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The Red Cross.
Its Origin and Aratory
Laura si Doolittle.
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GENERAL LIBRARY
OF
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PRESENTED BY
Miss Clara Barton
14 Feb.
1895.......
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THE RED CROSS.
+
ISSUED BY THE
LIBRARY
MICH UNIV
American National Red Cross.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1895.
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Compliments of
Clara Barton,
PRESIDENT AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS.
Recursiv Feb. 14,90-

:
THE RED CROSS.
Its Origin, International Character, De-
velopment and History,
BY
LAURA M. DOOLITTLE,
AND AN
ADDRESS
BY
CLARA BARTON,
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS.
ISSUED BY
THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
JANUARY, 1895..
WILSON & WILSON, PRINTERS,
430 11th St., N. W.
15.
Re-classed 2-13-31 AVAN
:

Clara Barton.
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS.
THE
Society of the Red Cross.
BY LAURA M. DOOLITTLE.
[Reprinted by the kind courtesy of Messrs. Harper and
Brothers, from The Literature of Philanthropy, one of the Dis-
taff series, a set of six small volumes, written, set up, corrected
and bound by women.]
Though this society has been in existence in Europe
for twenty-nine years, and in the United States for eleven,
one realizes in beginning to write of it that even to-day
its objects must be explained. So quiet, so modest has
our American branch been in its ways and in its man-
ners that little is known by our people at large of its
character and workings, although it is to-day one of the
most important philanthropic organizations in the world
-one of the most productive and beneficent. It is, then,
a confederation of relief societies in different countries,
the aim of which is to ameliorate the condition of sick
and wounded soldiers in time of war. Its operations
extend over nearly the entire civilized world.
But to understand its spirit one must glance back into
history for a moment-space would forbid more than a
glance-in order to appreciate the conditions that made
it necessary and finally led to its formation. Though
during the barbarous and semi-barbarous ages of the
2
past, and almost down to our own time, the maintain-
ing of nationalities and governments, and through them,
strange as it may seem, the evolution of civilization it-
self has depended upon and made unavoidable inces-
sant conflicts of arms-through war, the organized, sys-
tematic wounding, maiming, and slaughtering of men
has been largely the occupation of the world-not until
three centuries ago was there in existence any system
supported by the State for the care and relief of those
hors du combat through the calamities of battle or siege.
And later still, the medical and sanitary service of
armies was a thing little thought of. Even during wars
so recent as the Napoleonic, when the bravest and best.
of the people of all Europe were being slain by thou-
sands, there was no hospital system worthy the name.
In records of the time we read much of the glory of dy-
ing in the service of one's country, as though that were
all a soldier could ask, and that glory, cheap and abun-
dant, seemed to have been pretty much all that Kings
and Emperors and Councils were willing to grant. One
is lost in wonder that such a state of things could ever
have existed, and, more than all, that it could have con-
tinued so late in the history of the world. Is it "stand-
ing still at high noon and finding fault with the shadows
of early dawn," thus to wonder? But alas universal
war itself was sufficient to prevent the spirit of human-
´ity from growing up. "We are screened evermore," in
the words of Emerson, "from premature ideas. Our
eyes are holden that we can not see things that stare us
3*
in the face until the mind (and the time) is ripened."
But the time was to ripen at last for a change. Per-
haps it was in the hidden councils of God that those
fierce and bloody campaigns of the early years of our
century, the culmination and denouement as it were
of the world's history down to that time, should be the
instrument in bringing it about. For certain it is that out
of that frenzied carnival of war, resulting from a mighty
upheaval of the elementary social forces, the modern
spirit of humanity, the acknowledgment of the rights of
man as man, was born. It is to this sense, largely, that
we owe the recognition of what is due to the soldier, for
he has had during the ages the same claim which he
has now, as the defender of nations and the guardian of
civilization.
But this new spirit of humanity, once abroad in the
world, grew fast. Since the campaigns of Napoleon no
war has occurred in Europe without voluntary relief
societies springing up in aid of the disabled, but their
efficiency was lessened by want of organization and sys-
tem, and their existence usually ended with the end of
the war which called them forth. When, however, the
great war of 1853 broke out between Russia and the Al-
lied Powers, it was evident that Europe, and especially
England, thought differently, felt differently in regard
to the common soldier from what she had ever done be-
fore. He was far from being the mere machine he had
been. The people at large had come into new relations
with him. A new power in modern life also had grown
منكر
up which was to bring the two into still closer touch.
When the English armies set out for the Crimea the
newspaper correspondent went with them. And when,
after the first battle, he poured upon Britain the story
of the sufferings of her army, the kingdom from end to
end was aroused to sudden and fierce indignation. The
war was mighty and desperate, the climate deadly to
men just from the humid lowlands of England and the
wind-swept highlands of Scotland and Wales. Accounts
continued to come thick and fast of the awful condition
of the troops. One regiment was reduced from 1,100 to
20 men able for duty. Another had but 10. Men
wounded in battle lay in the trenches, or in pools of
water, or in the mud just where dropped by their com-
rades as they dragged them from the front- untended and
unfed, their wounds rankling and festering. Pestilence.
and disease of all kinds had their way unhindered, for
the hospitals, through over-crowding, were little better
than dens of death. And this monstrous condition of
things ensued because government had failed to provide
an efficient sanitary service. The army had gone out
with only a half supply of physicians, nurses, medicines
and hospital stores. The heart of England was stirred
to its depths, and government woke as if from a dream.
The story of the great system then inaugurated and
successfully carried out of voluntary civil care, supple-
mentary to that of the military, of the sick and wounded
in time of war is well known. The truth was accepted
then and has not been disputed since, that the military
Y
7
5
power never did and probably never could provide and
keep in operation an adequate medical service through
a long and severe campaign.
Lord Sydney Herbert, Minister of War, appalled like
the rest by the awful distress in the Crimea, with great
courage and resolution-against the weight, deep almost
as life, of ancient military precedent and prejudice-wrote
Miss Florence Nightingale, then in charge of a hospital
in London, asking for help. A letter from her to the
Minister begging permission to help was on its way at
the same moment. A few days later she, with forty de·
voted women companions, set out for the scene of war.
