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[International Bulletin for April, 1882.] ADHESION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE CONVENTION OF GENEVA.
ОглавлениеReferring to the article inserted in our preceding bulletin, p. 42, we are happy to be able to announce that the act of adhesion which we presented was signed at Washington the sixteenth of March, in pursuance of a vote by which the members of the Senate gave their approval with unanimity. Our readers will doubtless be surprised, as we are, that after the long and systematic resistance of the Government of the United States against rallying to the Convention of Geneva, there cannot be found in the American legislature a single representative of the opposition. So complete a reversal of opinion cannot be explained, unless we admit that the chief officers of the nation had cherished, up to the present time, prejudices in regard to the Convention of Geneva—prejudices which vanished as soon as they fully comprehended what was expected of them, and recognized that there was nothing compromising in it to the political condition of their country.
With the zeal of new converts, they have even gone beyond the mark, inasmuch as they have voted their adhesion not only to the convention of the twenty-second of August, 1864, but also to the plan of Additional Articles of the twentieth of October, 1868, which was not the matter in question, since they had never had the force of law; we give this news only under every reserve, because we have received contradictory information on the subject. If this defect in form is found in the official document which will be sent to the Swiss Federal Council one could fear it might retard the so much desired conclusion of this important affair, but it need not be too much regretted, since it will enable us to understand the opinion of the great Transatlantic Republic upon maritime questions as they relate to the Red Cross.
The action of the United States, mentioned in this article, was perhaps somewhat characteristic. It seemed to give itself to the movement of the Red Cross with a gracious earnestness seldom seen in the cautious forms of diplomatic action, and it certainty was in very decided contrast with its former hesitancy.
No doubt could now rest in any mind that the adhesion of the United States was, at last, hearty and sincere, and calculated to allay any distrust which its former isolation and declination of the treaty might have anywhere engendered.
This action of the Government of the United States also rendered the position of the National Association exceptionally satisfactory, and introduced it to the International Committee at Geneva and all the affiliated societies under circumstances calculated to promote in the greatest degree its usefulness and harmony, and to add to the gratification of all who personally have any part in the operations of the American Association.
For all this it is indebted to the judicious and thoughtful care and exalted statesmanship of the President of the United States, his cabinet and advisers, and the members of the Forty-seventh Congress, who, without one breath of criticism, or one moment of delay, after they came to fully understand the subject and comprehend its purposes and object, granted all that was then asked of them, in the adhesion to the treaties, in the recognition of the National Association, and the provisions for printing and disseminating a knowledge of its principles and practical work.
Perhaps no act of this age or country has reflected more credit abroad upon those specially active in it, than this simple and beneficent measure. It must, in its great and humane principles, its far-reaching philanthropy, its innovations upon the long established and accepted customs and rules of barbaric cruelty, its wise practical charity, stand forever next to the immortal proclamation of freedom to the slaves that crowns the name of Abraham Lincoln.
Special thanks are peculiarly due to those who have been its active, wise and unwavering friends, who have planned its course so truly, and set forth its purposes so clearly, that it will hereafter be misunderstood only by those who are unwilling to learn, or who are actively hostile to its beneficent aims.
Perhaps at the risk of seeming invidious—for we would by no means ignore, and have no less gratitude for the legion of generous helpers we cannot name—we might state that among those who have been foremost to aid and encourage us have been the Hon. Omar D. Conger, of Michigan, who, first in the House, and afterward in the Senate, has been conspicuous for persistent and courageous work; also, Hon. William Windom, of Minnesota, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, who was first to investigate and take the matter up as a member of President Garfield’s cabinet; Senator E.P. Lapham, of New York, who has spared neither time nor thought, patience nor labor, in his legal investigations of the whole matter; and probably no person has done more than he to throw light upon obscure parts and point out the true and proper course to be pursued in the accomplishment of the work, and the acceptance of the treaty. Senators Morgan, of Alabama; Edmunds, of Vermont; Hawley, of Connecticut; Anthony, of Rhode Island; Hoar, of Massachusetts, all accorded to it their willing interest and aid. Indeed, all sections and parties have seemed eager to help the Red Cross; a result that might, perhaps, have been anticipated, since it asks only an opportunity to faithfully work according to methods approved by thoughtful experience, and toward ends that all humane persons must approve.
To the American newspaper press, and perhaps to the New York Herald more than to any other newspaper, through its international character, wonderful enterprise, and far-reaching circulation, the Red Cross is indebted for timely aid and noble furtherance of its objects and aims. It has been quick to discern their substantial character, and generous and full in commending them. Still, the same difficulty confronts us in regard to publications as persons—where all have been so willing it is difficult to distinguish. Not less than three hundred periodicals and papers have, within the last two years, laid upon our desk their graceful tribute of encouraging and fitly spoken words, and it has been given as an estimate of an experienced city editor, gathered through his exchanges, that over five hundred editorial notices were given of our little Red Cross book of last year, and these, invariably, so far as met our eyes, kindly approving and encouraging. The capacity of the Red Cross to carry on most wisely and well its beneficent work must in the future, as it has done in the past, depend largely upon the active and cordial co-operation of the newspaper press; and we do not doubt that it will continue to receive the same prompt and efficient assistance so long as it shall continue to deserve it.
By the combined assistance of all these powerful friends of the Red Cross, the country has at last been rescued from the position in which it had been standing for the last seventeen years—a puzzling wonder to its admiring friends, a baffling enigma to all, treating its enemies subdued with romantic generosity, and its enemies taken captive in war with all the tenderness of friends, and yet, clinging, apparently with intense fierceness, to an unsocial isolation, to savage rules and regulations of war that only barbarians would ever wish to practice, pouring out its beneficence in astonishing prodigality, and in untold volume, variety and value upon strangers, and yet seemingly hesitating only when it was proposed by international law and system to use and not waste its magnificent voluntary offerings, but to entrust them all to responsible agents, trained in the very torrent and tempest of battle, to wisely apply this generosity to the great and awful needs of war—agents held to business rules, with calm accountability amid distraction and panic, trained to protect material, to give and take receipts, and at last to account faithfully for everything entrusted to them, like the officers of a well-regulated bank.
The final adhesion of the United States to the treaty of the Red Cross has created a lively sense of satisfaction in all its affiliated societies wherever, throughout the world, its beneficent work is carried on; particularly, by the International Committee of Geneva, has this wise and simple act of beneficence and common sense and common humanity been regarded with sentiments of gratitude and renewed hope. The American National Association has received the following expression of the sentiments of the noble and philanthropic president of the International Committee, written upon the receipt from the United States of the official documents of recognition: