The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-03-09
Pay of American Diplomatic Agents.

Senate, several amendments were offered to that
portion which regulates the pay of our diplomatic
agents. 1t was attempted to raise the CHILEAN
Chargeship into full ministerial representation:
and proposition made to increase the salaries
of our ministers at London, at Paris and at 81.
Petersburgh. Statements were made by several
members-and by some who had themselves been
our national agents near foreign goverhments-to
the effect that the present pay OF our diplomatic
officers is entirely insufficient for supporting them
in a manner desirable for the representatives of
such people those of the United States. The
general impression of Senators seemed to be that
the pay ought to be increased, though many thought
it had better be done in a more deliberate manner
than through an Appropriation Bill whilst others
had schemes by which, with the present pay of
ministers, they might diminish their expenses, and
at the same time support the dignity of the govern
ment they represented. Among these latter was
the very feasible plan of Mr.. Jefferson Davis, for
the United States to purchase and furnish houses
for the foreign minister's in the same way is
done by many of the European governments.
Though the most of these amendments aborted,
it is well that the general subject discussed during
the debates on them has been brought to the atten
ton of the American people. There is a class of
politicians who regard economy-as they plea
sed to call t-as the great end and object in the
administration of public affairs, seeming to think
that the chief aim of government should not be
how to get as much as necessity requires for the
least amount of money, but how to spend as little
as possible, independent of the nature, good, bad,
or Indifferent, of the services rendered. Such a
spirit of economy defeats its own ends. The miser
is of all men, the least economical. When we
attempt to get things too cheap, we apt to get
them of so bad quality that they are not worth
having This is the danger to be avoided in fixing
the pay of officers whose standard of qualification
is as high as ought to be that of the diplomatic
servants of the United States. Representatives Of
our government and people in the midst of those
who are slightly, if at all acquainted with our
character and prospects, they should be the expo
nents of that civilization at which we are already
arrived, and to some extent the heralds of that yet
higher state towards which we are constantly ad-
vancing. Not only should they be the representa-
tives of moral and Intellectual but also of our
material and social developments and in order to
do this the material means which money purchases
are indispensable.
1t is very true, was remarked by Mr. Allen
and others who opposed any increase in the pay of
our diplomatic functonaries, that the dignity of a
man is in no wise increased by palaces, retnue,
fine furniture and equipages. You cannot dignity
fool or a knave into sage or an honest man,
though you surround him with all the arts of lux
ury, and furnish him with all the appliances of the
most refined civilization. The weakness of the
man will be manifest through all the inery with
which he may be loaded; the rottenness of the
core will be certain to show itself, sooner or later
on the surface of the fruit. But, at the same time
that We are careful to send abroad men of the
broadcast intellect and the loftiest integrity. we
should also remember that they go forth, not merely
as gifted and high-minded individuals, but also as
representatives of great Republic bent on subdu-
ing to Its service all the powers of nature and of art
Ii there is one quality more than another which
distinguishes the present race of Americans from
the other nations of the GLOBE it is the energy they
display In converting to their uses all the material
agencies by which they are surrounded The |
earth, the air and the water are tortured in order
to force from them their hidden secrets, and no |
sooner are their latent energies discovered than
apply them to useful and practical purposes. Now,
it is exactly this power of Man over Nature which
money represents; it is exactly this power which
money can buy. Hence, if we would have our |
dplomatists accurate exponents of our national |
we must furnish them with abun- |
dance of money The palaces which thew might |
inhabt in foreign cities, the stately eGuipages with
which they might traverse the streets, in order to
reach the abodes of royalty or of patrician PRIDE
would be outward and visible signs of that repub. |
llcan vigor which is spanning with bridges the |
broadcast rivers, circIing immense continents with
roads OF iron, and whispering messages along cop
per wires through the longest spaces in the shortest
times. |
Let it not be thought mere piece of extrava-
gance, to furnish our ministers abroad with sui.
ficent sum of money to enable them to display to |
those among whom they may dwell some of the |
same material power which our countrymen are |
constantly accumulaling in their hands. True. |
the highest civilization is that which consists in
great moral and intellectual attachments and the |
man or the nation which does not base its merit on
the possession of such qualities is deficient in the
most important elements of greatness. The nation
that relies on its material civilization alone for its
is destined sooner or later to an igno-
ninious fate. But the individual or the nation
that does not place value on the control man NAV
acquire over the physical forces must be brutally
iull or angelically divine. The American people
place due estimate the command they have
acquired over the material agents of Nature; let
them show it more freely to foreigners by the endow-
ments they bestow their diplomatic functionaries
Or NJ Shermnier, the learned Professor of the
History OF Jurisprudence in the College de France,
has lately resigned his chair for political reasons
His letter of resignation, which we translate from
The NdHonat gives us an idea of the intimate reIa
lions existing in France between Education and
Government. The letter is addressed to the Minis