Treatment of prisoners of war. The treatment of pris oners of war left much to be regretted, but little can be gained by going into its details. Early in the war persons captured on Confederate privateers were sentenced to death as pirates, but, whether from fear of retaliation or a sense of justice, their sentence was never executed. Henceforth, persons so captured were allowed the privileges of prisoners of war, and the armies in the field in their conduct towards each other acted according to the principles of international warfare.

The Confederacy a de facto government.-An important distinction was drawn between acts done in obedience to the Confederate Government as a de facto government, and acts done in aid of the rebellion. The distinguishing characteristics of a de facto government of the type of the Confederacy, Chief Justice Chase declared to be (1), "that its existence is maintained by active military power, within the territories, and against the rightful authority of an established and lawful government; and (2), that while is exists, it must necessarily be obeyed in civil matters by private citizens who, by acts of obedience, rendered in submission to such force, do not become responsible, as wrongdoers, for those acts, though not warranted by the laws of the rightful government. To the extent then, of actual supremacy, however unlawfully gained, in all matters of government within its military lines, the power of the insurgent government cannot be questioned. supremacy did not justify acts of hostility to the United States. How far it should excuse them must be left to the lawful government upon the reestablishment of its authority. But it made obedience to its authority, in civil and local matters, not only a necessity but a duty. Without such obedience civil order is impossible." So, "a contract for the payment of Confederate States treasury notes, made between parties residing within the so-called Confederate States" was enforced "in the courts of the United States, the contract having been made on a sale of property in the usual course of business, and not for the purpose of giving currency to the notes or otherwise aiding the rebellion.""

* Thorington v. Smith, 8 Wallace, 9-11. 34 Thorington v. Smith, 8 Wallace, 1.

The United States Sanitary Commission.-One of the most hopeful features of the war was the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, a voluntary organization, for the purposes "of inquiry and advice in respect of the sanitary interests of the United States forces." It was one of the many instances of the increased attention to the care of the troops which had commenced with the work of Miss Nightingale and the Sanitary Commission in the Crimean War.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF 1864 AND THE DECLARATION OF ST. PETERSBURG.

The seed that developed into the Geneva Convention.-Independently, and almost simultaneously, as the result of their experiences in the Italian War of 1859, Dr. Palasciano in Italy, M. Henri Arnault in France, and M. Henri Dunant in Geneva, called attention to the need of greater care for the sick and wounded.1 The efforts of M. Dunant bore fruit. That this was so, or at any rate that the fruit was so abundant, was largely due to the humanity, energy and diplomacy of his friend, M. Gustave Moynier. Among the names that have stood for the betterment of mankind his deserves a high place.

The work of the Geneva Society of Public Utility.-As President of the Geneva Society of Public Utility, M. Moynier set about devising ways and means for the carrying out of the ideas of M. Dunant, and as a result succeeded in gathering together at Geneva a semi-official conference of military men and doctors, about half of whom were representatives of the war departments of the dif ferent governments. The Conference sat from the 26th to the 29th of October, 1863. It decided on the creation of a network of committees of succor for the sick and wounded in all countries, and expressed the wish "that neutrality be proclaimed in time of war, by belligerent nations, for ambulances and hospitals, and that it be equally admitted in the most complete manner for the official sanitary personnel, for volunteer nurses, for the inhabitants of the country succoring the wounded, and for the wounded themselves; that some identical, distinctive sign be adopted for the sanitary corps of all the armies, or at least for the persons of the same army attached to that service; and that an identical flag be adopted in all countries for ambulances and hospitals."

1 Moynier, Etude sur la Convention de Genève, p. 49, et seq. * Moynier, Ibid., p. 59.

Work of the Conference of 1863.-It will be observed that the work of the Conference consisted of two parts, the decision to create Red Cross Societies and the expression of the wish for the neutralization of the sick and wounded and of the persons and property connected therewith. The one led to the Red Cross Societies, the other to the Geneva Convention of 1864, two things commonly associated but which were entirely distinct. The Convention of Geneva, which was adopted in the following year, did not extend the protection which it offered the official staff to volunteer societies. At the Conference of Brussels of 1874, it was the opinion that such protection should be so extended, and this has now been done by the Revised Convention of 1906. Into the history of the Red Cross Societies it is not the purpose of this work to go, though it might be done with great profit. The ability of the President of the International Committee at Geneva, M. Gustave Moynier, has taken the society out of the category of a mere private association and placed it in a position where it deals directly with governments.

The International Congress of 1864.-The Conference of 1863 was not diplomatic as most of its official members represented their war departments rather than their governments; but it invested the Geneva Committee with power to take steps towards the calling of a Congress which should represent the governments themselves. The committee sounded its various correspondents as to the disposition of their respective governments, and finding their answers favorable, secured the cooperation of the Swiss Federal Council, which, on June 6, 1864, addressed invitations to most of the States of Europe and America to attend an International Congress. Sixteen states, including Prussia, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy and Norway and Sweden responded by sending delegates. The Congress met on August 8, and on August 22, 1864, a treaty was signed along the general lines of the views expressed by the Conference of the preceding year. This treaty has since become famous as the Geneva Convention.

As already stated, this Convention gave no recognition to what have since become known as the Red Cross Societies, it being feared that such recognition might result

Moynier, Etude sur la Convention de Genève, p. 60, et seq.

in interference with military operations. It, however, declared that places used exclusively for the sick and wounded · should not be made the scene of hostile operations; that ambulances, or field hospitals, in actual service should be returned on the recovery of the sick and wounded in them; and that prisoners incapable of further service should be sent back, as should the medical and religious staff of the army, on the completion of the duties in which they were engaged at the time of the capture. The Convention further emphasized the obligation to care for the sick and wounded, no matter to what nation they should belong; declared that the inviolability of noncombatants should not be forfeited for sheltering the sick and wounded, but that they should be exempt from quartering and freed from a portion of the war contributions imposed. As a compliment to the Swiss Republic, the Congress chose the design of its national flag with the colors reversed, a red cross on a white field as a mark to distinguish the medical and religious personnel and the places set aside for the care of the sick and wounded.

The cordial reception given the Convention. The reception given to the Convention was very cordial. In less than four years all Europe had adhered to it, including even Turkey, which adhered July 5, 1865. Persia was the first of the purely Asiatic nations, and Salvador the first of the American, to follow the example of those of Europe. Both signed the Convention in 1874. Salvador was followed by Bolivia, Chili and the Argentine Republic, in 1879; by Peru in 1880, and by the United States in 1882. In Asia, the example of Persia was followed by Japan, June 5, 1886; by Siam, June 29, 1895; and by China, June 29, 1904.

The significance of the Convention.-The significance of the Geneva Convention lay not in the novelty of its ideas, as most of its requirements had already come to be recognized as usages of war, but in the fact that it orystallized the intense humanitarian spirit of the age which called it into being, reacted on and helped to make more intense that spirit and preserved the expression of it for an age which seems likely to be a sterner one than that which preceded it.

Additional Articles of 1868.-The experience of the Aus