The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1846-08-28
Salaries OF Foreign Ministers.

Snaries OF rOreiSn ministers.
1t is a singular anomaly in our democratic 20.
vernment, that the salaries Of ministers should be
so limited as to exclude all but men of wealth,
from the office ofmnister either to ST. Petersburg
Paris, or London. This is not as it should be.
and we think the people should insist upon a
change. The present system is anti-republicanism.
and the people should require of their represent
tatlves to advocate an increase of the salaries of
foreign ministers.
The original law, regulating the salaries of mi.
nisters, passed in the first of the government,
at time when the requirements of the people
were simple, compared to those of the present
day, provided that minister should receive not
more than nine thousand dollars year, leaving
1t discretionary with the President to bestow diff.
ferent salaries on different ministers. But Gen
washington, knowing that the greatest sum APP
propr'ated was little enough for the most incon-
siderable mission, regulated all the salaries at
nine thousand dollars; and through all the changes
OF time, and through all the variations in the va
lue OF money, for more than half a century, the
salaries have still remained the same. Now. the
necessary expenditures of the different missions
vary according to their importance For instance,
the Minister to Brazil, can save out of his salary
STA, is obliged to spend double the sum allowed.
The Minister to Spain can live comfortably on
his salary. The salaries of the three great.
est ana most important missions, so low,
that no man OF even moderate means can
undertake them. No man who is not wealthy
will accept either of them. The Minister to the
court OF st James is obliged to spend at least ten
thousand dollars more than his salary. The
ministers to Paris and ST. Petersburg, cannot live
on less than fifteen thousand dollars a wear
Now, 1t will be seen at once that no poor man
can accept either Of these three missions-the
three most important in the world and there
are, unhappily, few men like Mr. King, our pre-
sent able minister to France, who unite princely
fortune with extraordinary vgor OF intellect, and
perfect fitness for the discharge of all the duties
oil his important station. 1t is humiatng to our
IDEAS OF republicansm, that offices of honor
under the government requiring consummate
craftsmanship, profound learning, perfect apt
ness for com plicated business, and unblemshed
purity OF character, should be open only to those
who possess wealth; and that the poor man, not
withstanding that he may be the very fittest per-
son for such an office, is compelled to decline it.,
the President being obliged to accept the service
of a man more wealthy but less deserving. Who
is not sensible of the advantage of having such a
man as Mr.. McLane near the English Court ?
And who does not regret the necessity which
compels him to resign an office, for which he is
every way so qualified =!
But there is another evil attendant on this com.
pulsoy choice of rich men for the office of minis
ter. 1t is duty owe to other nations, 10 set be-
fore them the good effects resulting from the exis-
tence among us of free and republican institutions.
1t should be our desire to propagate the republican
spirit in Europe. Do we, under the present
regulation of the salaries of ministers, show
the nations OF Europe, that we regard merit
alone in the besowal Of office, and that we look
upon meritorious poor man as better entitled to
an honorable office than a less meritorious veal
thy man No such thing. We virtually exclude
the poor man from office, and promote the rich
man-because of his wealth-thus engrafting on
our system, the most libera notions of the aristo
cracies of the old world
There is another similar evil connected with
the one we have named that is-the pitful salary
OF the Secretary of Legation. A gentleman going
out to England as Secretary of Legation receives
two thousand dollars year, and he is obliged TO
spend five thousand. He must either be depend
ent on the Minister (who is scarcely able to sup
port himselD for board, or he must have private
fortune to depend upon for his maintenance. He
is thus reduced to the alternative of humiliating
dependency on one who probably has been all
his life stranger to him, or Of ruinous expendi
turc over and above his salary.
This is all wrong. Economy is one thing-nig-
gardliness another. For an instance of the
latter see Cave Johnson's management of
the Post Office: We are opposed to lavish
expenditure of the public money; but we equally
deprecate that short-sighted spirit of parsimony
that would sacrifice the great interests of the ma
ton, and at the same time that strong democratic
principle that should manifest itself in all the
workings of our institutions, merely for the an
nual saving of few thousand dollars.
The voice of the universal press should be heard
on this subject, and the principle of equality,
and of a disregard of wealth in the bestow-
al Of office, should be forcibly asserted. We
know that the increase of salary will be opposed by
some few members of the House Of Repre.en-
ta,ives, who wish to gain pitifu popularity by
demagogueical expression of anxiety to guard
the public moneys. But we believe that the good
sense of the two houses of Congress will carry
through measure so absolutely necessary to the
national interests, and which is so likely to gain
the popular suifrages. Let the President, in his
next annual message to Congress, recommend an
increase of the salaries of ministers and of secre-
taries of legation, and we venture to predict that
the suggestion will be acted upon. Whoever first
moves in this matter will entitle himself to lasting
credit. Let those who survive of the minister. to
the different courts for the last twenty years, be
applied and requested to furnish an estimate of
the annual outlay necessary for the different mis-
sions. Let an average be then struck, and let
that average be established by law as the maxi
mum salary. Let there be distinction made
between the salary of the minister to Brazil, who