It is to be remembered that the Geneva Convention itself is largely the outgrowth of American initiative. The American Sanitary Commission, organized during the first years of the War of the Rebellion, proved the efficacy of uniform and concentrated effort to bring into play the benevolent influences of the people to aid the military authorities in caring for the sick and wounded in war, and its conspicuous success attracted attention abroad to such a degree that, in obedience to a very general desire in European countries, the Swiss Government, in 1863, invited an international conference to formulate and adopt a general plan for the amelioration of the suffering of the sick and wounded in war. As a result of that conference arrangements were perfected for the organization of central civil committees in the several countries to supplement the work done by the military service of the armies in the field, thus creating in nearly all the Continental States organizations similar to the American Sanitary Commission. The following year another conference was held at Geneva, under the auspices of the International Committee, which resulted in the signing of the Geneva Convention of 1864, to which the United States is a party. Still another conference in 1868 resulted in the additional articles extending the principles of the Geneva Convention to naval operations, which have been adopted by this government and Spain as a _modus vivendi_ during the present war. Besides these truly international conventions, conferences held at Geneva in 1867 and in 1869 still further perfected the organization and operation of the International Committee of Berne and its relations to the several civil central Red Cross Committees in the adhering States, to the end that the latter might not alone cooperate with the governments of their respective nations in time of war, but should perform analogous relief work in each State in time of pestilence, famine or other national calamity.