76 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



bers of the Tribunal and to tlie representatives of the 

 two Governments access to numerous official exhibi- 

 tions and entertainments ; and, at a suitable time, it 

 made for us a special festival at Geneva, as the Fed- 

 eral Government did at Interlaken and at Berne. 



Switzerland, and Geneva especially, looking at the 

 several acts of arljitration provided by the Treaty of 

 Washington as constituting great steps in the prog- 

 ress of public peace, welcomed us the more heartily 

 because of the recent organization there of a society, 

 whose objects are defined by its title of " Comite In- 

 ternational de Secours aux Militaires Blesses." This 

 society had acquired universal respect by its acts of 

 disinterested philanthropy in the late war between 

 Germany and France. Its symbol of the red cross 

 had been the harbinger of relief to many a suffering 

 victim of battle. It was organized under the Pres- 

 idency of that General Dufour who, in 1847, had led 

 to victory the forces of Switzerland against the Seces- 

 sion [Sonderbund] Cantons. And men could not fail 

 to note the coincidence, when they saw this great 

 Tribunal of Arbitration organized under the auspices 

 of the victorious commander of our own Union forces 

 [General Grant], as the International Commission for 

 the Succor of the Wounded had been imder the 

 auspices of the veteran General Dufour. It was im- 

 pressive to see the greatest Generals of the two coun- 

 tries laboring to diminish the chances and lighten the 

 evils of war. 



The Tribunal of Arbitration occupied the same hall 

 in the Hotel de Yille which had just before been oc- 



