| Show THE MAN FROM MAINE II I I How He Conducts the Business of the State Department HAWTHORNES PEN PICTURE Difficulties 1n Secnrlnir Secretaries for Foreign Legations Great Debaters In Con ross A Cabinet Jlcctlnc JJlaines Predecessors i The room in which I sat awaiting an nudienco with tho secretary of state was long and of good proportions furnished and decorated in a stylo of rich sobriety It faced south and through tho windows vrcre visible the shining reaches of the Potomac Illuminated by the yellow sunlight of Indian In-dian summer Opposite me was an old steel engraving of Franklin Pierce on the mantelpiece to tho rigrhtTras a bronze statuette = stat-uette of General Jackson on horseback there were bronze busts of Washington and otter Revolutionary celebrities surmounting sur-mounting polished wood cupboards and bookcases A clerk sat at a desk in the middle of the room in a corner was the desk of Private Secretary Dent a tall palo young man Half a dozen men and women wero seated in chairs around tho room also waiting for an audience There was no sound except tuaquict ticking of the big clock at tho west end Whenever anyone spoke it was in a hushed voice Noiseless clerks or messengers entered and left occasionally by the door communicating with the secre tarys office which was open but was protected pro-tected by a tall chocolatecolored screen I was reminded of the anteroom of some great physician where patients wait to learn whether they are to live or die Presently a colored attendant appeared from behind the screen and beckoned tome to-me I followed him and found myself in r small cabinet from which J passed by another door into a room narrow in proportion propor-tion to Its great length The walls were encircled with oil portraits At tile hither end was a table covered with papers and there facing down tho room sat a man with white hair and closecut white beard but with a clearcomplexioned face that showed few signs of age Secretary Blainefor this was ho rose and gave me his hand a white well kept hand firm and shapely Before I sat down he had given me an instance of HIS EXTRAOUDIXAKT MEMOKT by recalling the occasion of our last meeting meet-ing at a dinner given by Whitelaw Reid nine years before Mr Blaine spoke in a full musical voice agreeable to the ear and expressed himself Ith noticeable distinctness both of matter j mat-ter and utterance yet with the naturalness natural-ness and ease of one whose mind is perspicacious perspi-cacious and whoso ideas flow easily He sat with his elbows on the arms of his chair occasionally making slight gestures with his hands His eyes are soft bright and clear and they are intelligence itself I dont know that I have seen such another pair of eyes they see and understand everything at once and without effort in fact effort in tho sense of straining to achieve is not suggested by Mr Blaines aspect he seems to do what he does easily and even pleasurably Ho holds tho most important and responsible post under the administration but so far at least as his Intellect is concerned his capacity remains indefinitely excess of any demands upon it The routine of tho office said be is very simple and you can understand it in fire minutes I have under me an assistant assist-ant secretary and a second and third assistants assist-ants The assistant secretary takes his place as secretary pro tern when the secretary secre-tary is absent and attends to all the consular con-sular correspondence The present incumbent incum-bent is Mr William F Wharton of Boston Bos-ton The second assistant Mr Alvey A Adee is engaged wholly in the diplomatic department The third assistant has all cases of extradition and does a great deal of miscellaneous duty besides It is vacant now It was occupied by Mr John B Moore who resigned to accept a very tempting offer in Columbia college as professor pro-fessor of international law He was introduced in-troduced in the department as clerk by Mr Bayard my immediate prodecsbsor He is a vcry mature man ann very alHe At twentynine only he wrote what I think will be considered the standard work on extradition I predict he will be heard from in his career TJlZlir ARE SIX DtTREA Sin S-in the department diplomatic consular accounts statistics rolls and library and indexes and archives There is also an officer Mr Frank P Partridge who serves here but appointed by the attorney general to whom all law cases are submitted submit-ted and by whom all claims are determined An appeal lies to the attorneygeneral the supreme law head of the government Tho chief clerk is a very important officer in tho administration of the department man of all work who knows everything about the department The present occupant oc-cupant ia i Mr Levellon Brown who was originally appointed by Mr Seward But you havent told me where you come in Mr Blaine Well of course all these subordinate divisions di-visions centre here replied tho secretary tapping his lingers on the desk The moment mo-ment any difficulty occurs in the transac actions of any division it comes to me I have to ign all diplomatic correspondence and countersign documents such as proclamations procla-mations treaties and commissions to which the President has affixed his signature sig-nature aud all passports and exequaturs But in such matters you place some trust in your subordinates you dont have to go through everything personally Oh a very great deal of trust is placed 8 in subordinates I sometimes think for instance that I couldnt get on without my assistant secretary Mr Adee who is in that room therehe pointed to a door at the western extremity of the room He 1 1 is a very able man he added with emphasis em-phasis Our force hero is somewhat less i I than in the other departments we have only sixtynine altogether But they know 1 what their duties are and perform them diligently and faithfully At the beginning II 1 begin-ning of our government the j head of tho state department fc u called the secretary ofj foreign affairs but two years afterwards tbe duties of the office wore widened and it wan called the secretary of state At first the secretary had but a single assistant assist-ant Mr Clay when secretary of state