Here we have the beginning of a movement which has
grown in comparatively few years to a system by which
the miseries of the soldiers in the field are reduced to
the lowest degree possible in the present condition of
human knowledge. The history of Miss Nightingale
and her three hundred companions in the Crimea-for
the number was increased to that- we will not repeat.
The whole world is familiar with it; how order was
brought out of chaos in the hospitals, how new ones
were established, how hope and returning health followed
in the footsteps of those self-sacrificing women, how men
snatched from quick-coming death would raise their
feeble hands in blessing, and even kiss the shadow of
their benefactress as she passed, and how she had be-
come one of the world's highest and most beloved ideals
of character.
The story of the Crimean War, impressed as it was
6
by the experience of Miss Nightingale and her staff,
demonstrated the truth that the sufferings resulting from
war are in a large measure preventable. But its great-
est service to humanity was in proving that the civil
arm could most properly and effectively supplement the
military in the sanitary service of belligerent armies.
Never again will the forces of an enlightened country
set out to encounter battle and disease except accom-
panied by a civil sanitary service as complete as money
and medical science are able to supply.
And now we come to the immediate events which led
to the organization of The Society of the Red Cross,
under whose banner every state in Europe is to-day en-
rolled. Some one has uttered a beautiful and most sug-
gestive saying, that "Saint Francis was himself God's
remembrance of the poor." God's remembrance of the
sick and wounded soldier was a Swiss gentleman named
Henri Dunant. Round his humane and sympathetic
heart first stirred the thought that societies similar in
aim to those which had sprung up already in different
countries to exist permanently might be formed among
all the nations, bound together by solemn agreements,
to prevent unnecessary suffering during military cam-
paigns. M. Dunant was travelling in Italy in pursuit
of his own objects, in June, 1859, when the battle of
Solferino occurred. Happening to be near the place, he
took part in the care of the wounded, remaining for
some days in the hospitals. He was profoundly im-
pressed with the strange and to him unaccountable lack
7
of facilities for the care of the wounded. He thought
much and deeply upon the subject. After a time he
published a little book called A Souvenir of Solferino, de-
scribing the scenes he had witnessed and giving a vivid
picture of the horrors of war. The battles of the Italian
campaign were fresh in people's minds, and the book,
soon translated into several languages, made a deep and
wide-spread sensation. Encouraged by its reception,
M. Dunant resolved to present his theories before the
Society of Public Utility-a society of Switzerland simi-
lar in scope and purpose to our "Society of Social
Science " which meets annually at Saratoga.
The measure brought distinctly before this conference
and discussed was the establishment in each country
of a national society to have for its object the voluntary
civil care of the sick and wounded during campaigns.
This central society was to form auxiliary societies, each
organization to be permanent and to occupy themselves
during peace in whatever would tend to their greater effi-
ciency; in maintaining schools for nurses; in studying
new inventions and discoveries in their line of work ; in
keeping up close intercourse with each other, that all
might benefit by interchange of ideas; in collecting
money and stores to be drawn upon in case of need;
and in every thing, in fact, which would tend to a mas-
tery of sanitary science and art. Each central society
was to make one of its essential duties the securing of
recognition by its government, and the establishing of
sympathetic relations with it.
со
The President of the Swiss society, M. Gustav Moy-
nier, chanced to be a man of large and liberal mind, a
philanthropist, who devoted all his time and large
wealth to its interests. He welcomed M. Dunant
warmly, and presented him to the society. This body
appointed a committee, the General-in-Chief of the Swiss
Confederation at its head, to take charge of the move-
ment and endeavor to interest other countries. An In-
ternational Conference at Geneva in October, 1863, was
the result. Sixteen nations, including all the great Eu-
ropean powers except Russia, were represented. This
conference, under the authority of the Supreme Council of
Switzerland, resolved to call an International Convention.
In response to this call a convention met at Geneva
August 8, 1864. It was numerously attended, and in-
cluded twenty-five members eminent in diplomatic or
military service, or in medical science. All came em-
powered by their governments to make and sign a treaty
in accordance with its objects if it should be by them
deemed advisable. Again sixteen nations were repre-
sented. The deliberations occupied two weeks. A code
of nine articles was adopted. The first: "That hospi-
tals containing the sick and wounded shall be held neu-
tral by belligerents so long as thus occupied."
The second and third provide for "the neutrality and
security of all persons employed in care of the inmates
of the hospital, surgeons, chaplains, nurses, attendants,
even after the enemy has gained the ground; but when
no longer required for the wounded they shall be
9
promptly conducted under escort to the outposts of the
enemy to rejoin the corps to which they belong, thus
preventing all opportunity to roam free and make ob-
servations under cover of neutrality.
"Article four settles the terms upon which the ma-
terial of hospitals shall not be subject to capture.
"Article five, with a view to quiet the fears of the
inhabitants in the vicinity of a battle, who often flee in
terror, as well as to secure their assistance and the com-
fort of their homes for the care of the wounded, offers
military protection and certain exemptions to all who
shall entertain and care for the wounded in their houses.
"Article six binds the parties contracting the treaty,
not only to give the requisite care and treatment to all
sick and wounded who shall fall into their hands, but
to see to it that their misfortune shall not be aggravated
by the prospect of banishment or imprisonment; they shall
not be retained as prisoners of war, but, if circumstan-
ces admit, may be given up immediately after the action,
to be cared for by their own army, or, if retained
until recovered, and found disabled for service, they
shall be safely returned to their country and friends,
and also that all convoys of sick and wounded shall be
protected by absolute neutrality.
"Article seven provides for a flag for hospitals and
convoys, and an arm-badge for persons. The badge
adopted was a red cross with four equal arms, on a
white ground, this being the national ensign of Switzer-
land with the colors reversed.
Uor M
10
"Articles eight and nine provide for the details of
execution being left open for the subsequent admission
of other governments."
This treaty at first received twelve signatures, which
were soon increased to sixteen.
