Presidents at Peace: Theodore Roosevelt and the Treaty of Portsmouth
Enough about war, carnage, mayhem and bloodshed. The Presidency has also often served as an institution for peacemaking and a home for men of peace. No, this is not an April Fools' Day post, for the next month we will look some of the many instances when Presidents have brought about the peace and have presided over peaceful periods in the nation's history. The fist of these instances concerns a President not generally remembered for his peaceful tendencies. But he was in fact the first of four Presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and he was the man who brought about an end to a war in which his nation was not a participant. In the summer of 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt persuaded the combatants in the Russo-Japanese War to meet for a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, beginning on August 5. His persistent and effective mediation led to the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, ending the war.
The Russo-Japanese War came about as a result of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian and Japanese Empires, each of whom had designs on adding Manchuria and Korea to their respective empires. The Russians wanted a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy as well as for maritime trade. At first the two nations tried to negotiate over the issue, but When those negotiations broke down, Japan declared war to maintain their dominance in Korea. Initially Russia was seen as the stronger party, but the Japanese military won some unexpected victories over the Russian forces.
The defeat of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by strife and revolution at home and the Russian people were opposed to escalation of the war. A number of factors made continuing the war unpopular, including the poor state of the Russian economy, the embarrassing defeats of the Russian army and navy by the Japanese, and the relative unimportance of the disputed land. Tsar Nicholas II decided that the wiser course was to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on problems at home.
President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate the dispute. In June, 1905, Roosevelt asked the two nations to nominate representatives to negotiate on the conditions of peace. In August they met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a Harvard graduate, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Under the terms of the peace, Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and it also agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910. Russia signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it, and ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan.
The Nobel committee decided that President Roosevelt deserved its annual peace prize for bringing the parties together and in turn reaching a resolution to the conflict. Travel being what it was at the time, Roosevelt was not present at the award ceremony on December 10, 1906. His envoy Herbert H.D. Peirce, the American Ambassador to Norway, accepted the prize on his behalf. Peirce's speech included the reading of a telegram from Roosevelt, which read as follows:
"I am profoundly moved and touched by the signal honor shown me through your body in conferring upon me the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no gift I could appreciate more and I wish it were in my power fully to express my gratitude. I thank you for it, and I thank you on behalf of the United States; for what I did, I was able to accomplish only as the representative of the nation of which, for the time being, I am president.
"After much thought, I have concluded that the best and most fitting way to apply the amount of the prize is by using it as a foundation to establish at Washington a permanent industrial peace committee. The object will be to strive for better and more equitable relations among my countrymen who are engaged, whether as capitalists or as wage workers, in industrial and agricultural pursuits. This will carry out the purpose of the founder of the prize, for in modern life it is as important to work for the cause of just and righteous peace in the industrial world as in the world of nations.
"I again express to you the assurance of my deep and lasting gratitude and appreciation."
Gunnar Knudsen, who presided over the ceremony, then read the telegram in Norwegian. He added the following concluding remarks :
"I am convinced, Gentlemen, that the words expressed here by the President of the United States and the aim for which he proposes to work, with the aid of the Peace Prize just awarded him, will gain worldwide approbation. It is incontrovertible, as President Roosevelt says, that peace in all its aspects, peace among mankind, peace between nations, peace between social classes, peace between individuals - all are equally important. The one cannot, so to speak, be divorced from the other. If we are to promote civilization and the well-being of mankind as a whole, we can do it most effectively by securing world peace, for the entire history of the world teaches us that war and devastation are inseparable. The ravages of war arrest the progress of nations culturally, materially, socially, and politically, perhaps for generations. This is why Alfred Nobel has by his testament erected a memorial that will live forever in the minds of men and that establishes him as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
The Russo-Japanese War came about as a result of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian and Japanese Empires, each of whom had designs on adding Manchuria and Korea to their respective empires. The Russians wanted a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy as well as for maritime trade. At first the two nations tried to negotiate over the issue, but When those negotiations broke down, Japan declared war to maintain their dominance in Korea. Initially Russia was seen as the stronger party, but the Japanese military won some unexpected victories over the Russian forces.
The defeat of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by strife and revolution at home and the Russian people were opposed to escalation of the war. A number of factors made continuing the war unpopular, including the poor state of the Russian economy, the embarrassing defeats of the Russian army and navy by the Japanese, and the relative unimportance of the disputed land. Tsar Nicholas II decided that the wiser course was to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on problems at home.
President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate the dispute. In June, 1905, Roosevelt asked the two nations to nominate representatives to negotiate on the conditions of peace. In August they met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a Harvard graduate, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Under the terms of the peace, Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and it also agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910. Russia signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it, and ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan.
The Nobel committee decided that President Roosevelt deserved its annual peace prize for bringing the parties together and in turn reaching a resolution to the conflict. Travel being what it was at the time, Roosevelt was not present at the award ceremony on December 10, 1906. His envoy Herbert H.D. Peirce, the American Ambassador to Norway, accepted the prize on his behalf. Peirce's speech included the reading of a telegram from Roosevelt, which read as follows:
"I am profoundly moved and touched by the signal honor shown me through your body in conferring upon me the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no gift I could appreciate more and I wish it were in my power fully to express my gratitude. I thank you for it, and I thank you on behalf of the United States; for what I did, I was able to accomplish only as the representative of the nation of which, for the time being, I am president.
"After much thought, I have concluded that the best and most fitting way to apply the amount of the prize is by using it as a foundation to establish at Washington a permanent industrial peace committee. The object will be to strive for better and more equitable relations among my countrymen who are engaged, whether as capitalists or as wage workers, in industrial and agricultural pursuits. This will carry out the purpose of the founder of the prize, for in modern life it is as important to work for the cause of just and righteous peace in the industrial world as in the world of nations.
"I again express to you the assurance of my deep and lasting gratitude and appreciation."
Gunnar Knudsen, who presided over the ceremony, then read the telegram in Norwegian. He added the following concluding remarks :
"I am convinced, Gentlemen, that the words expressed here by the President of the United States and the aim for which he proposes to work, with the aid of the Peace Prize just awarded him, will gain worldwide approbation. It is incontrovertible, as President Roosevelt says, that peace in all its aspects, peace among mankind, peace between nations, peace between social classes, peace between individuals - all are equally important. The one cannot, so to speak, be divorced from the other. If we are to promote civilization and the well-being of mankind as a whole, we can do it most effectively by securing world peace, for the entire history of the world teaches us that war and devastation are inseparable. The ravages of war arrest the progress of nations culturally, materially, socially, and politically, perhaps for generations. This is why Alfred Nobel has by his testament erected a memorial that will live forever in the minds of men and that establishes him as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."