Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1905-10-19

Charles Francis Adams. In each of
these cases the ministers popularity
abroad may be said to have varied
inversely to the gratitude that he de-
served at home. 1t is just as well to
recall from time to time that an en-
bassador's primary business is not to
please the foreign sovereign to whom
his credentials are addressed, or the
foreign people among whom he so
| journs, but TO please our own state de-
partment. The scrupulous discharge
of this fundamental duty seems not
always to be reconcilable with the
sedulous cultivation of personal pop
ularity.
This truth one American minister
| to London learned to his cost. John
Lothrop Motley went to the court of
James with great reputation, due
to his literary distraction and to a
brilliant career at Vienna. We have
never had a spokesman in England
more thoroughly suited to English
tastes, or more cordially welcomed
at court or in society. 1t is, however,
matter of history that the very
eminence of the position acquired by
Mr.. Motley caused him to overrate the
importance of his individuality, and
in some measure to forget his true
relation to the state department; and
that, consequently, Secretary Hamil-
ton Fish felt constrained to request
membered that at the time when
his resignation. 1t may also be re-
President Cleveland put forth his
Venezuelan message, which was re-
ceived with an unprecedented out
burst of approval by all patriotic
Americans, irrespective of party af-
filiations, but which, not unnaturally
provoked disgust and resentment in
Great Britain. Mr.. Bayard, then our
ambassador at the court of st. James,
was reported to have allowed himself
to express regret at the position as
sumed by his official superior. With
notable forbearance and magnani-
nifty Mr.. Cleveland refrained from
disciplining the subordinate who, ap-
parently, had sought to preserve his
own popularity at the expense of his
principal: but Mr.. Bayard was not
left in doubt as to the view of his too
conciliatory behavior that was taken
by his fellow-countrymen. Evidently
there are cOnjunctures when an am
bassador or a minister, if he means to
be unswervingly faithful to his ma
tive land, cannot hope to be courted
and applartded in the country to
which he is accredited. There is one
thing he can secure, however, and
that is the respect of both the peoples
for whom he acts as the medium of
communication. AS Whitelaw Reid
pointed out, Charles Francis Adams
could not be described as "iollier,"
ana at nc time was he popular in Lon
don; get when he retired it was with
the esteem of high-minied English
men, as well as with the certainty
that he was destined to place of
superlative honor in the history of
American diplomacy.
1t may be well that, from time TO
time, the injunction to avoid tempta-
ton should be commended to Ameri-
can diplomatists. In the stereotyped
instructions of our state department,
which are the outcome of prolonged
experience, We read that sit is deemed
advisable for diplomatic officers to re-
frain from public addresses, unless
upon exceptional festal occasions, in
| the country of their official residence"
This, of course, is a delicate intima-
ton that an ambassador or minister
should forbear to push or keep too
obtrusively his personality in the
foreground, lest his attention should
be diverted in some degree to solicit
tude for his own social position from
the assiduous and punctual fulfill
ment of the state departments
wishes. Upon this point Whitelaw
Reid Justly remarked that American
onlookers are sometimes liable to a
curious self-deccption with regard to
a representative of the United States
abroad. They assume that man Is
necessarily meritorious when he is
loudly praised in the country to which
he is sent. In no other field of bust
ness, however. do we base our esti.
mate of the success of an agent, to
whom we have intrusted the promo
ton of our interests, on the fervor OF
the satisfaction expressed by the
Opposite party. On the contrary, ex,
Iperience teaches us that our own
cause for content is apt to vary in
versely with the delight eyinced by
tae other side.