What is the object of a certain class of Yankee’s that are making so much consternation through the yellow journals?1 Do they belong to the ranks of fanatics who want Japan, if they can not procure Russia, for Methodism, Baptism and such like order of higher civilization and Christianity? Or are they the barking heralds of American syndicates, monopolizing corporations and million-trusts that do not so think but say, that Russia is a barbaric horde that teaches nothing, spends nothing, creates nothing, and is the stumbling block in the way of civilization in the far east, as Turkey is in Europe and Asia Minor? If so, then let United States statistics convince them, that Russia expended in this country for railroad supplies alone during the last eight years 20,000,000 dollars. Not sufficient? Well, many millions more dollars were paid the Americans for ships, pianos, sewing machines, automobiles, etc., etc. If the newspapers can not tell, why do they not in all righteousness ask the people, especially of the Pacific Coast (the shop-keeper, the farmer, the laborer, the servant girl, etc.), to tell of what the Japanese is doing for them? United States Consul General Miller writes from Neuchwang, which town is on the edge of the war zone, that Russia already has in a city of but two years growth, Harbin, eight flour mills in operation with modern machinery, 200 brickmaking plants in the vicinity, elegant residences, and office blocks of the metropolis style.
Of course we are told that Russia is a persecuting power and that Poland and Kishineff are the evidence of her brutality. We will gladly admit facts, but Japan is a far more accomplished and efficacious persecutor. The Jews seem to increase and multiply in Russia, but in Japan the Christians disappeared.
Captain Henry W. Hunt, a well known citizen of Boston, says: “I cant understand how Americans can forsake an old friend like Russia for an old enemy like England. Have we forgotten that Russia refused tempting financial offers from George III to furnish troops to subjugate the American colonies during the revolution, at a time when the British government was employing Indians who massacred the families of our patriot forefathers? “ etc., etc.
The martyred Emperor Alexander II liberated the serfs of Russia much sooner than President Lincoln signed the bill giving freedom to the negroes in the United States. And the peasants were given them their lands to live on, but not turned off like the negroes from the plantations. The well known attitude of Russia and England toward the United States during our Civil War—of practical friendship on the part of Russia and of strong enmity on the part of England—was well shown in two letters to the New York Tribune some time ago. They were called forth by the note of an Englishman, James Hall, who tried to make out that his country was not hostile to America during the struggle.
“C. H. A.” of New York wrote: “Mc Carthy in his History of Our Own Times on pp. 224-225 Vol. 11 says: The vast majority of what are called the governing classes were on the side of the South. London club life was virtually all Southern. The most powerful papers in London and the most popular papers as well, were open partisans of the Southern Confederation.
“Edward A. Freeman, the eminent historian shortly after the breaking out of the war, published a famous volume, whose title page is as follows: History of Federal Government, from the foundation of the Achaian League to the Disruption of the United States. Among the list of Federal Government is the United States, A.D. 1778-1862.
“Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton said in an address before the Agricultural Society of Hartford County, Sept. 25—1861: I venture to predict that the younger men here present will live to see, not two, but at least four separate and sovereign commonwealths arising out of those populations which a year ago united their legislation under one President and carried their merchandise under one flag. I believe that such separation will be attended with happy results to the safety of Europe and the development of American civilization.
“The Earl of Shrewsbury said in his Worcester speech, 1861: I see in America the trial of democracy and its failure. I believe that the dissolution of the Union is inevitable, and that men now before us will live to see an aristocracy established in America.
“A writer in the Westminster Review2 has this to say: without nicely balancing the virtues of the contending parties, they (Englishmen) cannot help believing that moderation, justice, and national honor will find ample development in a divided republic.
“Now as to Russia: John Bigelow has already said, in a similar connection, that it is not the fashion of diplomacy to trumpet its deeds from the housetops. But this is certain: Shortly after the seizure of Mason and Slidell, two fleets of Russian war vessels appeared simultaneously in New York and San Francisco harbour, and remained in them for months. The Russian Admiral, in a call upon Admiral Farragut at the Astor House, replying to a question as to why he was spending the winter idly in American waters, said: I am here under sealed orders, to be broken only in a contingency which has not occurred. He said also that the Russian commander in San Francisco was under similar orders, and, further, that they were under orders to break the seals if, while they remained here, the United States became involved in a war with any foreign nation.
