Uncle Sam Abroad

Appendix 197

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UNCLE SAM ABROAD.

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The Professor

Has

An Idea.

It is the opinion of Professor Loyal of the University of ---- that the average American, to put it bluntly, knows little or nothing about Uncle Sam’s foreign service.

He is also of the opinion that the time is at hand when the aforesaid average American must know more about it, owing to the growth in importance of our foreign relations, both politically and commercially.

Now if the good Professor could only work miracles he would take the dry details which he has in mind upon this subject, and make them as interesting as fiction. Instead, however, he chose a method to which he was more accustomed, the “university extension” plan, aiming primarily to stimulate interest in his subject, and secondarily, in some small measure to gratify it.

The reader is indebted to the notes of a shorthand reporter who happened to hear the entire course, both for the text here given and for the illustrations with which it is adorned. If he thinks that the latter are not always in harmony with the text he must remember that the Professor and the Scribe did not see things from the same standpoint. Moreover he must not hold the Professor too strictly to account for his language, for it is not to be wondered at if he occasionally forgets himself and uses large words, which might be considered out of place in a popular lecture; and again, in his effort to impart life and present-day interest to his subject he at times introduces a levity which he hopes will not too seriously offend the sober-minded, or make them distrust his statements of fact.

On the evening of the first lecture the speaker, having been presented with the usual complimentary remarks, first spoke briefly in explanation of the nature of the course and of such courses in general. He mentioned among other matters that syllabi or leaflets containing outlines of the lectures, together with copies of the “Diplomatic and Consular Register,” would be distributed to all in attendance. He also announced that opportunity would be given at the close of each lecture for questions from the audience, and he promised to attempt to answer the same. Then he turned to the subject of the evening.

THE STATE DEPARTMENT. ]

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Lecture I

THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

What is the attitude of Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia or the United States upon this or that question?

Such a query you often hear, and perhaps you stop to wonder how it is when the collective opinion of any one country cannot be known in a short time, that there can be such a thing as a German attitude, an English or an American attitude, or who has a right to determine upon this or that as our attitude.

Well, it is evident that in domestic affairs, that is to say in national affairs, we as a people can take time to deliberate and choose our path; and it is just as evident that in international affairs we cannot always do so. “It is the unexpected that happens”, and we must have some means of meeting emergencies that will not wait. Hence a free people is least free, theoretically, when it has to do with the claims of treaties and international law, for it cannot take time to consider and decide upon all the facts; nay, even legislatures may interfere seriously with the proper discharge of such duties; so that in actual practice, even the most democratic nations have found it best to entrust the management of foreign affairs, or in other words, the preservation of their national equilibrium, to a Premier, Chancellor or Foreign Secretary, who is generally the ablest statesman that the country can afford.

This officer, with slightly differing functions, is known in our country as the Secretary of State, and he presides over the State Department. Probably there is no office under our Constitution that requires greater sagacity, greater breadth of intellectual grasp and practical training than this one of Secretary of State, and the fact that it has been held by such men as Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William H. Seward and James G. Blaine is sufficient evidence of its importance.

It was intended at first that the cabinet officers should be as nearly equal as possible, and the salaries were fixed and remain the same to this day; but in the nature of the case they could not remain of equal importance, for the Department of State is more intimately associated with the President than any other. Washington would not allow foreign ministers to address him—they must reach him properly through the State Department,—hence, if for no other reason, it is easy to see how the Secretary of State assumed an official dignity that does not belong to the other cabinet officers.

Let us see how he stands related to the general government. Suppose we assume the attitude of an intelligent foreigner, looking at the “Great Republic” from the outside, and trying to discover into whose hands the logical working out of the Constitution has placed the real power.

It has been said that we will at length discover that in all ordinary times of peace the government is practically in the hands of six men, namely,—

the President and two men whom he appoints— the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury; the Speaker and two men whom he appoints— the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and the Chairman of the Committee of Appropriations.

Of these six, one-half are concerned with the finances of the government; and of the other half, one is the Chief Executive, another may be called the chief legislative factor, while the third is our official representative to the rest of the world. This practical division of the functions of government does not seem to agree very well with the more theoretical division into legislative, executive and judicial. In other words, finance has assumed an importance it was not intended to have, just as was observed concerning the Secretary of State.

Footnote 1:

See “American Diplomacy,” by Eugene Schuyler.

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It may seem rather strange to speak of one of our officials as the chief social functionary in our governmental machinery, but we have such a one, and he is no other than the Secretary of State. The office of functionary host for the government might be supposed to belong naturally to the President, who is spared this duty, however, owing to the multiplicity of others that are unavoidable. Consequently the Secretary of State, because of the breadth of the field of his operations, bringing him into touch with representatives of other nations as well as the principal statesmen of our own, and because, moreover, diplomacy’s natural atmosphere has always been that of society, must “keep open house”, as it were, for the Republic. This alone would be a sufficient burden for any one man, but it is expected that the Assistant Secretaries of State shall share it with him. Thus our Secretary maintains the only semblance of a court that will be tolerated by our “fierce democracie”, and even for this we do not contribute a cent of support, though around it and through it operate vast interests, both national and international. It is a manifest injustice to these officials that we do not provide for such legitimate expenses as must necessarily occur on these semi-official, semi-social occasions.

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Now let us see what is the scope of the State Department, for it is much more than a foreign office, though that is its principle function. It embraces the duties which in other countries are given to the Keeper of the Seal, the Minister of Justice, etc., such as—

(1) keeping, promulgating and publishing the laws, (2) custody of the Great Seal, (3) preservation of the Government Archives, and (4) charge of all official relations between the general Government and the several States.

Its scope is more particularly indicated by the bureaus into which it is divided, namely,—

the Bureau of Indexes and Archives; the Bureau of Accounts of the State Department; the Bureau of Rolls and Library; the Bureau of Appointments; the Bureau of Statistics, or Foreign Commerce; the Consular Bureau; the Diplomatic Bureau.

Each of these bureaus is presided over by a chief, and at the head of them all is the chief clerk, who is “the executive officer of the Department of State under the direction of the Secretary.”

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The Bureau of Indexes and Archives is a sort of postoffice and recorder’s office combined, for it receives the incoming mail, opens it and classifies it as either diplomatic, consular or miscellaneous, then indexes it so that if necessary it can be readily traced, and then turns over to the Chief Clerk the diplomatic correspondence and the more important consular and miscellaneous correspondence. This the Chief Clerk reads, and the most important is submitted to the Assistant Secretaries of State, while the remainder is turned over to the various bureaus for their attention. Likewise after the Secretary and his Assistants have signified the replies which are to be made to the most important of the mail and have examined and signed the same, it is collected from all the bureaus, and the out-going mail is indexed in another set of books.

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