The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-23
The Proto-Mnrtyr of the PantoIoons

"the true nature of the beast"
The PrOtO-Martyr of the PantnIOOns.
From ule WOrLd.
A cruel act of injustice has just been done
to a most industrious public servant Mr..
Sanford, our Minister Resident at Brussels,
very properly asked, some time ago, to be
absolved from bearing a title which could only
make him ridiculous in the eyes of his col
leagues, since it is a notorious fact that
neither at Brussels nor anywhere else has he
ever been PRESIDENT" Such is the gay elasti-
city of his temper that life with him means
locomotion, and he long since earned the sobri-
quet of the diplomatic flea" by the suddenness
and vivacity of his leaps from one capital of
Europe to another. To have conferred upon
him the title of minister Resilient would
have been both a pretty and proper way of
recognizing his disposition as well as his SER
vices but that title being unknown to our
diplomatic hierarchy, Mr.. Sanford was COM
PEELED to put his plea for accuracy in the form
of a prayer for promotion. He asked to be
appointed 'Mnister Plenipotentiary and
Envoy Extraordinary" This appointment
would only have authorized him to be as queer
body as circumstances and other peoples
good nature would permit But the Senate
would not give it to him. After their lavish
breveting of everybody who ever Wore q
sword or pocketed a bounty in the national
army this treatment of a diplomat as meri-
torious in his way as Neal Dow in battle, or
Dick Busteed on the bench, was certainly very
scurvy. And it's meanness has been made
still worse by the Chairman of the Senate Com
Rol Mr. bn
on Thursday got up in the Senate, and announc-
ing that there was ga habit among our Minis
ters abroad of wearing court costume on GER
tain occasions" reported joint resolution,
which was passed, to the following effect
"Resolued That all persons in the diplomatic
service OF the United States are prohibited from
wearing any uniform or official costume not
previously prescribed by Congress-"
This has fine republican look of protesta-
| ton against the ''liveried tlunkeys'' of the
effete European mOnarchies. But it is only
! Mr.. Sanford s thunder which Mr. Sumner has
stolen For twenty years Mr.. Sanford has
! lived upon the renown of his lofty moral cour-
age in appearing at the Tuileries in pair OF
| black pantaloons. He will go down into his
tory as the proto-martyr of Mr.. Marcy S
famous order resembling the whole embroidery
business from our diplomatic schedules. And
now, at the very moment when his sacrifice is
erected by Mr.. Sumner into a statute, he is
snubbed and made little of, refused his promo
ton, and told to be "Minster Resident, or,
in other words ''to keep stillu' That Sena-
tor Sumner should occupy his grave
and mighty mind with a question OF
pantalOOns, would, of itself, be surprising.
But that he should plagiarize from Mr.. San
ford on such question, and, as one may say,
take the bread out of the mouth of the very
flea he has just caught between his thumb
and his foretnger, is really deplorable. So
far as concerns the abstract question itself,
we have no quarrel to make either with Mr..
Sanford or Mr.. Sumner. When Mr.. Marcy
told Mr.. Sanford to take the stripes off the
legs of his pantaloOns and the golden oak
leaves from his coat, Mr.. Sanford did right in
obeying. And Mr. Sumner is right when he
insists that there shall be as much uniformity
in the uniforms of our diplomats as of ouI
soldiers and our sailors The sort of people
whom Mr.. Sumner and Mr.. Seward have
been sending abroad for six years past tC
represent us may not, for the most part, have
been beautiful to behold, even in uniform
but it is dreadful to think that "guys" they
would have seemed had they been left to theil
own devices in the matter of dress. We have
had Ministers who were perfectly capable o
going to court in secondhand costume o
the "Conte di Luna" from the 7ToUatore, o.
in the dress of police sergeant, or in the
black frock-coat and satin waistcOat of West
ern Methodist missionary, or, as really hap
pened in one lamentable case, in the castOf
coat of a Senator of the French empire. BY
all means let us have diplomatic uniform
'neat but not gaudy," and let our envoys b,
compelled to wear it at all times when anybody
is likely to be obliged to look at them Blu
what q wretohed thing it is for Senator Sum
ner to have oribbed even so small and prac
tical thought; and what sinful thing fo
him to have snubbed its prOt0-martyr in tn