treatment of the Baltic provinces and Finland, 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 accept a position on the
delegation, and private letters from very dear friends, in whose
good judgment I had confidence, 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.


[8] See account of this conversation in "My Mission to Russia,"
Chapter XXXIII, pp. 9-10.


Soon came evidences of an interest in the conference more earnest
and wide-spread than anything I had dreamed. Books, documents,
letters, wise and unwise, thoughtful and crankish, shrewd and
childish, poured in upon me; in all classes of society there
seemed fermenting a mixture of hope and doubt; even the German
Emperor apparently felt it, for shortly there came an invitation