“In an unofficial call upon the Russian Chancellor at St. Petersburg at this time, to a prominent American was shown the Czar’s order to his admiral to report to the President of the United States for duty in case the Northern States became involved in a war with England.3
“Nathan Appleton of the same city wrote: Your correspondent, James Hall, tries to make out a good showing of what England did during the great war of 1861-65, but he will not succeed in convincing any one who, like myself, took part in the great struggle, of the correctness of his views. As a matter of fact, during those four years Nassau, Bermuda and Halifax can be regarded as the right wing of the Southern Confederacy, as British ships of all kinds could come to those places, and then transfer to swift blockade runners the various articles and munitions that were needed by those who were fighting to destroy the Union and perpetuate slavery.
“After I was wounded and went abroad I happened, early in 1865, to pass a few days in Dublin, when I dined every day at the mess of the 9th Lancers, of which a relative of mine was an officer. I remember well that, with all the camaraderie which exists among officers all over the world, there was not one of those there at table over their champagne and post who did not, even at that late date, hope the Confederacy would succeed.
“It so happened that during all those years Russia was our Friend.”
Sebastian Dabovich.
San Francisco, April 25—1904.
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Dear Editor: As supplementary to my remarks and quotations under the forgoing caption A few Facts and a bit of History, allow me to add a few more lines, which continue in the same line of thought and are of moment interest as recent developments of policy with the Orthodox Yankee in this country of honest speech and honest press. First:—recent outrages upon the Jews on the crowded streets of the city of Chicago were indulged in to the extent that even Hearst’s “Chicago American” not- withstanding the hot days on the eve of a Democratic Convention for Presidential Nomination, dare not refrain from loudly commenting upon, as may be seen in that newspaper in its issue of 11th Instant. What, if a money-lender in Kishineff had endeavored to extract a discount on a Feast Day or Legal Holiday, would there not be a stormy abuse in a foreign country and throwing stones at one’s neighbor whilst Americans are living in a glass house?!
Second:—the following is from a California paper, a well known weekly:
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A “Missionary” on “Dirty Russian Saints”
“Several very odd speeches were heard at the Methodist Missionary Convention held in this city during the past week. Some of these orations tend to justify the amused contempt in which “American missionaries” abroad are commonly held by intelligent and well- bred foreigners. There was a Rev. Dr. Smythe, for example, who introduced himself simply as a missionary who had a few things to say. Dr. Smythe, it seems, ‘broke into’ the programme without leave or license. He wanted to ease his mind of certain thoughts provoked by the remarks of some of the other speakers, including a Bishop, who ventured to express the belief that Christian sentiment in this country might not be unjustly divided on the question of the respective merits of the Russians and Japanese, now at war.
“Dr. Smythe resented such an attitude. In his opinion, there could be no division of sympathy between the admirable pagans and the detestable Christians struggling in a death grip on the other side of the planet. ‘We are told,’ he exclaimed, ‘that Japan represents heathenism and Russia, Christianity. But there are degrees in both. You have heard of that Japanese officer who was torn to pieces while fighting for his country, how his torn body was taken home, and how a piece of it was honored and worshiped by his countrymen until he was enrolled as a god of war. I tell you I revere the manhood of that officer. I’d rather kiss the piece of that torn body of Japanese manhood than the image of any dirty Russian saint that ever lived.’
“It is fair to assume that all saints look alike to Brother Smythe. ‘Dirty Russian saints’ and clean ones of any other national production are undoubtedly held in equal reprobation by this pious Christian ‘missionary.’ But why he should ‘ring in’ any kind of saints in his extraordinary harangue is one of those things that only close students of missionary manners and methods can be expected to understand. Of course Dr. Smythe’s taste in the matter of relics and images is his own, and he is entitled to his preferences; but what possible difference can it make to anybody else that he finds more to revere in the remnant of a Japanese carcass than in the memory of valiant heroes of the Christianity which he professes to teach? It is more than likely that Brother Smythe couldn’t mention the name of a single Russian saint, clean or dirty, if called upon to do so. If his Methodist brethren can stand such rubbish, the saints have no reason to feel bad over it.”
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If the Presbyterian, and Baptist, and such like Sects are to govern the United States, it is no wonder they rejoice when a Christian nation is driven into trouble, and make an unbecoming clamor when Mongolians or Semites would predominate not only in the affairs of the world of politics but also religion.
S.D.
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Publisher’s Note: This article was originally published in the Russian American Orthodox Messenger, January Supplement, 1904-5, pp. 159-168.
Vol. XXI, p. 212
See Life of Thurlow Weed. Vol. II, pp. 346–347