No. 471.
Mr. Hunt
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
St. Petersburg , June 18, 1883. (Received July 9.)
Sir: The ceremonies of the coronation of His Imperial Majesty, Alexander III, autocrat of Russia, are over. The diplomatic corps left Moscow on Wednesday. The flags of all the nations of the globe were furled the day before, and at midnight on Sunday the Emperor and his family left for Peterhof, where they are to remain in seclusion until October. The troops were sent home, and as our train came traveling back to this city we missed the soldiers who had stood sentinel over every hundred yards of the whole way when we had gone on.
The ceremonies lasted a week or ten days longer than had been expected. In point of pomp and gorgeousness they have certainly equaled if not excelled such displays on former occasions. The press has fully described them, and I deem it unnecessary to do so now.
I presented the President’s letter announcing that he had “made choice of me to represent the Government of the United States on the occasion of the coronation,” and expressing his “confidence that I would prove acceptable to his Majesty” in “the distinguished duty of representing the Government,” with which he had “invested” me. The Emperor received me with much consideration, inquired after the health of the President, and expressed great satisfaction at the mark of sympathy-and regard which the President had shown him in sending a special mission to participate in the ceremonies of the coronation. He charged me to receive and to convey to the President his thanks for doing so, and his great satisfaction at the friendly relations which had at all times existed between the United States and Russia. I presented to him Admiral Baldwin and his staff, and he was especially gracious to the [Page 744] admiral. The Empress soon after approached the legation, and with much courtesy addressed a few words to me and to each of the others.
Afterwards, on the eve of the coronation, much surmise prevailed as to who were to be invited to witness the ceremony in the church. It had been generally said that only the chiefs of the missions of the diplomatic corps were to be invited inside the building, and spacious am-pitheaters were erected outside for the accommodation of others. After 1 o’clock at night, having received cards of admission to the church for myself and wife and daughter, but none for the admiral and Mrs Baldwin, I was afraid they had been accidentally overlooked. I therefore requested Mr. Wurtz, with my son, to ride to the office of the master of ceremonies. They went and were there told that tickets had been issued to Admiral Baldwin and had probably reached him by that time; that the tickets might, perhaps, be for places in the ampitheater, but if the admiral would come to the church in the morning any such mistake would be promptly rectified, and he and Mrs Baldwin be admitted in the church. This information, Mr. Wurtz, on returning that night, informed me, he had communicated to the admiral. The admiral, however, declined to go. The omission was made the subject of a letter of remonstrance from me to Mr. de Giers. I received a reply filled with apologies at the apparent slight. Mr. de Giers wrote also to the same effect to the admiral, and the Emperor the next day repeated these regrets, first to me and then to Admiral Baldwin.
The distances to be traveled in conveying messages in Moscow are enormously long; the addresses of the different legations were often unknown and often incorrectly given; the precise times for the different ceremonies were appointed generally by the Emperor in a few hours’ notice; the duties of the officers detailed for such matters were arduous, and many of these officers were novices in such duties, unacquainted with our language and official titles. Under such circumstances omissions such as that spoken of, though annoying, were, in my opinion, not inexcusable.
I inclose a copy of my letter to Mr. de Giers on the subject and of his reply.
The Emperor, before leaving Moscow, sent to the admiral a beautiful snuff-box of wrought gold. The cover contains a medallion likeness of the Emperor, set round with large and costly diamonds. He also sent him a large gold medal. He sent to me a similer medal in gold and one in silver. For these tokens I returned him my thanks in terms of politeness, saying that I would accept the medals if permitted by Congress to do so.
* * * * * * *
I will content myself with saying in this dispatch that, to my judgment, the public mind appears to be tranquilized, if not exultant, at the coronation of the Emperor.
I have, &c.,