On 18 June, she sailed for France and arrived at Cherbourg on 30 June. She remained there while a battalion of sailors went to Paris to participate in ceremonies honoring the remains of John Paul Jones which were being returned to the United States. On 8 July, "Tacoma" departed Cherbourg to escort the remains to their final resting place at Annapolis, Maryland. After the ceremony at the United States Naval Academy on 24 July, the warship proceeded to Tompkinsville, New York. On 5 August, she embarked Japanese diplomats at New York and transported them to Sagamore Hill, President Theodore Roosevelt's summer home at Oyster Bay, New York. There, they first met the Russian commissioners for the peace negotiations which were later held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and resulted in the termination of the Russo-Japanese War. "Tacoma" returned to Philadelphia on the 8th and conducted training for the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts naval militias before rejoining the North Atlantic Fleet for operations in the Caribbean Sea.