was discussed, and a committee was formed,
with M. Moynier at its head, to take action.
In response to a circular issued by the commit-
tee some months later, there was held in Geneva
in October, 1863, an international conference
of thirty-six members, among them being
representatives of fourteen governments. The
conference lasted four days. Its proceed-
ings were marked by a "general unanimity,
as new as it was spontaneous, on a question
of humanity, instantaneously developed into
one of philanthropic urgency."
The result was the calling, by the conference, of an international convention, which held its sessions in Geneva in August, 1864. At this convention was adopted a treaty consist- ing of a code of ten articles, since known as the Geneva Treaty, or tlie International Red Cross Treaty, the sign or batlge agreed upon being a red cross on white ground.
The first government to adopt the treaty was that of France in September, 1864; the eleventh. Great Britain in February, 1865; the thirty-first, Peru in 1880. The formation of national and of local societies of the Red Cross followed in every case the adoption of the treaty.
Miss Barton listened with deepest interest to the account of the Red Cross movement given to her by its leaders in Geneva, and, as she says, was " impressed with the wisdom of its principles and the good practical sense of its details." During the Franco-Prussian War she saw the excellent work done under the Red Cross banner in the field — saw it and took part in it, and resolved that she would try to make the people of her native country understand the Red Cross and the treaty.
On her return to America in 1873, after her exhausting labors in Strasburg, in Paris, and at Metz, she having previously aided the Duchess of Baden in establishing military hospitals. Miss Barton was more in need of rest than when she went abroad in 1869. A period of invalidism and suffering followed. Late in the year 1877 she was able to go to Washington as the official bearer of a letter from M. Moynier, president of the International Committee of Geneva, to President Hayes, urging the atloption by the United States of the Geneva Treaty. The letter was kindly received, but its appeal met with no response. Writing newspaper articles and publishing pamphlets. Miss Barton continued her ad- vocacy of the cause until the coming in of a new administration in March, 1881. She then lost little time in presenting a copy of M. Moynier 's letter to President Garfield, whose interest and sympathy were expressed a few weeks later in a letter of acknowledg- ment written to Miss Barton by Secretary Blaine.
Miss Barton now felt that it would be well to anticipate and facilitate the desired action of Congress by beginning to form societies. A meeting that was held in Washington in May, 1881, to further this end, resulted in the formation of "The American Association of the Reil Cross," of which Clara Barton was made president. The first local society of the Red Cross in the Ihiited States was formetl at Dansville, N.Y., the country home of Miss Barton, in August, 1881. The adhesion of the United States to the Treaty of Geneva was given on March 1, 1882, this nation being the thirty-second to take such action and the first to adopt the proposed amendment of October, 1868, concerning the Red Cross for the navy.
The American Association of the Red Cross, it should be mentio^ied, was legally incorporated in the District of- Columbia. A broader scope was given to its humane work by the adoption by the ratifying congress at Berne of the '"American amendment,' whereby the suffering incident to great floods, famines, epidemics, conflagrations, cyclones, or other disasters of national magnitude, may be ameliorated by the administering of necessary relief."
On April 17, 1893, was incorporated in the District of Columbia, to continue the work of the American Association above named, "The American National Red Cross," to constitute the Central National Committee of the United States, authorized by the International Committee of Geneva. The American National Red Cross was reincorporated by Congress in 1900. Miss Barton