The formation of this treaty of Geneva-I just use that
well worn phrase, for no other so well expresses the
truth—marks an epoch. Nothing so beneficent has been
produced within the century. The world-spirit, the
Welt-Geist, in its onward sweep through humanity, must
surely have paused when this compact was signed, to
mark the spot with a white stone. For no intelligent
person can listen to its provisions and not be conscious
of the feeling away down in the depths of his soul, that
here is the beginning of the end of war. Though he
may not be able to justify his belief to reason, yet the
belief remains. Since the time when the wounded
were, as a matter of course, left to starve, die, and rot
on the field where they fell, what a change! The spirit
of Christ has at last begun to work itself into the prac-
tices and institutions of governments and nations. In-
deed, when one thinks upon Ministers of State writing
orders for rifled cannon, Krupp guns, and dynamite,
and with the same stroke of the pen purchasing balms,
cordials, and downy pillows for wounded enemies who
may fall into their hands, and when one sees in govern-
mental reports of the expenses of campaigns, the salaries
of surgeons, nurses, and attendants of a costly service
used for disabled enemies equally with its own, he be-
Mчou
11
gins to look beneath the surface of things for the source
of the strange anomaly. Thus looking, he sees that in
the growth of the world in civilization, in the progress
of that moral revolution, the germs of which were planted
when Christianity was unfolded, the spirit of war itself has
changed. Anciently, wars were usually of conquest or
for religion, and, of course, of invasion. Of the former,
the primary idea was the depriving of some people of
their hard-won rights, and both were of a kind calcu-
lated to rouse the fiercest human passions. The fighting
was hand to hand, too-face to face; weapons were
such-knives, spears, swords-that it could not be other-
wise. Men became like wild beasts in the fray. The
berserkers of the cold and stolid North, sufficiently to
fire their passions for the conflict, used to quaff a fiery
drink which was believed to have miraculous powers
and which excited them to frenzy. In the midst of such
a state of things "no quarter" to the fallen, whether
wounded or whole, was, of course, the rule. But since.
that early time the world has so altered that during the
latter half of our century wars of conquest and invasion
or even of ambition and selfish personal aggrandizement
have rarely occurred except among barbarous people.
Now nations resort to arms to preserve the balance of
power, or for the national vanity, or to defeat the ignor-
ant and reckless spirit of disunion. Instead of close
personal combat wars are illustrations of the triumph
of inventive genius as shown in magnificent ordnance;
they are demonstrations of a country's wealth and power,
12
and the resources of its proletariat. Instead of expres-
sions of a spirit of rage and destruction, wars are at pres-
ent largely constructive and preservative. Thus the
beautiful, beneficent, peace-making treaty we are con-
sidering came to be possible only in the year 1864, in-
stead of any previous year of the Christian era. And
almost in the same decade the idea of arbitration in
cases of national dispute was born.
Forty governments are now bound together by the
articles of Geneva. So many nations, some of Asia,
some of the isles of the sea, clasp hands under its ban-
ner and pledge themselves to carry out its humane pro-
visions. Never again in any civilized country will the
words, "wounded and a prisoner "worse than the tid
ings, "killed in battle"-strike death to the hearts of wait-
ing, longing wives and mothers. Never again will the
fallen in battle lie unfed and untended in heat, in wet,
or frozen to the earth, for want of the flag of truce which
would make safe the relief corps going to their rescue;
never again will the ambulance which would pick its
way about to gather them up, run the risk of being fired
upon by the exultant victors who shall hold the field.
In the organization of the Red Cross Society it was
thought indispensable that there should be a head-cen-
tre, empowered to act as agent between the societies
composing it. When the conference of 1863 closed, it
was at once decided by the committee appointed to exe-
cute its benign decrees, that the society of the country
which had been nursing-mother to the original idea,
13
Switzerland, should be this head centre. The Swiss
society, therefore, is international, the only one that is
So. It occupies itself with the general interests and ob-
jects of the society, and in correspondence with the
others, a correspondence carried on in all the languages
of Europe.
The first act in each country, after its government has
signed the treaty, has been to form a national central
society. Each national society is independent, making
its own regulations, except as it owes allegiance to the
head centre, the International Society of Switzerland, in
respect to a few fundamental principles essential to
unity of direction and successful action.
These are, first, that in each country there shall be
one national, central society, to which the auxiliary so-
cieties in that country shall be tributary, the central.
society being the medium of communication for all with
the seat of war and with medical authorities. It is
through this central society that the work is recognized
by government.
Second, that the societies shall in time of peace keep
themselves constantly prepared for war, thus securing
permanency of organization.
Third, that during war their succor shall be extended
to foe equally with friend, whenever necessary.
Fourth, that societies whose countries are at peace
may send relief to belligerent armies without being con-
sidered to violate any principle of neutrality to which
their governments may be pledged.
14
Auxiliary societies are formed, as many as are found
desirable and useful, to co-operate with the central so-
ciety.
In Europe the central societies are under the patron-
age of men and women of rank, often the members of
royal families. Of the first one formed, the German
Empress Augusta, grandmother of the present Emperor,
was head, taking ardent interest in its affairs. Her
daughter, Grand-Duchess Louise of Baden, fills the
same position in the society of that country. Both
these ladies were heart and soul in the work of the Red
Cross.
It would be a labor of love to tell in detail the story
of the work of this great society on many fields since its
organization nearly twenty-nine years ago. The treaty
has triumphantly stood every test to which it has been
put, and the same may be affirmed of the many socie-
ties formed under it. They have proved their incalcul-
able usefulness in every war which has occurred in Eu-
rope since their formation. During the first ten years
of existence they participated in five great wars. A de-
scription of some of their methods and achievements
during one of these, that of Sleswick-Holstein in 1866,
will, however, serve to indicate their work. And here
the only recourse for information is to pages written by
the honored President of the American Society.
