The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-06-08
In FAMOUS ARCHIVES.
Secrets Of the State Department at
Washington.

How Presidents Write Thanksgiving Proc
lamations-The Author of That Famous
Phrase "Innocuous Desuetude'-Some
Royal Letters-Curious Documents.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, June Livery letter
and every document bearing the execu-
tive signature represents to surpris-
ingly large number of newspaper read
ers an intellectual and mechanical effort
on the part of the chief magistrate.
1t is well perhaps that the green room
of the diplomatic service as revealed in
the department of state is rarely if ever
penetrated by other than the attaches,
the majority of whom retain their posi-
tons despite change of power by right
of proficiency and secretiveness. This in
innate knowledge Of affairs Of state I'M
doubtedly lends to the clerks of the state
department. that indefnable air of supe-
riority that rarely fails to impress Uncle
Sans less favored servants.
II see the president has done this" 81
see the secretary of state has done that"
daily greet the natty clerk as he strolls
along the avenue to the majestic white
pile where he expends his vitality in the
service Of the government. How the
president came to do this. the secretary
that, are the clerks unshared secrets.
During the Behring sea controversy
the green room of the state department
reverberated with CALCULATIONS more
forcible than polite, but only the latter
was discernible in the official documents
sent across the seas. 1t is the duty of
the typewriter to put the personal feel
ings of constituted authority" in diplo-
matte dress.
Across the hall from the diplomatic
chamber in the state department at
Washington are two rooms known as the
archives-the depository Of state docu-
ments. There in bound volumes are the
national and international correspond
ence deemed worthy of preservation.
Think you the Thanksgiving procla-
nation, for instance, is the personal ex-
preston, the personal labor, of the presi-
dent2 ''What a good, pious man is the
PRESIDENT is the phrase in which more
than one reader of the Thanksgiving
proclamation has vented his approval Of
the chief magistrate.
Alas, the president neither composesn nor
writes the proclamation, and it may be
signed without reading, as are the ma
jority of formal state documents. Scarce
~ an employee in the immediate circle
Of the secretary Of state, however, but
has finger in the Thanksgiving procla-
nation. When the time arrives to pre-
pare this exclusively American docu-
ment, the book Of credence is consulted
until the original issued by the govern
ment is found. This form is copied YER
batim. Then it passes through various
clerical hands, who lnodernize it, as it
were, by inserting here and there facts
of present interest.
For instance, if there has been during
the year great calamity, drought, food,
holocaust, or if some important event is
pending, as the World fair, these are in
serted in lieu of happenings apropos to
Jefferson or Monroe's time. To one vet
eran official has been reserved for years
the honor of putting in the piety," as
the divine invocation is known in office
parlance. A clean, revised copyis final
ly made and sent by messenger to the
White House, where the president signs
it. Duplicates are then sent out to the
press and the original filed.
Most interesting and suggestive is the
international correspondence especially
the royal letters. What scholarly
essay on the epistolary art of diplo-
macy might not be conjured from be-
tween the lines of these formal epistlesl
Happily the typewriter-that electrocu-
tor Of all epistolary art-was then un-
known, and the bold English or fine
French script exhales from these old
parchments distinctive, almost person
al, aroma.
In scanning these mellowed epistles.
everywhere conveying in almost identi-
cal phrase congratuiation or coincidence,
announcement of births OF deaths, the
asa~nsion or abdication of thrones, a
dead pass becomes a living present. Ex-
cepting England, all countries express
themselves in the diplomatic language,
French, translations Of which are often
preserved with the originals. Royal
letters are delivered to the president in
person by the resident ministers repre-.