It has not been the practice of the government of the United States to notify the changes of the presidency to other governments. As to this practice Secretary Seward wrote: "We receive from all monarchical states letters announcing the births and deaths of persons connected nearly with the throne, and we respond to them in the spirit of friendship and in terms of courtesy. On the contrary, on our part, no signal incident or melancholy casualties affecting the Chief Magistrate or other functionaries of the Republic are ever officially announced by us to foreign states. While we allow the foreign states the unrestrained indulgence of their peculiar tastes, we carefully practice our own. This is nothing more than the courtesy of private life extended into the intercourse of nations."1 At the time of the assassination of President Lincoln no official announcement of the tragic event was sent to foreign governments, but no similar event of the century attracted such universal attention from all classes and races. The communications of condolence from the rulers and governing bodies of all nations, as well as from civic organizations and the masses of the people, throughout both hemispheres, were collected and printed in a large folio volume, and form a curious and unique manifestation of sympathy."

There is a rule in some countries which prohibits their diplomatic representatives abroad from marrying foreign wives without the consent of the sovereign.

1 1 Wharton's Digest, 632.

This volume was republished as Part IV to U. S. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1865.

The German minister to China some years ago, who had had a long and highly creditable diplomatic career, became enamored with the attractive daughter of the American minister to Korea, and, his telegraphic request for the permission of the emperor being refused, he married the young lady in spite of it. His act was followed by his recall, and he was permanently retired from the service.1 Other German diplomats have been more fortunate in securing their emperor's consent, and have profited by the companionship and counsel of American consorts.

I refer in the next chapter to the constitutional prohibition which does not allow a minister of the United States to accept an office from a foreign government, but this does not prevent him from acting as as the representative of another government at the court to which he is accredited, when the other government for any reason has no representative there. In this capacity he can not only hold relations with the foreign office in behalf of the third government, but can extend his protection to citizens or subjects of that government resident or being in the country. He cannot, however, accept the trust without the approval of his own government and the consent of the government to which he is accredited. For this service he is not allowed to receive any compensation.

12 China and her People, by Charles Denby (1906), 236. Minister Denby writes of his colleague, Herr von Brandt: "He surrendered the first diplomatic position in the Far East, married his sweetheart and retired to lead a scholarly life at Wiesbaden. Here is a lover's romance, crowned with magnificent renunciation of place and power, found in the musty records of diplomacy."

One of the most noted cases of this character was the service which the American minister to France, Mr. E. B. Washburne, rendered the German government and its subjects in Paris as its representative during the Franco-German war of 1870-71.1

The French ambassador to the United States acted as the Spanish representative during the war of 1898, and in that capacity signed with the secretary of state the protocol arranging for the termination of hostilities and the peace negotiations.

1 As to Mr. Washburne's services, see U. S. Foreign Relations, 1870 and 1871, France. See also 1 Recollections of a Minister to France, by E. B. Washburne, 1887, chaps. 2 and 3.

CHAPTER VII

COURT DRESS, DECORATIONS, AND PRESENTS

CONNECTED with the social duties of envoys of the United States is the matter of diplomatic dress or court costume, which has been a vexed question in our diplomatic history, and has been a subject of official correspondence and Congressional discussion far beyond its intrinsic importance.

In the earlier years of the service our representatives appear to have been left free to wear such court dress as seemed to them most fitting. The plain Quaker costume in which Franklin is represented, and which so attracted the Parisians, and the "spotted Manchester velvet suit" which he is said to have donned on several important occasions are often mentioned in accounts of his service. The Puritan John Adams, when he arrived in Paris to join our Peace Commissioners, is related to have first visited the tailor and wig-maker before he called upon his colleague, Dr. Franklin. And yet Mr. Adams found these exactions of dress very repugnant. In an official communication to Secretary Jay, in giving an account of the preparations for his mission to Great Britain in 1785, he reports that he was informed that he must make London in time for the king's birthday; and to that end he must carry over from Paris "a fine new coat, ready made, for that it was a rule of etiquette

there for everybody who went to court to have new clothes and very rich ones, and that my family must be introduced to the Queen. . . . I hope, sir, you will not think this an immaterial or a trifling matter, when you consider that the simple circumstances of presenting a family at court will make a difference of several hundred pounds sterling in my inevitable expenses." And in reporting in detail his presentation, he adds this comment: "It is thus the essence of things is lost in ceremony in every country of Europe."

The first authorized use of a uniform seems to have been upon the occasion of the peace negotiations following the second war with Great Britain. The "millboy of the slashes," Henry Clay, and his four colleagues appeared at the Conference at Ghent in 1814 in a costume which is described as follows: A blue coat, lined with silk, straight standing cape, embroidered with gold, single-breasted, straight or round button-holes slightly embroidered. Buttons with the artillerist's eagle stamped upon them, i. e. an eagle flying, with a wreath in its mouth, grasping lightning in one of its talons. Cuffs embroidered in the manner of the cape; white cassimere breeches, gold knee buckles; white silk stockings; and gold or silver shoe buckles. A three-cornered chapeau de bras, not so large as those used by the French, nor so small as those of the English. A black cockade with an eagle attached. Sword, etc., corresponding.

By a circular issued by the Department of State in 1817 this uniform was adopted for diplomatic ministers. The secretaries of legation were to wear the same cos

18 John Adams's Works, 250.