No. 50, p. 92 ADHESION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE CONVENTION OF GENEVA Referring 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 16th 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 22d of August, 1864, but also to the plan of Additional Articles of the 20th of October, 1868, which was not the matter in question, since that 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. We have seen how the final vote of the Senate, approving the treaty, found Clara Barton too weary and too ill to feel at the moment any thrill of joy in her success. The strength of will that held her to the end of these struggles was not born of sustained enthusiasm; it was the tenacity of a courage that had grown very weary, but that never gave up. It was not the joy of success that called her back to interest in life, but the stern call of duty. While the Senate was considering the treaty, the Mississippi River was rising higher and higher. That was her call back to life and labor. The work done in Michigan had served widely to advertise the Red Cross, and it made way for a wider appeal. The first funds distributed by it were collected locally, in the two cities nearest to the summer home of Miss Barton.