Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-05-22
DIPLOMATS AT ST. JANIS.
American Plenipotentiarics who Have
served their Country at the British
Court,


be agreeable to the sovereign of Great
Britain to receive minister from the
United States. Fox added that, to spare
the king any needless reference to pain
full topic, he should have taken ON him
self to answer the question in the aflirma
tive, "if it had not been rather pointedly
put to me to take your majestys royal
pleasure" In his answer, dated, with the
usual precision, "Windsor, August Z, 1888.
Z p, m." the king replied that he Ger
tainly could never express its being agree
able to him. to receive n minister from
America "and indeed" remarks his ma
jesty, 81 should think it wisest for both
parties to have only agents who can settle
any matters of commerce" Nor was it
till 1901 that England sent Il minister Dlen-
ipotentary to America, the gentleman
chosen for that delicate post being Mr..
George Hammond, the father of lord
Hammond. From the United States,
however, the king had consented to re
ceive Il minister as far back as the year
1855, when John Adams was sent over.
and went through the trying ordeal of
presenting credentials to his former
prince.
His embarrassment, he owns, would
have been great, but for the considerate
attentions of the Swedish and Dutch am
bassadors, who engaged him in light CON
yersation while he was awaiting for a
summons into the closet. At length lord
Carmarthen, the foreign secretary, came
for him and IL went" he tells us, with
his lorClshp through the levee-rOOm into
the kings closet. The door was shut and
l was left with his majesty and the secre-
tary of state alone. ] made the three rev
erences one at the door, another about
half way and the third before the pres
ence. according to the usage established
at this and ali northern courts of Eu-
rope"
Adams then spoke, and with dignity :
as did the king, whom the minister pro
nounced to be "the most accomplished
courtier in his domnions.' His majesty
good-humoredly rallied the envoy on his
anti-GalliCan sentiments, which were
well known. Adams "avowed that he had
no, attachment but to his own country,
when the king, "as quick as lightning
replied that IAN honest man would never
have another And with bow he sig
nitied that the audience was at an end.
Whereat, Adams stepping backwards, and
making three more reVerences departed
He took final leave of the Kingdom on the
Goth of February. 11SS, becoming vice
president of the United States i'll the fol
lowing year. and president Immediately i'll
succession to Washington.
Thomas pinCkney of South Carolina,
army. was the next regular minister to
the court of ST. James, and remained I'M
til 1896, though in 11g4-95 John jay, the
chief justice, came over on special busl-
ness Rufus King, another lawyer, rep
resented this country in England from
1896 to 1903 when he was succeeded by
James Monroe, the future president John
Quincy Adams succeeded him.
In 1917, when Adams returned TO take Il
seat in Monroes cabinet, Richard Rush,
eX-attorney general, was accredited to the
English court, of which he has recorded
his impressions at great length. He seems
to have been man of emlnently correct
feeling, as witness the following entry in
his journal of March /, lSlS II receive
many letters from persons i'll England on
emigrating to the United States. The
writer asks for information ana advice. |
afford neither. The bad subjects of Br-
tain we do not want the good ii 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 Il
gold medal commemorative of the event,
which he explained was due by ancient
custom to every minister p!enipOtentiary
to the English court. Rush, with many
civil expressions, declined the medal, al
leging that the constitution of the United
States prohibited its representatives from
accepting presents from foreign poten-
tateS. Sir Robert then presented it to
Mrs. Rush, feeling sure that the cOnsti-
tuition did not mention the ladies'" But
here" continues the narrator" 81 was
driven to quote the old common law upon
him, which was part of our inheritance in
the United States, and good inheritance
we thought it, though it did ungallantly
make the wife's gold the husbands 50
that it ended in our losing the medal both
ways"
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
tenure of the mission, ls29-3l, he had the
good fortune to be served by Washington
Irving as secretary of legation. Presi-
dent JacksOn's second envoy was to have
been Martin Van Buren, but the senate
disalloWed the appointment-a very rare
exercise of the authority of that body in
the case of an ex-senator, whose nOmlna-
ton to any office is usually confirmed as a
matter of course. Van Buren, was speed
lily consoled with the presidency of
the republic and jackson submitted no
fresh appointment till 1896, when Andrew
Stevenson, eX-speakcr of the house of rep
reSentatiVes, was commissioned and con
firmed. He presented his letters of re-
call 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.
Buckminster one of the most popular
preachers in America, in the pastorate OF
one Of the largest and wealthiest Unita
rian congregations in Boston. He accept
ed, and is said to have amply justified the
confidence reposed in him. The work
however, proved too much for his health
and in 1S45-being but 2l-he sought the
comparative repose of professorship al
Harvard Soon afterwards he went tC
Europe and devoted the next five years OF
his life to travel, returning home to edit
the North american ReUie,C, to sit in
congress and to be four times in success
sion chosen governor of Massachusetts
His immediate successors in London were
Louis McLane (reappointed), 1876, and
George Bancroft, 1916 40.
The historian was followed by Abbott
Lawrence, lS49-52, who began life as q
clerk in his brothers dry goods store,
travelled widely for the firm, helped &c
make a big thing of it, and is justly re-
garded as one of the founders of the town
of Lawrence, in his native State of Mas
sachusetts. TO Joseph h. lngersoll law
yer, who filled the mission in 1928, sue
liz,