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 ninth 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 branch 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, which is quoted in full hereafter, 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 amendment which had been drawn up and considered with a view to ultimate adoption. This proposed amendment had received the sanction and signatures 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 the proposed amendment of October 20, 1868.