The Medal Presented by Tsar Alexander II to the American People in 1866, Commemorating the Freeing of the Slaves by Both People: “There by a sanguinary struggle, here by the path of peace”

Acquired from the direct descendants of the commander of the vessel that received the medal in Russia, it was not known to have survived, and has never before been offered for sale

Emperor Alexander II issued the Emancipation Manifesto on March 3, 1861, which granted freedom to over 23 million serfs. This reform is known as the Emancipation Edict. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Union victory in the Civil War, finalized in 1865, ensured this would become the law of the land.

Lincoln and Alexander had something else in common. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth in an act of political violence. The attempted assassination of Alexander II in 1866 was (a failed) act of political violence by Dmitry Karakozov, a young revolutionary. Karakozov’s aim was to kill the Tsar and spark a revolution, believing the Emperor had betrayed the people’s expectations after his emancipation of serfs in 1861. Another attempt around 20 years later would be successful.

In 1866, President Andrew Johnson sent Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox, who had played a leading role in the expedition to relieve Fort Sumter in April 1861, on a mission to Russia, primarily to deliver a resolution from Congress congratulating Emperor Alexander II on his survival of the assassination attempt. The mission also aimed to gather information on European naval capabilities and explore potential trade opportunities, including the sale of the ironclad monitor USS Miantonomoh. The mission was a major event, marking a high point in Russian-American friendship, and was met with grand receptions in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In the process, Johnson sent the ironclad Miantonomoh itself on a world tour with the destination of Russia – first across the Atlantic and through the North Sea, the Baltic and then through the Mediterranean, in 1866 and 1867. The commander of this vessel was Moses Stuyvesant, graduate of the Naval Academy and hero of the Civil War. He had been on two sunk vessels, including one taken down by a Confederate Ironclad.

But the mission had two messages: to congratulate Russia on the freeing of the serfs and the Tsar on surviving the assassination attempt. The resolution read: “JOINT RESOLUTION relative to the attempted assassination of the Emperor of Russia.

“Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress of the United States of America has learned with deep regret of the attempt made upon the life of the Emperor of Russia by an enemy of emancipation. The Congress sends greeting to his Imperial Majesty, and to the Russian nation, and congratulates the twenty millions of serfs upon the providential escape from danger of the sovereign to whose head and heart they owe the blessings of their freedom.

“Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the Emperor of Russia.

“Approved May 16, 1866.”

In mid Summer, the Miantonomoh arrived in the harbor of Cronstadt on the 17th of August and the Tsar sent an address acknowledging the visit of Mr Fox. On Saturday September 15, the fleet went to push off from Russia. Mr. Fox left Petersburg after a farewell breakfast given on Russian yacht Rurik at which the Russian Lieutenant Greig presented the Americans with a symbol of their newly instituted freedoms from slavery in both countries: a medal struck in memory of the enfranchisement of the serfs in Russia. Grieg said, “The friendship of the two nations… among the causes to which is due this mutual spirit, is the great event [emancipation] which has been accomplished almost simultaneously in the two countries – there by a sanguinary struggle, here by the path of peace.” He then presents the “medal struck in memory of the enfranchisement of the peasants….He will see on it the likeness of our sovereign and the effigy of a nobleman and of peasant.”

This is that very medal, given by the Russians to the Americans to commemorate the freedom of their former slaves, presented to the Americans, depicting the scene of Alexander II on one side as Grieg says, in a case, on the inside of which Stuyvesant, as commander of the expedition, has signed his name and dated it, September 15, 1866, the day of the presentation of the medal and Grieg’s speech, and written, “From the Emperor of Russia Alex III” (instead of II). The bronze medal reads: “FEBRUARY 19, 1861, Cut to N. Kozin from the model of count F. Tolstoy. Engraver: Nikolai Kozin” It is not known how many were made. A small number have reached the market but none akin to this: with the important symbolism of a state gift congratulating a nation on emancipation.

This was a gift of one slave-freeing nation to another, in the immediate aftermath of those actions. This medal was not known to have survived and comes from the direct descendants of Stuyvesant, who received it September 5, 1866.