Czar Alexander I of Russia reigned as Emperor from 1801 to 1825 including the partitioned Poland from 1815 to 1825. Born in Saint Petersburg, Alexander ruled during the time of the Napoleonic wars. Under Alexander, Russia's foreign policy changed from one of neutrality to one of opposition and alliance, and Emperor Alexander led a coalition of Austrian, Prussian and Russian armies, 150,000 troops in the fall of Paris. Napoleon had left his brother Joseph Bonaparte in charge of France with about 23,000 regular troops and a smaller force of National and imperial Guards. After one day of fighting, the French surrendered. Napoleon marched back to the capital, but his marshalls would not fight, forcing Napoleon to surrender. At the Treaty of Fountainebleau, Napoleon was exiled to the Isle of Elba, and the Napoleonic war was over. At this moment in history, all of Europe idolized Czar Alexander I for the defeat of Napoleon and the fall of Paris.
John Quincy Adams was in Ghent, negotiating the end of the War of 1812 when Emperor Alexander passed through the town in celebratory fashion. Alexander was more than just a foreign leader and dignitary to Adams, he had become a friend. In 1809, John Quincy Adams accepted s request from President Madison to serve as Minister to Russia. John Quincy was a natural choice, he had been to St. Petersburg with his father and spoke french, the language of the court. Life in St. Petersburg was very difficult. The cold was beyond anything Adams and his wife had experienced, and the conditions of the initial hotels they stayed at were of rats and dysentery. But while in Russia, Adams developed a friendship with the Emperor and his family. The Emperor invited both Adams and his wife to lavish dancing parties, masquerade balls, winter carnivals and all night gambling parties. The late nights and debauchery was quite a shock to the pious Adams family, and it only added to their depression. In late 1810, Adams had received word from the United States that he had permission to leave Russia, but Emperor Alexander urged him to stay a little longer. Adams consented primarily due to his wife Louisa being pregnant. On August 12, 1811 after a very difficult pregnancy and delivery, a little girl named after her mother had joined the Adam's family. But life in Russia went from bad to worse when little Louisa died on September 15, leaving her mother in a severe depression for months. Despite all of this, Adams had become deeply impressed with the piety of the Russian people, and the dazzling Russian palaces. Alexander and Adams created a strong bond between two nations, one that extended beyond the obvious differences of a Christian monarchy and Constitutional Republic.
The bond between these two nations played out on the world stage. In 1812, Russia was both a political Ally of England and a commercial friend of the United States. Fearing that the US would form an alliance with France against Great Britain, Emperor Alexander was eager to end the war by bringing the two parties together to settle their differences. on March 11, President Madison sent three commissioners to Russia to meet with the British plenipotentiaries, but political rivalries ruled the day and the attempt at diplomacy ended in failure. Then, after the war, the United States and Great Britain negotiated the Treaty of Ghent which essentially established relations between the two countries back to the status of that before the war, but they were unable to reach agreement on the 5th article regarding the slaves who had left the U.S. to join the British army. On this issue, the two countries submitted the final decision again to Emperor Alexander. Later, in 1823 when Adams as Secretary of State was the chief intellectual force behind the Monroe Doctrine. When President Monroe seriously considered partnering with Great Britain on a policy towards the independence of South America in an attempt to separate Britain from Russia and the quintuple Alliance, Adams held candid and confidential exchanges with Emperor Alexander on the subject.
In 1825, Czar Alexander I, Emperor of Russia died of Typhus Fever, and President John Quincy Adams saw fit to pay him tribute in his second annual address to Congress.
"By the decease of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, which occurred contemporaneously with the commencement of the last session of Congress, the United States have been deprived of a long tried, steady, and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance of absolute power and trained in the school of adversity, from which no power on earth, however absolute, is exempt, that monarch from his youth had been taught to feel the force and value of public opinion and to be sensible that the interests of his own Government would best be promoted by a frank and friendly intercourse with this Republic, as those of his people would be advanced by a liberal intercourse with our country. A candid and confidential interchange of sentiments between him and the Government of the US upon the affairs of Southern America took place at a period not long preceding his demise, and contributed to fix that course of policy which left to the other Governments of Europe no alternative but that of sooner or later recognizing the independence of our southern neighbors, of which the example had by the United States already been set."In the tribute, Adams referred to the candid and confidential exchanges on the "affairs of Southern America". This will be the subject of my next post, as President Adams introduces Emperor Nicholas, Alexander's successor.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Second Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29468 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Alexander I of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].
Smithsonian. (2018). The Russian-U.S. Relationship Goes Way Back to John Quincy Adams. [online] Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/russian-us-relationship-goes-way-back-john-quincy-adams-180960600/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].
Wagner, D. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/09/1812-james-madison-russia-offers-to.htm [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].
Wagner, D. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/09/1812-james-madison-russia-offers-to.htm [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].
Wagner, D. (2018). 1818 James Monroe - Friendly Relations with Russia. [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2017/04/1818-james-monroe-friendly-relations.html [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].
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