The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-28

viii. Accordingly, MIR. sumner, in the name OF
MI. Fish, asked MIR. Motley to write, who undertook
the service in the discharge OF his new duties, feel
ing that he could not excuse himself. lie was at
the time the guest Of the Hon. Samuel Hooper, who
remembeTs well that MIR. Motley was engaged on a
paper which, at the time, he understood was at the
request Of Mr. Fish. Mr.. Hooper is sure that Mr.,
Motley was In no respect q volunteer, and that
the paper In question was spoken OF at his table,
while Mr. Fish was dining there, as a task imposed
on Mr.. Motley"
Here we have a curious postprandial COLO
cution: poor Mr.. Fish dining, without a sus-
picion of the trap which was laid for him, with
Hooper. and Sumner and Motley sitting by,
the Madeira costly circulating, the cigar
smoke gently curling, the Secretary naturally
and modestly bemoaniDg his inexperience,
Summer at hand with his suggestion, Motley's
fine eyes modestly cast down, and the host
ready to make a 1 note of the facts should they
ever be, as it seems they now have been.
brought into dispute. This is clearly a con-
fession of the fact; and if it be true, then is
Mr.. Fish a rash man indeed to consent to the
recall of one who. in an exigency. did his
work for him and dom hesitate afterwards to
talk about it.
We have our own doubts on the subject,
but, for the nonce, take the Boston statement
of facts to be the true one. Of one thing
we are very sure, that the Secretary, trained
in the unreserved and honorable hospitality
of this meridian (and no one enjoys and
pNfSA OO IL NAA hONS4 OlhC nANh NLC
Hon. Samuel Hooper, of Massachusetts,
again, to have convivial confidence betrayed
and the talk of the dinner-table revealed.
So much for the fact: now for the avoidance.
1t seems that Mr.. Sumner founded his sug-
gestion to Mr.. Fish on a venerable usage of
the State Department, which the Boston
Journal thus describes
at Is well known that ministers about to go
abroad often prepare the draft of their Instructions.
Mir. Gushing says that on both his missions-one to
China and the other to COlOmbia-he wrote his own
instructions, which were then copied and signed at
the state Department, the first by Daniel Webster
and the second by william IL. Seward"
If there be accuracy in language, this Mas
sachusetts usage is that ministers from
that region occasionally write their own in-
structions, which are accredited to the Secre-
tary of State, and then, at a convenient sea.
SON, when the putative author is dead, as is
Mr.. Webster, or broken down, as is Mr..
Seward, betray the official secret confded to
them and claim the honor for themselves.
Governor Everett was shrewdly suspected on
internal evidence of writing the fashy letter
to the Chevalier Hulsemann, but he was too
much of a gentleman to claim it. But all
this is changed, and we think hereafter some
police regulation should be adopted at the
State Department as there is in the Currency
Bureau, so that there shall be no spurious
paper either received or issued.
So much for the question of honor or pro-
priety: but what a common does not this
make upon. what a fearful illustration is it
not of, the bungling way in which this ad-
ministration does its work We are not dis
posed to blame the Secretary, who is a
modest because he is a meritorious man. We
fly at higher game. The President-the
silent, reserved, meditative, circumspect man
of many cigars and few w~ords-knew as we'll
as any one that the gravest responsibility
which the past devolved upon him was the
Alabama matter. In it we had able, astute.
well.trained adversaries, with O community
behind them not easily hoodwinked and very
sensitive on a point of honor. A discreet,
acute, and experienced man was needed for a
vacant post; uncommitted, at least publicly,
to extreme opinions, but resolute in his sym
patty with his country's cause. The President
did not take the trouble to look FOR such a
man. He was in the first gush of his perso-
nal sensibilities. 1t was the day when he
flung one commission at Mr.. Stewart and an
other at Mr.. Borie; when gratitude for green
backs and bricks and mortar filled his heart,
and, careless of the public good, he was ready
to do anything for his private friends, from
the groom who rode his horses to the Senator
who voted for his nominations. Then was it,
in a sad hour, Mr.. Sumner made his claim on
gratitude and had the claim allowed; all he
asked was "Motley, and Motley was given to
lin. In vain did Mr.. Fish demonstrate. for
his instincts told him it would not do; in vain
did Boutwell, and Hear, neither of them rhe-
toricians, look glum; the Presidents feelings
were aroused and he determined to fight it
out on the Motley line. His civil, like his
military, promise may in some remote day be
perversely fulfilled, though it does not look
much like it now. There was q year of per-
plexity and alarm and ~fruitless slaughter after
the first boast was uttered before f~ruition
came; and since the day he committed him
self to MIR. Sumner, and appointed Motley,
fifteen months have rolled by, and, thanks
to Encouragement somewhere, the claims of
our merchants and s~hipowners and under
writers are, if possible, more desperate than
when Andrew Johnson left Washington and
Mr.. Seward returned to Auburn by way of
Alaska. All is perplexed in the future; Mr..
Motley maddened in London; Wilson angry
at Washington, having voted for st. Domingo
in vain; Mr.. Frelinghuysen, the most sensible
man of the party, hesitating whether he shall
accept; the English mission at q great crisis
vacant, or in the hands of Mr.. Secretary Ben
jamin Moran; and the chief magistrate attend
ing rifle matches at Washington, and, UOgue Ia
Galere, driving fast trolting horses at Long
Branch. We sincerely trust Mr.. F~relinghuysen
is not writing his own instructions; though,
if he is, we are sure-for he is a gentleman
and a man of honor-he will not boast of il
hereafter. We meekly suggest to our Boston
friends to take up a new line of defense.
ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!
From the N. Y. Tribune.
We have already alluded to the reluctance
exhibited by many persons to answer prompt
ly and correctly the queries which it is the