Germany took the Red Cross close to her heart from
the first. At once, after putting her name to the treaty,
she formed a powerful central society, which came into
15
most cordial relations with the government, enjoying its
earnest sympathy. Sub-committees were established in
many parts of the Kingdom. All set heartily to work
studying methods, training nurses, collecting supplies,
and in every way preparing themselves according to the
spirit of the conference of 1863. When war came,
therefore, in 1866, the Red Cross of Germany was fully
prepared. "The Central Committee of Berlin was
flooded with contributions from the provincial com-
mittees. In the eight provinces of Prussia four millions
of thalers were collected, and the other states of Ger-
many were not behind. So munificently did the people
bestow their aid that large storehouses were provided in
Berlin and in the provinces for its reception; and at the
central depot in Berlin two hundred paid persons, be-
side a large number of volunteers and nearly three hun-
dred ladies and misses, were employed in classifying,
parcelling, packing up, and dispatching the goods.
Special railroad trains carried material to the points of
need. In one train were twenty-six cars laden with
two thousand hundred-weight of supplies. Never had
private charity, however carefully directed, been able to
accomplish such prodigies of benevolence. It was now
that the beneficence of the treaty and the excellence of
the organization were manifested. But the committee
did not confine itself to sending supplies for the wound-
ed to the seat of war. It established and provisioned
refreshment stations for the trains, to which those un-
able to proceed to the great hospitals without danger to
!
16
life were admitted, nursed, and cared for with the ten-
derest solicitude until they were sufficiently recovered
to be removed, or death took them. At the station of
Pardubitz from six hundred to eight hundred were cared
for daily, for two months, and lodging provided for three.
hundred at night. This example suffices to show the
extraordinary results of well-organized plans and con-
certed action. During the war the relief societies had
also to contend with the terrible scourge, Cholera. There
can be no estimate of the misery assuaged and deaths
prevented by the unselfish zeal and devotion of the
wearers of the Red Cross."
Constant to their brave humanitarian purpose, the
German societies filled the interval between 1866 and
1870 with the most loyal and excellent preparatory
work. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out, there-
fore, they were again in a condition of complete effi-
ciency. The central society had only to clap its hands,
as it were, and hundreds of able assistants, equipped
cap-a-pie, appeared in Berlin, to be despatched to all
points," forming a chain which extended over the
whole country and numbered over two thousand per-
sons. Constant communication was kept up between
these committees and the central bureau, and the most
perfect order and discipline was maintained. Relief was
sent from one or the other of these stations as needed.
The State afforded free transport, and the voluntary
contributions of the people kept up the supplies of sani-
tary material, so that there was never any lack or
17
danger of failure. With the government transports,
whether by land or water, there went always the agents
of the Red Cross, protected by their badges and flag, to
wait on the invoices, hasten their progress, see to their
being kept in good order, and promptly delivered at
their destination. Depots of supplies were moved from
place to place as exigencies demanded. The greatest
care was taken to prevent disorder or confusion, and the
best military circumspection and regularity prevailed.
The great central depot at Berlin comprised seven sec-
tions, viz: camp material, clothing, dressing for wounds,
surgical apparatus, medicines and disinfectants, food,
and tobacco, and hospital furnishings. Of their work of
unparalleled activity, unselfish devotion, and holy bene-
ficence in all wars among all peoples, from their insti-
tution to the present moment, their is neither time nor
space for me to speak."
The Red Cross of France was not in a condition of
preparation at this time at all comparable with that of
Germany. France, which has conferred upon the world
so much of its greatest blessings-"head of the human
column" in philanthropies in other greatest things-fol-
lowed other nations at that time, and has since, in the
great movement for alleviating the horrors of war.
preparations of the Red Cross had to be made, to a con-
siderable extent, after the conflict was on; but then
with the utmost ardor France threw herself into the
work. Within a month a thorough system was set in
motion. Committees perfectly equipped were at the
The
18
stations as the tide of the mangled and bleeding began
to roll back upon the capital. History has recorded
the sufferings, the horrors, and misery which accom-
panied the war of 1870, but history can never relate
what wretchedness was averted, what agonies alleviated,
what multitudes of lives saved, by the presence and
effort of those relief societies. What the state of France
must have been without the merciful help of the Red
Cross, the imagination dares not picture.
The states of Europe at peace at that time were also
stirred to bountiful liberality. An outline of the stu
pendous work of the society would be incomplete with-
out an allusion to this feature. England alone contrib-
uted 7,500,000 francs, and within a few months sent
12,000 boxes of sanitary supplies to the agents of the
society.
We come now to the events which led to the forma-
tion of the American society. And here the explana-
tion may be given which has doubtless been looked for
quite curiously by readers of this paper, that is, why an
account of the Red Cross Society should appear at all in a
volume treating of Woman's Work in Philanthropy;
for, so far as yet appeared, the work of that society has
been the work of men. Indeed, in the Old World all the
societies are officered by men except those of Germany
and Baden. But our American society has for its presi-
dent a woman, Miss Clara Barton.
To understand the history of the Red Cross in Amer-
ica, we must first understand something of the history
19
of Miss Barton. For with such quietness, such single-
minded devotion to duty alone, has her work been done,
that astonishing as it may be to those who know her
well and love her, there is little doubt that multitudes
even in our own land are familiar only with her name.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Miss Barton, then a
young woman, was spending some time in Washington.
When news came that northern troops en route to the
Capital had been fired upon and wounded in Baltimore,
she, with several others, volunteered to go and care for
them. Her life-work opened before her that day.
Thereafter she was in the hospitals, and whenever our
soldiers were sick and in need of attendance. She came
soon to be recognized as a woman of no common ability
and discretion. She could go in her quiet, self-con-
tained way among hospitals and camps, anywhere in
Washington, unchallenged by the closest stickler for
routine and red tape. She met the wounded as they
poured in from Virginia, and she attended them upon
the field. Military trains were at her service. She was
present at the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull
Run, Anteitam, and Fredericksburg; was eight months.
at the seige of Charleston, at Fort Wagner, in front of
Petersburg, and at the Wilderness. She was also at the
hospitals near Richmond, and on Morris Island. Her
labors were not over even when the war ended; for in
obedience to the most tender of human sentiments, she
remained at Andersonville six weeks in order to mark
as many as possible of the graves of the thirteen thou-
20
sand Union prisoners there buried. The labor involved
can hardly be imagined.
