The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-30
ROTATION IN DIPLOMACY.

The Washington States demands the re-
moval Of Theodore S. Fay, as Charge DAT
flares to Switzerland, and John Randolph Clay.
who holds a similar position towards the Gov
eminent of Peru, because they have been alb
sent from the country thirty years, because Mr..
Fay has strong Abolition affinities, because
both have married foreign wives, and, we will
add, last, but not least, because their places
are needed by active and hungry champions
of Negro Slavery. 1t says:
"When is Theodore S. Fay, the absentee OF
thirty years, to be recalled !? If he is to re-
main at Berne longer as Minister, with his no
torious Abolition proclivities, the Office will, to
a certainty, be abolished next winter. He had
been abroad well nigh to twenty-five years
when he was appointed. And John Randolph
Clay-how much longer is he to remain in
Peru? He, too, has been away from his coun-
try thirty years. The former of those function.
aries has recently become the husband of a
German lady-the latter some years ago was
married to an English one. Each, no doubt,
would regard our Government as mean and
contemplate if the principle Of rotation were
applied to him. We shall soon call attention to
this matter again"
The European Courts, with whom the sys.
TEN of diplomacy originated, make it a point
to train men from their youth up as diplomats,
and they never dismiss Minister, except for
incompetency, neglect, or malfeasance Min
listers are sometimes recalled for having COM
mitted blunder, or rendered themselves OBJ
noxious to the foreign Governments near which
they reside but in such cases they are not
dropped from the diplomatic service, unless
their conduct has been conspicuously reprehen-
sible.
If the system of diplomacy be good for any
thing, and if it be needful to keep it up at a
cost of hundreds of thousands per annum, there
can be no doubt that the European practice is
wise The system is founded on the assump-
ton that the interests of the country require
that we should have responsible and intelligent
agents resident at foreign Courts, who may
watch our interests, national and individual,
and bring them properly to the notice of those
Courts. To do this, we should employ edu-
Gated gentlemen, who have enjoyed opportuni-
ties of learning the language and manners Of
the countries in which they are to reside. They
should readily comprehend their history and
policy, as well as the daily current of events.
If our diplomats are not to be men of this
stamp, we had better have none at all. The
ignorant and incompetent deniagogues who
too often are appointed to such places, so far
from being able to render essential service
to their country, only bring it into con-
tempt. They are selected, not with reference
to their fitness for such situations, but with a
view to judicious distribution Of the spoils !;
and the service they render is to degrade their
country in the eyes of foreigners, who natural
ly, but fallaciously, conclude that America Sc
lects her best specimens of intelligence and
refinement to represent her at foreign Courts.
The objection to the foreign matrimonial
alliances of Messrs. Fay and Clay is on par
with the others. Who in this country ever
suspected the fidelity of Mr.. Bsdis SEQ, or of his
successor, Baron Steckel, or the French Minis
ter, on account of their American wives ?
Russia is famed for her diplomacy and yet it
is said that her Government has rather encour-
aged than opposed such matrimonial alliances
of her diplomats, as measure Of policy. A
diplomatist who takes to wife lady of the
country in which he resides, pays the highest
possible compliment to it, and acquires thereby