150,000,000 people. He has been unable to make war and he is now unable to make peace.' 1

Roosevelt told the Japanese, "it was in my judgment wise to build a bridge of gold for the beaten enemy"; and they took his advice. On May 27 and 28, 1905, the Japanese annihilated the Russian fleet in the Sea of Japan. Roosevelt, who was an excellent judge of naval matters, thus characterized the engagement, "Neither Trafalgar nor the defeat of the Spanish Armada was as complete as overwhelming." With amazing wisdom, directly on the heels of this great naval victory, the Japanese made overtures in writing for peace. Roosevelt saw at once the Russian ambassador and "told him to say to the Czar that I believe the war absolutely hopeless for Russia." Now he had the help of the Kaiser.

2

Roosevelt wrote to Senator Lodge on June 16: "The more I see of the Czar, the Kaiser and the Mikado, the better I am content with democracy, even if we have to include the American newspaper as one of its assetsliability would be a better term. Russia is so corrupt, so treacherous and shifty, and so incompetent, that I am utterly unable to say whether or not it will make peace or break off the negotiations at any moment. Japan is, of course, entirely selfish, though with a veneer of courtesy and with infinitely more knowledge of what it wants and capacity to get it." He wrote in a letter later to Senator Lodge soon after the negotiations had begun: "The Russians are utterly insincere and treacherous; they have no conception of truth, no willingness to look facts in the face, no regard for others of any sort

1 Bishop, i. 378, 379.

Ibid., 351, 352.

1

or kind, no knowledge of their own strength or weakness; and they are helplessly unable to meet emergencies." 1 As related by Bishop the tactfulness and patience of Roosevelt were unsurpassed. With the main point settled many questions of detail arose. There was naturally a conflict as to the place where the plenipotentiaries should meet, and after much debate Washington was fixed upon; then, after that was decided, Russia desired to change the place of meeting to The Hague. She now ran up against a stone wall. Roosevelt, disgusted with so much shilly-shallying, sent this word to George von L. Meyer, our ambassador in Russia, with instructions to impart it to the Foreign Minister and if necessary to the Czar himself. "I notified Japan that Washington would be the appointed place and so informed" the Russian ambassador. "I then gave the same announcement to the public. It is, of course, out of the question for me to consider any reversal of this action and I regard the incident as closed, so far as the place of meeting is concerned." 2 "Meyer," wrote Roosevelt, "who was, with the exception of Henry White, the most useful diplomat in the American service, rendered literally invaluable aid by insisting on his seeing the Czar at critical periods of the transaction when it was no longer possible for me to act successfully through the representatives of the Czar, who were often at cross purposes with one another." " Roosevelt said in a private letter to Senator Nelson of Minnesota, "I have led the horses to water, but Heaven

seq.

1 Bishop, i. 394, 395.

2 Bishop, i. 391.

* Autobiography, 587; Life of Meyer, M. A. de Wolfe Howe, 196 et

only knows whether they will drink or start kicking one another beside the trough." 1

As the conference was to function during the summer, it was recognized that Washington would be too hot, therefore the place of meeting was changed to the Portsmouth Navy Yard 2 near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The plenipotentiaries were all men of distinguished capacity. Russia was represented by Witte, Secretary of State, and Baron Rosen, Russian ambassador to the United States; Japan by Baron Komura, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and Takahira, Japanese minister in Washington. The reception of the envoys by Roosevelt showed him a thorough man of the world accustomed to do the proper thing at the proper time. They went separately on two war vessels from New York to Oyster Bay, the summer residence of the President, and were there received by him on board the United States steamer Mayflower. Nothing occurred to mar the meeting of the two hostile envoys. The President had a luncheon prepared but, as they all moved together into the saloon and as it was taken standing, no question of preference could be raised. At its end the President proposed this toast: "I drink to the welfare and prosperity of the sovereigns and peoples of the two great nations whose representatives have met one another on this ship. It is my most earnest hope and prayer, in the interest of not only these two great powers but of all mankind, that a just and lasting peace may speedily be concluded between them." The en

1 Bishop, i. 398.

The Portsmouth Navy Yard was really in Kittery, Maine. * Bishop, i. 405.

voys then went to Portsmouth and set about their important work.

The President needed all of his tact and influence to prevent the Conference from breaking up. By despatches to Japan and to Russia he was, as Bishop wrote, its “guiding and controlling force." Late in August the crisis occurred and it arose from the Japanese demand for an indemnity and the cession of the island of Saghalien. The President suggested, sending the suggestion at the same time to the Kaiser and the Mikado, that Russia should pay no indemnity whatever and should receive back the north half of Saghalien "for which it is to pay to Japan whatever amount a mixed commission may determine." This suggestion brought about the terms of peace. Japan with paramount wisdom accepted the suggestion. "The Emperor," so came the word to Roosevelt, "after presiding at a Cabinet Council, decided to withdraw the demand of money payment for the cost of war entirely, if Russia recognize the occupation of Saghalien Island by Japan, because the Emperor regards humanity and civilization far more than his nation's welfare." "An agreement was reached on August 29, 1905, on the terms laid down by the President and on September 5, 1905, a treaty of peace embodying them was signed." 2

The President received praise from all sides. Baron Kaneko wrote to him: "Your advice to us was very powerful and convincing by which the peace of Asia was secured. Both Russia and Japan owe to you this happy conclusion." The Kaiser, the King of England, the

1 Bishop, i. 412 et ante.

2 Ibid., 412.

...

Czar and the Mikado expressed their approval gracefully. On September 6 the President wrote to the Mikado a letter in which, in giving him high praise, he reflected also his own ideas. "I express," he wrote, "as strongly as I can, my sense of the magnanimity, and above all of the cool-headed, far-sighted wisdom, you have shown in making peace as you did. . . . During the last eighteen months your generals and admirals, your soldiers and sailors, have won imperishable renown for Nippon. You have crowned triumphant war by a peace in which every great object for which you fought is secured, and in so doing you have given to the world a signal and most striking example of how it is possible for a victorious nation to achieve victory over others without losing command over itself. . . . A continuance of the war, no matter how damaging to Japan's opponent, would also have been necessarily of damage to Japan far beyond what could have been offset by any resulting benefit. The greatness of a people, like the greatness of a man, is often attended quite as clearly by moderation and wisdom in using a triumph as by the triumph itself." 2

Roosevelt was modest in regard to his part in the transaction. He wrote to his daughter: "I am credited with being extremely long-headed. As a matter of fact I took the position I finally did not of my own volition but because events so shaped themselves that I would have felt as if I were flinching from a plain duty if I had acted otherwise." Thus he wrote to Whitelaw Reid, our Ambassador in London, "The Kaiser stood by me like a trump"; but I got only "indirect assistance" from the English Government.3

1 Bishop, i. 412 et ante.

2 Bishop, i. 415.

3

Bishop, i. 415.