we find there the confirmation of the steps of which we have spoken above, and especially the text of the two letters addressed by the International Committee, one on the ninth of August, 1877, to President Hayes, the other on the thirteenth of June, to Secretary of State Blaine.