[This article has been edited to include only portions related to Mark Twain's involvement.]
CLEMENCY ASKED FOR TCHAYKOVSKY
Movement to Save "Father of Russian Revolution" Is Started Here.
PETITION TO BARON ROSEN
Mme. Catherine Breshkovsky, Also a Political Prisoner, Included in the Appeal.
On behalf of Nicholas Tchaykovsky, "Father of the Russian Revolution," and Mme. Catherine Breshkovsky, a woman pioneer in the revolutionary movement, who, according to reports from the Russian capital, have been incarcerated in the fortress of SS Peter and Paul, on the shores of the Neva, a petition has been placed before Baron Rosen, Russian Ambassador in Washington, asking that "the greatest clemency be exercised by the Czar's government in deciding upon its course of action with regard to them."
. . .
The Petition.
Here is the petition submitted to Baron Rosen, with signatures attached:
Dec. 14, 1907
To His Excellency Baron Rosen, Russian Ambassador.
Excellency: Many thousand American citizens have learned with deep sorrow and concern of the arrest in Russia of Nicholas Tchaykovsky and of Catherine Breshkovsky, and venture most respectfully to express their earnest hope that the Government of His Imperial Majesty may show the greatest clemency in deciding upon its course of action with regard to them. These persons are well known in this country, and have won the respect and affection of a host of friends by reason of their purity of character, sweetness of nature, and characteristically Russian charm of temperament. They called out warm personal regard even from those who did not accept their position in public matters, and made themselves in an unusual degree the recipients of the deep interest which Americans have always felt in the people of Russia. Appreciating as they do the perplexities which confront the Government of His Imperial Majesty, and recalling His Majesty's initiative in the cause of international peace in 1898, where, alone among rulers, he summoned the first Hague Conference, and His Majesty's manifesto of 1905 providing for the representation of the Russian people in a National Parliament, the signers of this petition venture to express to your Excellency the assurance that the release of Nicholas Tchaykovsky and Catherine Breshkovsky would be interpreted as an act of friendship by a host of American citizens who are warm friends and well-wishers for the welfare of Russia.
Signed: The Right Rev. David H. Greer, Seth Low, Richard W. Gilder, The Rev. Lyman Abbot, Francis L. Stetson, Morgan J. O'Brien, John D. Crimmins, Henry Clews, R. Fulton Cutting, William D. Howells, Samuel L. Clemens, George F. Peabody, Robert W. deForest, William J. Schieffelin, Elgin R. L. Gould, Jacob A. Riis, Hamilton Holt, Hamilton W. Mabie, Herman Ridder, Oswald C. Villard, The Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, The Rev. Percy S. Grant, The Rev. Thomas R. Slicer, V. Everit Macy, Horace White, Eugene Smith, Norman Hapgood, The Rev. Newell D. Hillis, Edward M. Shepard, Geroge W. Kirchway, Samuel J. Barrows, James R. Reynolds, George McAneny, Everett P. Wheeler, William L. Garrison, Rollo Ogden, Walter H. Page, John A. Sleicher, John H. Finley.
The following signatures have been received from Boston: The Right Rev. William Lawrence, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Robert Treat Paine, Richard C. Cabot, M. D., Charles P. Putnam, M. D., Edward H. Clement, Herbert Underwood, the Rev. Charles L. Dole, D. D., The Rev. Edward Cummings, D. D., the Rev. Charles G. Amers, D. D., Sumner B. Pearmain, Joel E. Goldthwait, James G. Storrow, J. E. Moors, Robert H. Gardiner.
. . .
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