City to celebrate Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day on Sept. 5

PORTSMOUTH – In 2010, the New Hampshire Legislature unanimously passed legislation designating Sept. 5, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, recognizing the importance of the 1905 Treaty proceedings in New Hampshire history and the role of citizen diplomacy in ensuring the success of the peace conference. Each year since then, the Governor of New Hampshire has issued a proclamation calling on all New Hampshire citizens “to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities commemorating this important part of New Hampshire history.” On Sept. 5, 1905 – 117 years ago – Portsmouth celebrated by ringing bells throughout the city. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum continues that tradition.

On Monday Sept. 5, the celebration of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and NH citizen diplomacy takes place in Market Square in front of Piscataqua Savings Bank, 15 Pleasant St., starting at 3:30 p.m. Mayor Deaglan McEachern will read the 2022 Governor’s Proclamation and letters are expected from New Hampshire Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, Representative Chris Pappas and Representative Ann McLane Kuster, whose great grandfather John McLane was Governor of New Hampshire and host to the 1905 peace conference.

At 3:47 p.m., Portsmouth Naval Shipyard sounds a memorial salute at the exact moment the Treaty was signed in 1905 and, on that cue, the bells of Portsmouth ring. The public is welcome to participate in the bellringing ceremony at the Treaty historic marker outside the Piscataqua Savings Bank and Judge Calvin Page memorial at15 Pleasant St.

This year is also the 116th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Theodore Roosevelt for organizing the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War. Details on Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize and an authentic replica of the Prize are displayed in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit at the John Paul Jones House Museum.

“As Portsmouth prepares for its 400th anniversary next year – and at a time Russian history plays out across the news every night – more people are becoming interested in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty,” commented Charles B. Doleac, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum chair and senior partner at Boynton, Waldron, Doleac Woodman & Scott. “Several new groups are planning bellringing ceremonies because of their own Treaty history and their interest in the story of citizen diplomacy that played out here in 1905. The involvement of local people significantly contributed to the favorable outcome of the negotiations that earned President Theodore Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.”

Participating in the bell-ringing will be:

• Middle Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth

• Christ Episcopal Church, Portsmouth

• North Congregational Church, Portsmouth

• First Congregational Church, Portsmouth

• Second Christian United Church, Kittery

• St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth

• Unitarian Universalist (South) Church, Portsmouth

• First United Methodist Church, Portsmouth

• Temple Israel, Portsmouth (sounding the shofar and displaying a peace flag)

• New Castle Congregational Church

• Portsmouth School Department

• Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion, Portsmouth

• Little Harbor Chapel, Portsmouth

• Wentworth By the Sea Hotel, New Castle (where the Russian and Japanese diplomats stayed)

• Portsmouth Historical Society John Paul Jones House (Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit)

Portsmouth's Sister City of Nichinan, Japan, which is the birthplace of Baron Komura, lead Japanese negotiator, will conduct a bell-ringing with their Mayor Sakita and the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School sister school. Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry tree sites in Dublin, Hanover, Lancaster, Meredith, Manchester and Milford NH also traditionally participate in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day commemoration. For more information, visit PortsmouthPeaceTreaty.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: City to celebrate Portsmouth NH Peace Treaty Day on Sept. 5