under John Quincy Adams had but twelve Mr Webster when secretary under General Gen-eral Harrison had but thirty The business has expanded enormously of lato years principally owing to tho invention of the telegraph A great part of our correspondence is carried on by telegraph Tho having of time is of the greatest importance J often wonder how they got on without the telegraph tel-egraph There are some parts of the correspondence correspon-dence and negotiations which you are obliged to perform yourself Ye anything of importance or that assumes as-sumes the form of a diplomatic discussion snir1 fr Hlninp Invinrr hiv hnnrl nn olD I desk Any critical matter anything in j volving special responsibility The correspondence corre-spondence with Italy respe ting theNew Orleans mtter for instance I wrote myself my-self Literally yourself Yes actually myself with my own hand I wrote the papers at my home I didnt even have an amanuensis And I wrote in the same way the papers iu the Behring sea controversy I do most of the more important part of my work at home Heroin attendant entered with a sheet of paper on which wore half a dozen lines of writing This man is in great distress dis-tress ho said putting tho paper baforo Mr Blaine The latter glanced ovdV it and I signed I said Do you have much of I that sort of detail work to do I Such things aro coming in all the time but nevertheless added the secretary I with a smile this office is one which is very easy to dodge You can refer matters to I various subordinates But it was evident evi-dent that Mr Blaine was not in the habit of dodging Ho did all that came to his hands to do and always knew just what he was doing A clerk came in bearing several large parchments with ornamental lettering letter-ing and writing One or two of them bore the signature of Benjamin Harrison Mr Blaine signed them in a small neat running run-ning band slanting upwards One was a commission for a secretary of legation to the minister at Chili Our chief trouble in appointing these secretaries to foreign legations is to got men who can speak the language remarked re-marked Mr Blaine It seems to mo that we Americans do not pay much attention to the study of foreign languages Our country is so big and all speaking one language it doesnt occur to us In Eng land now it is a matter of course that any one connected with government or at least with tile diplomatic department should speak French at any rate But tho other day we wanted a secretary for the legation at Japan where French is tho diplomatic language I think it was throa months that we were hunting everywhere for a man willing and able to take the po l j I 1 I dl 1 1 J f if r 0 i ijT THE STATE sncTETAnr AT BIS DESK I sition who could speak French There wore graduates of perhaps half a dozen of OUt best colleges You would suppose that any one taking up a diplomatic career would make modern languages ono of his first studies Are all negotiations of this department depart-ment reduced to writing I asked A great deal is doneby personal interviews inter-views with ministers private talks of which no formal record appears Some questions of firstrate importance are treated in this way when for any reason it may be inexpedient to have the details published SCI + 1 h 11 dlt p l t ALVET A ATJEE ASSISTANT SnCRETAIlT OF STATE I During the RussoTurkish war I said Colonel Wellesley of the English army was the bearer of a verbal dispatch from Queen Victoria to the Czar saying that unless tho war was finished in one campaign cam-paign ENGLAND WOULD SUPPORT THE TURKS This mission was so secret that Lord Derby then secretary of war was not aware of it until months afterwards Ha To such things ever occurred under our government gov-ernment Such a thing might occur answered Mr Blaine It is a picturesque idea that history may turn upon a spoken word of which no record re-cord remains said I Yes it is often convenient to so conduct affaire that no tangible evidence may survive sur-vive A diplomatist is often glad to be able to make a technical denial This is aver a-ver public age but affairs of state may easily be obstructsd or compromised by ill timed publicity Have you much correspondence with the governors of states in this country oSo not much very seldom Occasionally Occasion-ally circumstances may happen to make it necessary At the time of tho lynching of those Italians for instance I had some correspondence I cor-respondence with the governor of Louisiana Louisi-ana But the bulk of our correspondence has relation to foreign countries Do you have much personal intercourse with the foreign representatives in Wash ington A great deal They are all iree to come hero at any time But Thursday is toe day specially appointed for their visits AVo give up practically the whole of the day to them They begin to come at 10 oclock in the morning for many of them have the foreign habit of taking a very light early breakfast Americans you know needa substantial breakfast to begin the work of the day on You receive them I suppose in the order of their importance Oh nO1 replied tho secretary laugh Ing All foreign representatives here are i 1 tYN yn + strictly upon an equal footing There is j absolutely no other precedence than of arrival I ar-rivaL The one who comes first is the first t to be received If the representative from I t Hayti gets hero one minute before Str j Julian Paunccfote Sir Julian must wait II until the gentleman from Hayti has his lay layAnd you are In constant communication with all of themJ 1 They dont necessarily come to me about any matter of ordinary business that can as well bo attended to by subordinate officers but on matters of any importance they communicate directly with me antI as I said Thursdays are specially given to themDo Do you see much of the President Yes the Secretary of State is very near to the President owing to the nature of their duties They must confer together 3n a great number of questions I am in fact TIlE SnCRETAET OF THE PRESIDENT Not that I ever do any work in tho White House of course but it is through the medium me-dium of this office that he carries on communication with foreign governments r It seems to me said I that