When this sacred and self-imposed duty was over,
Miss Barton was utterly broken in health. Her physi-
cians ordered her to Europe to recuperate. Health was
still unsettled when, during the Franco-Prussian War,
she was asked to join the relief corps of the Red Cross
in the field, for her splendid work during the war at
home was well known in Europe. She did heroic ser-
vice on most of the battle-fields of France during that
war, her experience and her knowledge being eagerly
sought.
When in 1869 it became known that Miss Barton had
arrived in Geneva, she was at once called upon by the
President and members of the International Committee
of the Red Cross. They came to ask an explanation of
the anomalous fact that the United States, which had
shown the most scrupulous and tender care for its own
wounded, organizing a sanitary service on a scale hither-
to unthought of the world over, had held aloof from
and given the cold shoulder to the Red Cross.
Miss Barton assured these gentlemen that she had never
heard of the Society, nor of the treaty of Geneva. Af-
ter the nature, objects, and history of the great organiza-
tion had been set out to her, she told her visitors that
she could assure them that the United States-the people
of the United States-were totally ignorant that propo-
sals such as they alluded to had ever been submitted to
our Government; that probably they had been referred
21
to some department, or perhaps to some single official,
who did not see fit to present them to our people, and
that therefore the United States, as a nation, had never
heard of them.
Miss Barton's great, tender, humanity-embracing heart
became at once absorbed in studying the Geneva treaty
and the societies under it. Of course she was aflame
with enthusiasm and love for it; aflame also with shame
that the United States was not a party to the treaty, not
a member of the world's society having for its object
"the amelioration of the condition of wounded soldiers
in campaign on land or sea," (the maritime provision
being added subsequent to the original treaty).
She resolved that if she lived to see her native land
again she would give herself no rest until she had made
our people acquainted with the treaty of Geneva.
In regard to the connection of our country with the Red
Cross, let it be remembered that at the conference of
1863 we were represented by our minister at Berne, and
that proposals were sent us to unite in the measures it
set on foot, and that these proposals were disregarded.
Again, after a convention held in 1868 in Paris, in
which the United States was represented by Dr. Henry
W. Bellows, the distinguished head of the Sanitary
Commission, the subject was again presented to our
Government by that gentleman, and articles submitted.
Again, singularly enough, they met only indifference.
Through the efforts of Dr. Bellows, however, a society
was formed, but it lacked the feature essential to suc-
22
cess-the sanction and sympathy of Government. The
society was naturally short-lived.
We come to the events which, after many long years
of indefatigable effort and patriotic devotion on the
part of one tireless, patient woman, finally led to the
formation of the Red Cross Society of America.
Miss Barton came home after the war in Europe was
over, a suffering invalid. She lay for years upon a bed
of weakness, and when at last nature rallied, she had
to begin life almost like a little child, and acquire every
thing anew, even the power to walk. As soon as she
was able, she went to Washington and presented the
subject of the Geneva treaty to the Administration of
President Hayes. This was in 1877. To give form and
definiteness, the cause was bodied forth in a committee
consisting of three women and one man. Two of these
are still living-Miss Barton and Mr. John Hitz, a gen-
tleman long resident at the Capital as the representative
of the Swiss Government in our country, of large brain,
superior executive talent, and the kindest and tenderest
heart.
The efforts of 1877 were fruitless, winning no re-
sponse. Not until four years later, when another sol-
dier-president-the martyred Garfield was in the
chair, did the little society, brave and faith-sustained,
receive assurances of sympathy from Government. The
lamented Secretary Windom laid the subject before the
Cabinet. The President and all his secretaries were at
once cordially interested. Secretary of State Blaine,
23
whose heart beat always in sympathy with the heart of
humanity, with a mind quick to perceive, and a hand
swift to do the thing demanded to be done, wrote a
warm letter of approval, and the President recommended
in his first message to Congress our accession to the
treaty.
This was seventeen years after the first presentation
of the subject to our Government. The society of 1877
reorganized and became incorporated as the American
Association of the Red Cross.
But the time was not quite yet. President Garfield
was denied the happiness of signing the Geneva treaty.
This was reserved for his successor, President Arthur,
who nobly and promptly took up the work, incorporat-
ing a plea for it in his first message to Congress. The
Honorable Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Senate,
of whom were Senators Edmunds, Morgan and Lap-
ham, all strong, true friends of the cause, received it
favorably. The accession of the United States to the
articles of the Geneva convention was agreed upon by
Congress, and the treaty received the signature of Presi-
dent Arthur on the first day of March, 1882.
A modification of the treaty, some change in its arti-
cles, and some addition thereto were indispensable in
order to adapt it to the needs and purposes of the
United States. In Europe the perpetual and ever-pres-
ent condition is somewhat that of a colossal and various
camp. Peace, even, seems more like an armed truce,
for war ever menaces. So, in the Old World, the Red
24
Cross has kept its first purpose-that of caring for the
wounded and sick of belligerent armies.
But the United States, favored above other countries
by geographical and political situation, is comparatively
exempt from the danger of war. Partly because of this
Heaven-bestowed exemption, and partly in order to se-
cure one of the most essential conditions of usefulness
in Red Cross work-constant preparation and complete
discipline in time of peace-it was deemed indispensable
that her constitution should permit and enjoin work
other than that pertaining to armies. Incorporated
among the articles of the treaty is a distinctly American
and most important feature. It is that our Society shall ◄
have for one of its objects, aids to the suffering in times.
of great national calamities, such as floods and cy-
clones-visitations to which we are peculiarly liable-
great fires, pestilence, earthquake, local famines. It is
needless to say that its work has been exclusively in
times of such calamities.
Its splendid achievements in this field remain to be
told.
Misfortunes such as those named come in an instant
and without warning. To prevent vast and untold suf-
fering, relief must be swift. Therefore, complete pro-
vision and preparation are essential. When the word
speeds over the wires that fires have broken out in the
forests of Michigan, the first great disaster after the So-
ciety came into being, and that thousands are fleeing
for their lives from burning dwellings, and are without
25
food-even the beasts which might have served them
being driven before the flame into streams and lakes-
the President of the Central Society at Washington tele-
graphs the committee in Milwaukee and Chicago to has
ten to the scene. In a few hours they are en route. She,
with her own assistants, also, and as many from other
auxiliaries as she thinks necessary, at once set out.
