Vicksburg meets an emperor

He looked more like a Southern planter, in his pin-striped suit and broad-brimmed felt hat, than an emperor, but when Dom Pedro II of Brazil arrived at the city waterfront on May 22, 1876, the Herald reported that a lot of citizens rushed down to the river “to get a glimpse of a real live Emperor.”

Dom Pedro and his wife, the Empress Dona Thereza, were in the United States as guests of honor at the centennial celebration in Philadelphia. (The Prince of Wales had declined to celebrate American independence.)

His Majesty and Lady being in Vicksburg was a thrill, of course, but it was also disappointing as the Grand Republic on which they were traveling docked at the Vicksburg landing, but the passengers didn’t come ashore.

The royal couple didn’t conform in looks as to how local folks thought they should, but looks didn’t matter to the curious. The Herald reported that the- boat had barely docked before the “eager crowd began to scramble over the guards and rush up the grand stairway to the cabin. The Emperor was easily singled out from the crowd by those who had seen his picture and when the cry was started, ‘There he is, that’s the Emperor, there’s Dom,’ etc., the crowd gathered around His Majesty so thickly that the Brazilian Emperor had some difficulty in making his way through the cabin to the boat’s guards.”

The newspaper stated that he “was one of the plainest looking and most unpretentious of all the Grand Republic’s passengers.” He was 51 years old, but his white beard made him look older “and his manner is at once dignified and simple — plain and unpretending as a Southern planter, for which he might readily be taken.

The reporter was not so kind to the Empress, who was a Sicilian princess who was so homely that Dom Pedro had almost backed out of the marriage 30 years earlier. However, when she visited in the lady’s salon, she willingly signed autographs.

Dom Pedro loved to travel and wanted to see as much of the United States as possible. In New York City, the couple attended Catholic mass and a Protestant revival.

He was not without wit: When he was told how many revolutions an hour the Corliss engines worked, he quipped that such an amount was even more than generated by the South American republics.

He marveled at a new device on display, the telephone, and all waited his words of wisdom when he used it: “My God, it talks!” He took 10 back to Brazil to be used in the Royal palace, the first foreign, order made for the apparatus.

America was captivated by the royal guest. He was the center of attention everywhere but wanted no special attention. He loved having a good time and was quite a dancer.

His visit to Vicksburg had been brief, but Dom Pedro was an impressive man. The Herald editorialized that the “plain, unostentatious habits of Dom Pedro have made him universally popular” and that he was the “best example of royalty extant.”

Vicksburgers had been smitten by a brush with royalty.

Gordon Cotton is the curator emeritus of the Old Court House Museum. He is the author of several books and is a renowned historian.