The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-18
INCIDENT NOW AT AN END
DOCUMENT WILL BE PRESERVED
AMONG THE PUBLIC A0CHIvEs.
Text of the Petition Which Charge
Riddle Asked Permission to Pre-
sent to the Gar.

spOndence that has taken place respecting
the petition. 1t consists of an instruction
TO Mr.. Riddle, United States charge at st.
Petersburg, reciting in detail the petition
and directing him 70 present the same to
the Foreign Office If 1t were willing to re-
ceive it. The communication which the
Russian Foreign Office declined to receive
reads:
'Excellency-The secretary of state in
sstructs me to inform you that the Presi-
dent has received from a large number
of citizens of the United States of all re-
ligious affiliations and occupying the high
est positions in both public and private life.
a respectful petition addressed 10 his Maj
esty, the Emperor, relating to the condition
of the Jews in Russia. and running as fol-
lows:
To His Imperial Majesty. the Emperor
of Russia:
The cruel outrages perpetrated at Kish-
tneff during Easter of 1903 have excited
horror and .reprobation throughout the
world. Until your Majesty gave Special and
personal directions, the local authorities
failed to maintain order or suppress rioting.
The victims were Jews and the assault
was the result OF race and religious preJu-
dice.
The rioters violated the laws of Russia.
The local officials were derelict in the
performance of their duty.
THE Jews were the victims of indefens-
ible lawlessness. These facts are made plain
by the official reports of and by the official
dClS IOuOWi1lS TIC fiOl
Under ordinary conditions the awful
calamity would be deplored without due
fear of a recurrence. But such is not the
case in the present instance. Your petition
ers are advised that millions of Jews-Rus-
sian understanding in southwestern
Russia are in constant dread of fresh out
breaks. They feel that Ignorance, supersu-
ton and bigotry, as exemplihed by the
rioters, are ever ready TO prosecute them;
that the local officials. unless thereto spe-
cially admonished, cannot be- relied on as
axad
strenuous protectors oil their peace ana
security; that public sentiment of hostility
is engendered against them and hangs over
them as a continuing menace.
Even If 1t be admitted that these fears
are to some extent exaggerated 1T is un-
questionably true that they exist, that
they are not groundless and that they pro-
duce effects of great Importance
The westward migration or Russian
Jews which has proceeded for over twenty
years, is being stimulated by these fears,
and already that movement has become so
great as TO overshadow in magnitude the
expulsion of the Jews and to rank with the
exodus from Egypt.
INESTIMABLE MISERY.
Ono estimate is possible Of the misery
suffered by the hapless Jews who feel driv-
en- to forsake their native land, to sever
the most sacred ties and to wander forth to
strange countries Neither is 1t possible to
estimate the misery suffered by those who
are unwilling or unable to leave the land of
their birth, who must part from friends and
relatives who emigrate, who remain In
never-ending terror.
Religious persecution is more sinful and
more fatuous even than war. War is some
times necessary, honorable ana just; re-
ligious persecution is never defensible
The sinfuness and folly which give
impulse to unnecessary war received their
greatest check when your Majestys initia-
tive resulted in an international court OF
peace
civilized world cherishes the hope that upon
the same initiative there shall be fixed in
the early days of the twentieth century
the enduring principle of religious liberty;
that by a gracious and convincing EXPOSE
ton expression your Majesty will proclaim,
not only for the government of your own
subjects, but also for the guidance OF all
SON. property, liberty, honor or life because
of his religious belief; that the humblest
subject or citizen may worship according
that government, whatever its form or
agencies, must safeguard the rights and
immunities by the exercise of all its powers
"'Far removed from your Majestys do
minions living under different conditions,
and owing allegiance to another govern
ment, your petitioners yet venture. in the
liberty and tolerance; TO plead that he who
led his own people and all others to the
shrine of peace will add new luster TO his
name and fame by leading new movement
that shall commit the whole world in oppo-
sition TO religious persecution.
81 am instructed to ask whether the petit
ton will be received by your Excellency
to be submitted to the gracious considera-
ton of his Majesty. In that case the petit
ton will be at once forwarded to st. Peters
burg"
the same day Mr.. Riddle informed by
the Russian minister for foreign affairs
49, s-ll \
appeared in the newspapers the Russian
government wished to notify him that the
proposed petition would not be received
under any circumstances and that this reso-
luton of the Russian government was taken
independent of any consideration of the
substance of the terms of the petition. On
the receipt of this information the secre-
| ter to Messrs. Straus, Wolf and Levi, who
are acting for the Bnai Birth
acomaint You that this department is in
I formed by the American embassy in ST.
! Petersburg that the imperial government
of Russia has declined to receive or con-
slider the petition in relation to the condi-
| ton of the Jews in Russia. which was ad-
! dressed to his Majesty, the Emperor. by a
large number of citizens of the United
| states. and which this department. by di-
| rection of the President and at your re-
| quest, undertook TO transmit to its high
! destination"
THE SIGNATURES.
IT Is believed that this petition was al
| most unexampled in the weight and dignity
| of the signatures attached to it. Among
them are: Andrew D. White and Clifton
B. Breckenridge, formerly ministers to
Russia, Carl Schurz, Whitelaw Reid. John
G. iCarlisle, former Postmaster General
] Thomas L. James, Rufus w. Peckham,
| United States Supreme Court; Senator
| Thomas c. Plat, Edward M. Sheppard.
William B. Hornblower. Albert B. Shaw,
| John F. Dillon, Senator Hopkins, of ILL
| nois: Cornelius N Bliss. James Stillman,
John Clafiin. Congressman A. F. Cooper. of
Pennsylvania; Congressman John Sharpe
Williams, of Mississippi; Judge Cady Her
/ rick. of New York Supreme Court; Alden
Chester. New York Supreme Court: Colonel
| John Weber, formerly commissioner of ira-
migration; Henry b. F. Mcfarland pres
| ident of the commissioners, District Of Co
| lumbia; Herman Ridder, John G. Brisbane.
| George T. Rives, +. NJ Grout, the Govern
ors OF Virginia, Georgia. Mississippi, North
| Carolina, Louisiana, and Nebraska: the
| chief justices OF all the States from which
returns are in: great number OF congress-
men. publcists. bankers, Protestant and
| Catholic preachers. mayors of leading cit
! les. prominent educators. leaders of the bar
| physicians. scholars. and manufacturers
When the petition reaches Washington.
| the various pages will be bound together
| In magnificent style in one volume and de-