Ample supplies are drawn upon and cars loaded with
everything that can possibly be wanted.
The primary needs of men are to be provided for.
Tools and materials for putting up cabins are on board;
clothes, beds, bedding, cooking utensils, tubs, soap, oil,
tables and chairs, are part of the cargo. Arrived, they
quietly, without confusion, set to work to organize the
men and women on the ground into working commit-
tees. They know just what needs doing first, and
second, and third. By their thorough system, aided by
the recognition and respect which their calmness and
resources inspire, the most urgent needs of the panic-
stricken people are provided for in the shortest possib! ·
time. This accomplished, men and women begin to re-
cover the use of their faculties, and can cast about
to do for themselves. Weeks and months, when neces-
sary, the Red Cross committees stay, expending their
money, counselling, sustaining, helping the impoverished
so that they can again begin to live and support their
families.
Twelve great national calamities have claimed the
services of the Red Cross. Next after the Michigan fires,
26
came the Ohio and Mississippi floods of 1882; then the
Mississippi cyclone; again the floods of 1884; the Vir.
ginia epidemic; the Texas drought; the Charleston
earthquake; the Mount Vernon (Illinois) cyclone, and
the great Johnstown disaster. In addition to these, it
ministered also to the peasants of Russia during the
great famine.* Time would fail should one attempt
to describe the work of the Society in these times
of distress. When the great floods in the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys occurred, and it was ascertained
that widespread suffering existed, Miss Barton sent
a notice to the Associated Press that the Red Cross
would go to the rescue. Immediately supplies and
money by thousands poured in. She with her staff, in-
cluding Dr. Hubbell, who, as field agent, is her right
hand, and Mr. Hitz, her trusted and efficient assistant,
started for St. Louis. Here boats are chartered and
loaded with every description of supplies, including for-
age for cattle. Down the Ohio and interminable Miss-
issippi they steam, stopping all along at villages and
cities where want is known to prevail. Quickly the
citizens are called together and a committee organized
to distribute the supplies. Native insight and life-long
experience enable Miss Barton to choose safely among
these strangers. Everything is bestowed which is
*The cyclone and tidal wave on the Sea Islands of South Carolina.
This great and difficult relief service extended from September, 1893,
to July, 1894. Over 30,000 were fully cared for, and 40,000 from time to
time aided during this period.
27
needed, and the boat steams on. The first that the in-
habitants of these places know of relief, or of the Red
Cross, is when the boat with the magical emblem draws
up to their shores, and Miss Barton-the same blazon
upon her arm--steps ashore and begins to assemble the
people to inquire what is most wanted. Truly, she
must seem to these stricken people, dazed by sudden
calamity, like a being from another planet.
No better occasion has occurred to illustrate the
methods and also the magnificent bounty of the Red
Cross than the unparalleled horror in the Conemaugh.
Valley. The first train from the East brought the Pres-
ident and fifty aides, and with them everything imagin-
able which human beings could need who were stripped.
of their all. Establishing themselves in tents, they
began giving out food; a house-to-house, a man-to-man
inspection being set up, that all might be provided for.
Such was the perfect and universal confidence in the
society that money and supplies continued to come,
and soon depots had to be erected to receive them. The
Secretary brought together the women of Johnstown,
bowed to the earth with sorrow and bereavement, and
the most responsible were formed into committees
charged with definite duties towards the homeless and
distraught of the community. Through them the
wants of over 3,000 families--more than 20,000 persons-
were made known in writing to the Red Cross, and by
it supplied; the white wagons with the red symbol fetch-
ing and carrying for the stricken people. Barracks were
28
erected in which large numbers were housed and fed;
then came the erection of two and four-roomed dwell-
ings, and the people, set in families once more, began
to live, furniture being supplied by the Society. A
hospital was arranged-warm, light, and comfortable.
All these buildings were, in the autumn, turned over to
the city for use during the winter. Miss Barton and
her corps remained till the last of October, five months,
in the devastated, sorrow-stricken city. Among the most
melting words ever written are those in the Johnstown
papers of that date, in regard to the Red Cross Society
and its deeds in that city:
The vital idea of the Red Cross is not charity, it
scorns the word, but friendliness, helpfulness. It is a
privelege to do for those in trouble; they are neighbors
in the Good Samaritan sense; in a word, human brother-
hood is their creed, and nothing less than the true law
of love as given by Jesus Christ their animating prin-
ciple.
In March, 1893, the American Society received a long-
desired and welcome gift. Dr. Joseph Gardner, of Bed-
ford, Indiana, presented to it a tract of land comprising
more than one square mile, with buildings, fruit trees,
and all appurtenances of a fertile and beautiful farm.
In accepting this gift, Miss Barton says: "This land, as
the property of the American National Red Cross, will
be the one piece of neutral ground on the Western hem-
isphere, protected by international treaty against the
tread of hostile feet. It is a perpetual sanctuary against
29
invading armies, and will be so respected and held
sacred by the military powers of the world. Forty na-
tions are pledged to hold all material and stores of the
Red Cross, and all its followers, neutral in war, and free
to go and come as their duties require.
"While its business headquarters will remain as before
at the Capital of the Nation, the gift still forms a real-
ization of the hopes so long cherished, that the National
Red Cross may have a place to accumulate and produce
material and stores for sudden emergencies and great.
calamities; and if war should come upon our land, which
may God avert, we may be able to fulfill the mission
that our adhesion to the Geneva treaty has made bind-
ing upon us.
"I will direct that monuments be erected defining the
boundaries of this domain, dedicated to eternal peace.
and humanity, upon which shall be inscribed the in-
signia of the treaty of Geneva, which insignia all the
nations of the earth are bound by solemn covenant to
respect
"Not only our people, but the peoples of all civilized
nations will have published to their knowledge that the
Americar National Red Cross has a home and a recog-
nized abiding place through all generations.
"For this I have striven for years, mainly misunder-
stood, often misinterpreted, and it is through your clear
intuition and humane thought that the clouds have
been swept away and my hopes have been realized."
