Show ME PRESIDENT ONLY BUT ONE FORM OF ADDRESS FOR THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE ha I 1 not your excellency MOT conr delther Is he to ho written to aa dear sir alala mr president I 1 sufficient why it wa so decreed if you ask a presidents private secretary he will tell yon among other things that not one person out of ten in writing to the president addresses him properly each correspondent seems to follow his own egweet fancy thus tha man who writes and aslos for a pension or an office on the ground that he served in the war ia apt to begin his letter dear general and after having told his wants ha biens himself yours fraternally ter nally this is pretty familiar the president a general except in that he is commander la chief of the army and as for all men being brothers it ia true as a theory but is hardly correct on all occasions as a practice if the letter from the old army man ia answered as nearly all letters are the writer is addressed with due formality as sir and not aa dear comrade this ought to be a sufficient hint to him to keep his distance but it is not and a week later he boba up serenely with another long communication muni cation to his dear general there are a number of his correspondents who wish to be very formal and respectful and they always call him excellency it sounds so big is anch a pleasing mouthful that many people who ought to know better cannot resist the temptation of using this form As between anch an expression as dear general and excellency the former ia preferable for there is no law against it while there certainly ia an unwritten law against the latter when tha constitution was formed there was a great deal of discussion as to the form of address that should be applied to the president some people thought he should be addressed excellency others would be satisfied with your highness while still others thought ho should bo called majesty the new who bore in mind the daya of the dutch republic wanted the bead of this republic called his high mightiness MISTAKES after a great deal of wrangling and considerable exhibition of party feeliks over the matter it was finally decided for all time to come that the chief executive should be addressed simply as the president of the united states that settled it and made it an impropriety to call him excellency the governor of a state haa more form about him in correspondence than the president for un lebs there is a clause in the constitution of the state expressly prescribing some other mode of address it is correct to call him excellency the democratic spirit of come elates baa interfered to prevent this and it haa been prescribed that the governor receive some simpler title but there are only two or three of these states As a general thing the rule can be laid down that the governor of a state should be addressed your excellency to begin a letter to the president in the same way la to establish an equality between the two executives that does not exist another frequent mistake is made by those alio begin their letters to tho president your honor his honor ia the presiding judge of a court or usually the mayor of a city some men from constant associations with arts of justice come to regard the judge as the highest and mightiest individual on earth und they can conceive of no greater distinction to be conferred on tha president ident than to call him your honor to cut a lung matter short let the correct form for addressing the president pre aident bo given 1 is simply this benjamin har bisou president of the united states mr president ident then after you have say if yon are not proud yon can binish the thus 1 bave atho honor to be mr president conr obedient servant john sanith ADDRESSED BY KINGS dont mako the e that is sometimes perpetrated of yourself thus 1 have the honor to be john it may reflect conoron ho noron you to be who you are but it is hardly modeal of you to say BO what you want to gay consider it an honor to be the presidents obedient servant to the rest of the world uncle sam and the president are one and that is why the latter insists upon ceremony in bis de alinga with other powers probably readers are familiar with the form observed in correspondence between the president and the head of another government it is part of the law of nations that they are all coequal the king of badoa bamoa writes to president harrison ia the pame terms of equality as are by the emperor of germany and the president replies in kind the the head of these little islands receives a munificent salary of less than a year abat aishe receives it if there is money enough in the treasury to pay it when germany had trouble with his majesty and demanded an indemnity for damages of a broad smile aeo around the world for it was well known that the treasury of samoa bad never bad and in all probability never would have a sum half so large in its coffers yet the king of samoa ial addressed by the president as areat and good friend and the president signa himself your good friend and when caneen victoria receives a letter from the president ha treats her with precisely the ame for mality and no more washington star |