The Cecil Whig., 1885-05-23
DIPLOMATS AT ST. JAMES.
The American nPIenipotentiaries who Have
Served Their Country at the British
Courts,

secretary of state for foreign affairs
wrote to George Ill to say that he had
been asked by Mr.. Laurens whether it
would be agreeable to the Sovereign of
Great Britain to receive a minister from
the United States. Fox added that, to
spare the King any needless reference to
a painful topic, ne should have taken on
himself to answer the question in the af-
firmatiye, ''if it had not been rather
pointed put to me to take your Maj
esty's royal pleasure" In his answer,
dated, with the usual precision, "Wind.
sor, August 7, 1888, P. NJ, the King
replied that he certainly could never
express its being agreeable co him. to
receive . minister from America; ''and,
indeed, remarks his Majesty, Il should
think it Hisest for both parties to have
only agents who can settle any matters
of commerce. Nor was it till 1901 that
England sent a minister plenipotentiary
to America, the gentleman chosen for
that delicate post being Mr. Geo. Ham,
mond, the father Of Lord Hammond.
From the United States, however, the
King had consented to receive minister
as far back as the year 1855, when John
Adams was sent over, and went through
the trying ordeal of presenting creden-
tials to his former prince.
His mbarrassment, he owns, would
have been great, but for the considerate
attentions of the Swedish and Dutch am.
| bassadors, who engaged him in light con
versation while he was waiting fer
summons into the closet. At length
Lord Carmarthen, the foreign secretary,
| came for him; and Il went" he tells us,
with his lordship through the leyee-
| room into the Kings closet. The door
was shut, and was left with his Majesty
and the Secretary of State alone. made
the three reverences; one at the door,
| another about halfway and the third be
fore the presence, according to the usage
established at this and all the Northern
Courts of Europe"
OUR FIRST MINISTER'S INTERVIEW.
Adams then spoke, and with dignity;
as did the King, whom the Minister pro-
nounced to be ''the most accomplished
courtier in his dorinions.' His Majesty
good -humoredly rallied the envoy on his
anti-Gallican sentiments, which were
we'll known. Adams ''avowed that he
had no attachment but to his own coun-
try;'' when the King, ''as quick as light
ming" replied that can honest man would
never have another" And with a bow
be signitied that the audience was at an
end. Whereat Adams, stepping back
wards, and executing three more rever-
ences, departed. He took final leave of
the King on the 10th of February, 17SS,
becoming vice-president of the United
States in the following year, and presi-
dent Immediately in succession to Wash
ington.
Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina,
lawyer and ex-soldier of the Continental
army, was the next regular minister to
the Court of St. James, and remained
until 1896, though in 1874 95 John Jay,
the chief justice, came over on specia
business. Rufus King, another lawyer,
represented his country in England from
1896 to 1903, when he was succeeded by
James Monroe, the future president.
Jo hn Quincy Adams succeeded him.
In 1877, when Adams returned to take
a seat in Monroe's Cabinet, Richard
Rush, ex-attorney general, was accred-
tied to the English Court, of which he
has recorded his impressions at great
length. He seems to have been man of
eminently correct feeling, as witness the
following entry in his Journal of March
l, 1878; Il receive many letters from
per ons in England on emigrating to the
United States. The writer's ask infor-
nation and advice. I afford neither. The
the good it is no part of my province to
be Instrumental in drawing away" At
the coronation of George " Sir Robert
Chester, master of the ceremonies, waited |
on Rush with gold medal commemora-
tive of the event, which he explained |
was due by ancient custom to every |
minister plenipotentiary at the English |
Court. Rush, with many civil express |
sions, declined the medal, alleging that |
the Constitution of the United States |
prohibited their representatives from ac-
cepting presents from foreign potentates. !
Sir Robert then rendered it to Mrs. |
Rush. "feeling sure that the Constitr
tion did not mention the ladies'" But |
here" concludes the narrator, 81 was
driven to quote the old common law |
upon him, which was part of our inheri |
tance in the United States, and a good |
inheritance we thought it, though it did |
ungallantly make the wife's gold the |
husband s; SO that it ended in our losing
the medal both ways"
MLAHE AND HIS SECRETARY.
James Barbour, who was a politician |
by calling. soon succeeded Gallatin as
minister to Great Britain; and he in his
turn made way for Louis McLane, WHO
had been midshipman, lawyer, soldier,
congressman and senator. During his
venture of the mission, 1929 81, he had
the good fortune to be served by Wash
ington Irving as secretary of legation.
President Jackson's second envoy was
to have been Martin Van Buren; but the |
Senate disallowed the appointments
very rare exercise of the authority of
that body in the case of an ex senator,
whose nomination to any Office is usu-
ally confirmed as matter of course.
Van Buren was speedily consoed with
the vice presidency Of the Republic; and
Jackson submitted no fresh appoint
ment till 1886, when Andrew Stevenson,
ex-speaker of the House of Repi esenta-
tives, was commissioned and confirmed
lie presented his letters of recall to her
Majesty in October, 1871; when Edward
Everett became minister in his stead.
At the age of only 10 Everett had been
invited to succeed the Rev. J. S. Buck
minister, one of the most popular prea-
ohers in America, in the pastorate of one
of the largest and wealthiest Unitarian
congregations in Boston. He accepted,
and is said to have amply justified the
confidence reposed in him The work
however, proved too much for his health,
l,,I L. L.,