The writer lingers lovingly about her subject when
30
writing of that consecrated woman, Clara Barton. Her
superb executive ability must have impressed all
who meet her. She influences and controls men and
women not so much because of native gifts of leader-
ship, as because of elevation of character, strong convic-
tions and high purposes. In person and manner she is
gentle and womanly, her voice sweet and feminine; but
that she is an unusual, peculiar woman, every one feels
who meets her. That which is deeply borne in upon
the mind is that she is totally without fear; that the
custom which lies upon the rest of us with such a
weight lies not at all upon her; that for some deep rea-
son she is a woman apart. She is a law to her staff, and
is worshiped by them.
66
وو
A life devoted wholly to the highest objects, a heart
single to the service of humanity, time, health, and
fortune given without stint, and without hope of earthly
reward; history can not fail to place her high on the
roll of those who love God supremely, and her neighbor
as herself.
In a little casket in Miss Barton's room lie some few
jewels, badges of orders, gifts from royal persons, socie-
ties, beneficiaries, visible testimonials of love, gratitude
and appreciation, court jewels from the Grand-Duchess
of Baden; a medal and jewels from the Empress of Ger-
many; a decoration from the Queen of Servia; the Iron
Cross of Merit, given only for heroic deeds of kindness,
from old Kaiser Wilhelm and some other decorations.
A beautiful brooch and pendant of diamonds testify to
31
the abounding gratitude and love of the people of
Johnstown.
The central Society of the Red Cross is housed in
Washington in a manner becoming its importance. It
occupies a large, handsome mansion, dignified by age
and by historic associations having been, during the
civil war, the headquarters of General Grant. Its in-
terior walls are covered with flags of many nations, the
crimson banner of Switzerland occupying the place of
honor. The house looks out on the beautiful mall to
the rear of the White House, and directly fronts the
magnificent edifice of the War Department. The ex-
penses of this establishment, as well as those of Miss.
Barton herself, are defrayed from her private fortune.
From the tower of this mansion floats the white flag,
emblazoned with its sacred emblem, signifying to all
the world that the United States is in league with thirty-
nine other peoples of the earth to promote human
brotherhood, and thus to help bring in the reign of
peace.
THE RED CROSS.
ADDRESS
BY
MISS CLARA BARTON
INTERNATIONAL
BEFORE THE
COUNCIL
OF
WOMEN,
Held in Washington, D. C., March 25 to April 1, 1888.
The organization of the Red Cross is the result of an
international treaty known among nations as the "Treaty
of Geneva," and has for its object the amelioration of
the conditions of that class of persons who, in accord-
ance with the customs of mankind from the earliest histo-
ry to the present, have been called to maintain the boun-
daries of nations, and even national existence itself, by
human warfare.
Whether well or ill, needful or needless, that nations.
and boundaries be so preserved, is not a question for me
here to consider. That they have been, and mainly are
so preserved, that no better method is yet consummated,
33
and that, in the progress of humanity, the existing coun-
tries of the civilized world have seen fit to enter into an
international treaty for the betterment of the conditions
of those subjects or citizens, who, by their laws, are called
to the performance of this duty, are facts which I am
here to state. This international treaty of 1864 com-
mences with the neutralizing of all parties in their efforts
at relief. It brings to the aid of the medical and hos-
pital departments of armies the direct, organized, and
protected help of the people. It goes through the entire
category of military medical regime, as practiced up to
its date; makes war upon and plucks out its old-time.
barbarities, its needless restrictions and cruelties, and,
finally, in effect, ends by teaching war to make war
upon itself.
By its international code all military hospitals under
its flag become neutral, and can be neither attacked nor
captured. All sick and wounded within them remain
unmolested. Surgeons, nurses, chaplains, attendants,
and all non-combatants at a field, wearing the accred-
ited insignia of the Red Cross, are protected from cap-
ture. Badly wounded prisoners lying upon a captured
field are delivered up to their own army if desired. All
supplies designed for the use of the sick or wounded of
either army, and bearing the sign of the Red Cross, are
protected and held sacred to their use. All convoys of
wounded or prisoners in exchange are safely protected
in transit, and, if attacked from ambush or otherwise
harmed, an international treaty is broken. All persons
Uor M
34
residing in the vicinity of a battle about to take place
shall be notified by the generals commanding both
armies, and full protection, with a guard, assured each
house which shall open its doors to the care of the
wounded from either army; thus each house becomes
a furnished field-hospital and its inmates nurses.
Each nation, upon its accession to the treaty, estab-
lishes a national society, or committee, through which
it will act internationally in its various relations.
This body corporate adopts a constitution, in the
formation of which it seeks the best methods for serving
humanity in general, together with the interests of its
own people, in the direction of its legitimate efforts.
With the exception of our own, no national constitu-
tion has covered more than the direct ground of the
treaty, viz., the prevention and relief of suffering by
war. The formers of the National Constitution of
the Red Cross of America foresaw that the great
woes of its people would not be confined to human
warfare; that the elements raging, unchained, would
wage us wars and face us in battles; that as our vast
territory became populated, and people, in the place of
prairies and forests, should lie in their track, these natu-
ral agents might prove scarcely less destructive and
more relentless than human enemies; that fire, flood,
famine, pestilence, drouth, earthquake, and tornado
Since the reading of this address each nation which has united
with the treaty, including Japan, has requested to be admitted with
the American Amendment.
Mчou
35
would call for the prompt help of the people no less
than war, and while organizing for the latter they also
included the former. The ratifying congress at Berne
accepted us with that digression from the original pur-
port of the treaty, and what we term the "civil branch"
of the Red Cross is known abroad as the "American
Amendment."
With these explanations, it remains only to name
some of the things accomplished and the changes which
have taken place in consequence of this treaty during
its life of a short quarter of a century.