this department de-partment must be the most interesting to administer of auy in i the government Well returned Mr Blaine with a smile I dont wish to be understood as underestimating the charms or certainly not the importance of any of the other departments de-partments but for my part I do find tho duties of the office very pleasant It deals necessarily mainly with questions of national na-tional policy and has perhaps a more direct di-rect hand than most of tho others in aiding to shape the course of contemporary history his-tory A number of events of large importance import-ance are conducted or take their rise here The relations of a great country like this with other countries are naturally more striking and picturesque than tho ordinary routine of domestic affairs But the treasury treas-ury is a vast department so is the interior inte-rior so is the postofllco They all have infinite detail which would be more irksome irk-some to me The navy has become of great importance under Mr Tracy and the department partment of justice under Mr Miller is largo and to a layman very complicated Mr Proctor Who has beeu a very efficient secretary of war has resigned to accept a life officeUnited States Senator from Vermont The secretary of agriculture Uncle Jerry is the most popular man in the cabinet You have had some greatprcdecossors I remarked looking at a portrait of Marcy hanging on the wall opposite Marcy was a great man replied Mr Blaine and there at the further end of the room are two fine portraits I want you to look at He got up from his chair and we walked down the length of the apartment apart-ment The secretary is a tall man little less than six feet in height and buttoned up in his black frock coat and holding himself him-self erect ho looked his height Toot is Lord Ashburton he said indicating the portrait of a rosyfaced homely clever Englishman sitting at a table with his lean longfingered hand upon the famous treaty And that ho continued indicating indicat-ing the otherbut there was no need to name the owner of that marvelous head and those smouldering unfathomable eyes It was a portrait of Daniel Webster and one of the best if not the best that I have ever seen I havo heard him speak said Mr Blaine and here is his contemporary Henry Clay It is a fine worK of art and was bought by tho government at a large price I believe IT WAS A REMARKABLE HEAD differing from any likeness of Clay with which I am acquainted but bearing internal inter-nal evidences Jaeiug a faithful likeness hI have listened to aim when he made one of his most cogent speeches said Mr Blaine How do the coptemporary orators of Congress compare with the men of those days in eloquence I asked Mr Blaine stroked his chin and seemed to be taxing his memory I dont know ho said at last in a hesitating tone that wo have any great orators in Congress just now but a number of great debaters Another portrait which ho pointed out tome to-me was that of Seward with all tho acuteness acute-ness and segacity of the man in it and if youll come in here said Mr Blaine Ill 1 show you another of him He opened the door of the further room as be spoke it was quite a small room and at a table sat a man with his back towards us writing There were one or two clerks in the room with whom the secretary exchanged ex-changed kindly reetings Meanwhile the man at tho desk had not looked round or appeared to notice our entrance He is deaf observed Mr Blaine tome to-me but I want to introduce you to Mr tVdoe and he tapped him on the shoulder Very little communication with Mr Adee sufficed to show me that his chiefs characterization charac-terization of him as a very able man was deserved Ability glows and sparkles from his face and one fancies that his insensibility to outward sounds but opens his inner ear more acutely to the discourse of bright and penetrating thought It is good to have such an ally at nuns back and Mr Blaine friendly feeling for his assistant was obvious obvi-ous As we came out I glanced at the clock and discovered that I had been monopolizing monopoliz-ing the secretarys attention for nearly an hourDont Dont be in a hurry to go said he There seems to be nothing waiting for me just now If there is any question that I can answer I will do so There is one thing that ha always been an engaging mystery to me and I imagine to most outside people I said I would like to know what happens at cabinet meetings Well In regard to cabinet meetings one hardly wishes to speak of them for they are regarded as private but there is no harm that 1 can see in saying that they are simply a conference twice a week Tuesdays and Fridays between the Prosidontand his soyeral secretaries Everything presented there is regarded as confidential When assembled as-sembled the President naturally communicates communi-cates what he wishes before any one else speaks He is an extraordinary man of business prompt decided clearheaded He wastes no time I have rarely heard a man more ably or more tersely discuss public questions When he is through the several secretaries in their order bring hap anything from their departments that presents pre-sents a general question a question whi chin all departments are asked to take part ch-in deciding Business is settled promptly and it affords almost the only time when the secretaries meet and in cabinet me tings t-ings they become very well acquainted More I would not wish to say in regard to themOne Ono thing more Mr Blame Have any improvements suggested themselves them-selves to you that might be Introduced into the methods of the department of state I scarcely know of anything The present system has grown up by degrees and grown of necessity It is no mans work It has been added to from time to time as occasion called for and will doubtless be enlarged hereafter At present the system works well expeditiously expedi-tiously and rapidly I do not know of diY thing particularly that would improve it At this Juncture the attendant came in and said that the governor of New Mexico was outside and wished to see tho secretary secre-tary So I took my leave well content to come In contact with the finest genius in American politics JULIAN HAWTHORN |
