AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: 1-1899 251 



What I had seen of the Emperor Nicholas during my stay 

 in Russia had not encouraged me to expect that he would 

 have the breadth of view or the strength of purpose to 

 carry out the vast reforms which thinking men hoped for. 

 I recalled our conversation at my reception as minister, 

 when, to my amazement, he showed himself entirely igno 

 rant of the starving condition of the peasantry throughout 

 large districts in the very heart of the empire. 1 That he 

 was a kindly man, wishing in a languid way the good 

 of his country, could not be doubted ; but the indifference 

 to everything about him evident in all his actions, his lack 

 of force even in the simplest efforts for the improvement 

 of his people, and, above all, his yielding to the worst ele 

 ments in his treatment of the Baltic provinces and Fin 

 land, did not encourage me to believe that he would lead a 

 movement against the enormous power of the military 

 party in his vast empire. On this account, when the 

 American newspapers prophesied that I was to be one of 

 the delegates, my feelings were strongly against accepting 

 any such post. But in due time the tender of it came in a 

 way very different from anything I had anticipated: 

 President McKinley cabled a personal request that I ac 

 cept a position on the delegation, and private letters from 

 very dear friends, in whose good judgment I had confi 

 dence, gave excellent reasons for my doing so. At the 

 same time came the names of my colleagues, and this led 

 me to feel that the delegation was to be placed on a higher 

 plane than I had expected. In the order named by the 

 President, they were as follows : Andrew D. White ; Seth 

 Low, President of Columbia University ; Stanford Newel, 

 Minister at The Hague; Captain Mahan, of the United 

 States navy ; Captain Crozier, of the army ; and the Hon. 

 Frederick W. Holls as secretary. In view of all this, I 

 accepted. 



Soon came evidences of an interest in the conference 

 more earnest and wide-spread than anything I had 



1 See account of this conversation in &quot; My Mission to Russia.&quot; 

 Chapter XXXIII, pp. 9-10. 