Previous to the war of the Crimea civil help for mili-
tary necessities was unknown. Florence Nightingale
trod a pathless field. In the wars which followed, till
1866, even this example was not heeded, and the wars
of Napoleon III. in Northern Italy were types of mili-
tary cruelty, medical insufficiency, and needless suffer-
ing which shocked the world. Out of the smouldering
ashes of these memories rose the clear, steady flame of
the Red Cross; so bright and beautiful that it drew the
gaze of all mankind; so broad that it reached the farth-
est bound of the horizon; so peaceful, wise, harmless
and fraternal that all nations and sects, the Christian
and the Jew, the Protestant and the Catholic, the soldier
and the philanthropist, the war-maker and the peace-
maker, could meet in its softened rays, and, by its calm,
holy light, reveal to each other their difficulties, compare
their views, study methods of humanity, and, from time
36
to time, learn from and teach to each other, things better
than they had known.
Our own terrible war which freed 4,000,000 slaves
and gave to us the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" had
no ray of this fraternal light. We "read the righteous
sentence by dim and flaring lamps," and in darkness
and inhumanity, sorrow and doubt "our souls went
marching on."
The great Commissions rose, and performed a work
of relief hitherto unknown, but from lack of military
recognition their best efforts comparatively failed; and
from lack of permanent organization their future possi-
bilities were lost to the world.
With the Franco-German war of '70-'71 commenced
the opportunities for the practical application of the
principles of the treaty. Both nations were in the com-
pact. There was perfect accord between the military
and the Red Cross Relief. There was neither medical
nor hospital work save through and under the treaty of
Geneva. The Red Cross brassard flashed on the arm of
every agent of relief, from the medical director at the
headquarters of the king to the little boy carrying water.
to his wounded lieutenant; from the noble Empress
Augusta and her court, and poor Eugenia, while she had
one, to the patient, tired nurse in the lowliest hospital
or tent by the wayside.
No record of needless inhumanity or cruelty to
wounded or sick, stains the annals of that war.
I walked its hospitals day and night. I served in its
37
camps, and I marched with its men, and I know where-
of I speak. The German, the Frenchman, the Italian,
the Arab, the Turko, and the Zouave were gathered
tenderly alike, and lay side by side in the Red Cross
palace hospitals of Germany. The royal women, who
to-day mourn their own dead, mourned then the dead of
friend and foe.
Since that day no war between nations within the
treaty has taken place in which the Red Cross did not
stand at its post, at the field, and the generous gifts of
neutral nations have filled its hands.
The treaty has brought the war-making powers to
know each other. Four times it has called the heads of
thirty to forty nations to meet through appointed dele-
gates, and confer upon national neutrality and relief in
war. It has created and established one common sign
for all military medical relief the world over, and made
all under that sign safe and sacred. It has estab-
lished one military hospital flag for all nations. It has
given to the people the recognized right to reach and
succor their wounded at the field. It has rendered im-
possible any insufficiency of supplies, either medical
or nutritive, for wounded or prisoners which human
sympathy and power can reach. It has given the
best inventions known to science for the proper
handling of mutilated persons, whether soldiers or ci-
vilians. The most approved portable hospitals in the
world are of the Red Cross. It has frowned upon all old-
time modes of cruelty in destructive warfare; poisoned
38
and explosive bullets are no longer popular. Antiseptic
dressings and electric light at battlefields are established
facts, and the ambulance and stretcher-bearers move in
the rear ranks of every army. These isolated facts are
only the mountain peaks which I point out to you. The
great Alpine range of humanity and activity below can
not be shown in fifteen minutes.
So much for human warfare and the legitimate dis-
pensation of the treaty.
Touching our "American Amendment," the wars of
the elements have not left us quite at leisure.
The public, in general, to a large extent, is coming to
the use of the Red Cross as a medium of conveyance
and distribution for its contributions. The National
Association, with its headquarters at Washington, has a
field-agent, who visits, in person, every scene where aid.
is rendered. Commencing with the "forest fires" of
Michigan in 1881, there has fallen to its hands a share
of the relief-work in the overflow of the Mississippi
river in 1882; of the Ohio in 1883; of the Mississippi
cyclone the same year; the overflow of both the Ohio
and Mississippi in 1884; the representation of the
United States Government at the International Confer-
ence of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1884; the exhibition of
"woman's work" in the Red Cross, both foreign and
American, at the Exposition at New Orleans in 1885;
the drouth in Texas in 1886; the Charleston earthquake
in 1886; the representation of the United States Govern-
ment again at the court of their Royal Highness, the
39
Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, at Carlsruhe, Ger-
many, in 1887, and the relief of the sufferers from the
Mt. Vernon cyclone, 1888.*
In the overflow of the rivers in 1884 the Government
appropriated $150,000 for distribution through the War
Department, and magnificently and faithfully was that
distribution made; an honor to any nation.
The Red Cross, with no appropriation and no treasury,
received from the public, and personally distributed in
the space of four months, money and material at the
moderately estimated value of $175,000; an honor to
any people.
But, says one, "What has this war movement, this
Red Cross treaty, to do with real progress and the bring-
ing about of that great universal peace towards which
our eyes and hearts and hopes are turned, and for which
we have so long organized, labored and prayed?"
Wars are largley the result of unbridled passions.
That universal treaty binding every war-making power
to wholesome restraints, pledging it to humanity, and
holding it responsible to the entire world, is the bit in
the mouth, the curb on the neck of the war horse, and
while it holds out the measure of oats in the one hand
it carries the bridle in the other. It constitutes a peace
society which can not be sneered at in counsel, nor ig-
*The last five years have added to the relief and labors of the above
list. The yellow fever epidemic of Florida in 1888; the Johnstown
disaster in 1889; the Russian famine in 1891-'92; the Fifth International
Conference at Rome, 1892, and the hurricane and tidal wave of the South
Carolina sea-island coast of 1893-'94.
40
nored in war. It is one of the thresholds to the temple
of Peace, and even ourselves may be farther from the
entrance than we are wont to fondly dream. Wars are
organized mobs, they tell us. We are not without that
seed in our own fair land to-day.
Women have taken their share in the work. Em-
presses and queens-princesses of peace and humanity
-as well as emperors and kings, lead its societies and
its relief work in war, and while each queenly wife
stands with her Red Cross hand on the epauletted
shoulder of her war-meditating husband, he will con-
sider well before he declares. This has been and will
be again the case, and in the great milennial day, when
peace has conquered war, and its standards float out
from the shining battlements, the Red Cross and its
devoted workers will be there.
}
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