The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-20
THE DRESS or THE AMERICAN d.
RIOMAT.

PLOMAT.
American officials in the diplomatic ser
vice abroad are distinguished by their
dress. The fact that they do not follow
the custom Of diplomatic officials OF other
countries used to be the subject of great
deal of comment, and, to a certain extent,
is still.
In our dispatches from London yester-
day, for instance. giving an account OF
the presentation by the foreign ambassa-
| doris and ministers in London OF their ere
dentials to King Edward at Marlborough
House. the following statement appeared:
Each member Of the diplomatic corps ar
rived in a royal carriage drawn by two
horses and was attended by three royal
servants attired in long scarlet cloaks. AN
the diplomats wore levee dress, with or
ders and decorations. with the exception,
of course, of Ambassador Choate, who
wore ordinary evening dress"
II appears therefore that Ambassador
Choate was so greatly distinguished from
the other diplomatic officials by his dress
that he received special mention in the
dispatches.
The diplomatic officials of the United
States when abroad did not always con-
fine themselves to evening dress. During
the first half of the first century of the
Republic there was good deal of I'M
certainty as to the kind of dress they
should wear at the courts of Europe. The
dress of some of them was rather eleb-
crate. Even Benjamin Franklin put gilt
buttons on his plain Quaker coat, and
they were very much admired al the court
of France.
Our representatives at Client, where the
treaty ending the war of 1872 was nego-
tiated. were Clay Bayard, Russell and
John Quincy Adams. 1t was thought ad-
visable by them to wear a uniform cos
tune. The one they adopted consisted
of a blue coat slightly embroidered with
gold, white breeches, white silk stock
ings. gold knee buckles and shoe buckles,
a sword and a small cooked hat orna-
mented with black cockade. Mr. Adams
was so satisfied with this costume that
when he became Secretary of State he
recommended it to all of our ministers.
When Jackson became President there
was doubt as to the costume to be worn
by our diplomats, and one OF them wrote
to Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State
for instructions. President Jackson was
not inclined to give any instructions about
the matter but finally decided to recon-
mend the following: "a black coat (sin-
gle breasted), with a standing collar, hav-
ing a gold star on either side; under
clothes of black, blue or white, accord
ing TO the wearers taste, a three-corner-
ed chapeau de bras ornamented with a
black cockade. and a steel-mounted sword
in white scabbard."
When Mr. Marcy took possession of the
office of Secretary of State in 1853 he put
an end to the worry that our diplomats
were accustomed to have in the matter Of
costume by directing all of our officials
in the diplomatic service to appear at
court in the simple costume of an Ameri-
can citizen" His order did not of course
have binding effect, but t was very
generally observed by subsequent admin
istrations until 1867. when Congress pass
ed resolution by which officials in the
diplomatic service of the United States
were forbidden to wear any uniform not
previously authorized by Congress-" AS
Congress had not previously authorized
any uniform for diplomats it was con-
tended by one writer on international law
that the resolution might be construed as
prohibiting American ministers from
wearing any clothes whatever.
The resolution. however was under
stood to mean that it was the desire of
the American people that their diplomatic
representatives should not be distinguish
ed by any dress not worn by American
officers at functions at the White House
and therefore it came about that the
evening dress was adopted for court func-
lions by Americans in the diplomatic SER
vice.
---s--a-s-