The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-01-04
KIND WORDS FOR BAYARD.
Barron in the Times-Herald.

Mr.. Bayard's successor will have try
ing position to occupy. There are many
ardent Americans, no doubt, VINO thlhk
1t treason for an American to speak or
write of Mr.. Bayard in other terms than
those of eXecration. 1t is, nevertheless,
fact that no representative of the United
States in England has ever done more to
create a sentiment of esteem for America
in the minds of intelligent Englishmen
than our first Ambassador to the court of
St. James. Sir Francis lockwood in a
recent speech. said he was told in Ameri-
ca that it was due to the calm and judi
cial attitude of the English press that
there was so pacific a settlement of>the
recent differences between the United
States and England. While this Is un-
doubtedly true, it is equally certain that
the dispassionate, bipartisan but serene
ly patriotic attitude of Mr. Bayard had
great deal to do with the moderation of
English editorials and gave the cue for
discussion of the question in way to pro-
woke the least antagonism and promote
the largest harmony. When it is remem
bered how often hot-headed, unintelligent
zeal on the part of people who imagine
themselves to be the only patriots has
imperied the welfare of nations it may
be regarded as an inestimable blessing
that a government has fair-minded,
coOl-headed, wise representative at Il
foreign court where he is thoroughly re-
spected
Mr. Bayard has stood for America upon
the polished platform of the highest and
most dignifed diplomacy, and he has
paralleled the achievement of Lowell in
winning esteem for himself while steadily
enhancing and broadening the respect for
his country. Now that his mission is
practically ended these things may be
| said for him. Not a few Americans who
were disappointed in their efforts to use
| Mr.. Bayard, and We're made to under
stand that an ambassador is not the
| lackey of his tourist countrymen, feel a
personal hostility to Mr.. Bayard which
| they would gladly explain as an honest in
| dignation because of his "damnable and
| unpatriotic toadying to English preju-
| dice" the one thing precisely that Mr..
| Bayard has never done. The simple fact
| is that Mr.. Bayard is a learned, scholar
| ~ man, skilled lawyer, a commanding
| orator, clean-witted and sagacious, with a
| sufficient power Of mental detachment
| to examine and determine the respective
merits of a case and the courage to af-
firm his judgment. These are the essen
| tial qualities of a great diplomat; and
| there is no place in the world where Amer
| lea so needs the ablest possible represen-
| tative diplomat as here in London, the
gathering point of the earth's greatness.
| 1t behooVes President-elect Mckinley to
| choose we'll if he would have maintained
| the standard set before the English mind
by our first ambassador for the Bayard
stamp is even deeper than the Lowell inn
| preston. | was in Germany when Low
| ell died, and when l got the English pa
| pers of the following morning, there was
a two-column editorial in the Times and
| the Daily Telegraph had stopped its
| presses to print a half-pagc, excellent
| wood cut of the poet statesman. | ar
| rived in London the next evening, and
upon all sides heard things that made an
| American heart thrOb with a grateful
sense that large -mindedness Overleaps ma
| tional barriers and finds affection and ad-
miration everywhere. We all know how
America mourned the loss of her gifted
son; but who does not remember how
| consciously Minister Lowell was criti-
cised by some of his countrymen because
he felt that it was the business of a min
lister to promote and establish national
friendships, to the doing away with those
petty prejudices and unworthy enmities
that should have nothing to do with the
grand movement of human destiny. Mr.
Bayard has held this view just a little
more fearlessly, that is all. 1t seems 6
thousand pities that Americas foreign
corps of diplomats and representative,
should be at the mercy Of the mutations
of domestic politics. Yet, after all, it may
be one OF the bastiOns of republicansm