The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-04-13
"AMERICAN DIPLOMACY"
An English View of the Strength and
Weakness of Our Foreign Minis
tiers.
Saturday Review.

Saturday Review.
American di plomacy succeeds bet
ter in great transactions than in
small. Unlike all other great pow
ers, the United States haveno dipIo-
matte service or profession. Any
conspicuous politician of the domi-
nant party may reasonably look to a
foreign mission as Legitimate re-
ward of his service in Congress or
in the managementof of elections.
One exception has been customarily
made in the selections of the Minis
ter to England For many years
the holders of the office have, for
the most part, been personally emil
nent; and in the instances of Mr.
Everett, Mr.. Motley and the pres
ent Minister, the American Govern
ment has Justly estimated the per-
sonal and social value of literary
distinctions. Mr. Adams, who repre-
sented the republic during the whole
course of the civil war, displayed
judgement and ability not unworthy
of his hereditary claim to respect.
Mr.. Buchanan, who was less ac-
ceptable in this country than almost
any of his predecessors or successors,
was so considerable a parsonage that
he passed at one step from the Eng
lish Legation to the Presidency of
the United States. Although dip
lomatic intercourse with English
Foreign Secretaries is facilitated by
the use of a common language and
by similar habits of thought, the
place of American Minister in Lon
don is not always bed of roses.
The tone of dispatches from the
Secretary of State is often soperemp-
tory that it must be embarrassing
to communicate them to a friendly
government, and the unfortunate
diplomatist must be prepared to in
cur the candid criticism of Irish
Americans and of those who court
their favor. Mr.. Lowell probably
appreciates at their just value de-
monstrations that he is sycophant
or traitor because he may not have
undertaken the impossible task of
protecting some assassin of ambig
uous nationality from the gallows.
Although some able and accom-
plished Americans have represented
the republic at other European
courts, especially at Madrid, indiffer-
ence bot-b to personal fitness and to
knowledge has often
produced It's natural results. An
American Minister at Naples once
shouted from he deck of a packet a
personal dehanee, which he request
ed the hearers to transmit TO the
King, 0ecausf, in common with his
fellow pas engers, he had incurred
the excoW Illumination of the quaran
tine. DEring the civil war one Mr..
Cassius Elay, relative of the cele-
brated statesman, reported to the
secretary of State in a dispatch,
Whlch was afterward published by
the department., an audience at
which the Emperor Alexander II,
addressed him, as he said, Sin excel
lent american" 1t may be doubted
whether a great nation consults it's
own dignity by the choice of such
Representatives, but there is little
danger of results injurious to Ameri-
can interests. More skillful dipIo-
natists discharge the function of
OCCASIONAL advisers in conducting
rternational discussions with dis
ssionate courtesy; when serious
ferences are the subject of ne
collation., diplomacy is efficacious
only as it has force to its back. A
threat uttered by litigant who is
able and willing to put 1t into exc
cution loses little or nothing of its
force because it may be rudely ex-
pressed. The United States are
feared or loved by other powers,
without regard to the temper or the
manners of the ministers whom they
employ. A veteran English diplo-
matist, giving evidence some years
ago before a committee of the
House of Commons, was asked by
Mr.. Bright, or by some member
holding similar opinions, why Amer