for private property in war, of the most advanced ideas of natural rights and justice; and in its brief existence of a century, by its example and its persistent diplomatic advocacy, it has exerted a greater influence in the recognition of these elevated principles than any other nation of the world.
The study, therefore, of our diplomatic history becomes most important and profitable. In view of its past record, the United States occupies to-day a conspicuous and interesting position among the nations. Called by the fortunes of war and its enlarged wealth and power to great responsibilities, if it shall prove true to its past history, it must not lower its standard of universal justice, or lose its interest in the betterment of the human race. It has been well said that it is impossible to separate the policy of the government from the conscience of the nation.
The diplomatic record which our country has made in the first century of its existence is one in which any American citizen may take just pride, and in the following pages I propose to direct the attention of the reader, although within a brief compass, to the salient features of that record.
In entering upon this review, the first epoch which calls for examination is that which embraces the period from the earliest formation of the union of the colonies to the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. The diplomatic relations of the rising nation were of slow growth, and were gradually developed by the necessities of the struggle for independence. By the Articles of Confederation the Continental Congress was empowered to make peace and declare war, to send and receive ambassadors and make treaties and alliances, but it could only enter upon the latter with the assent of nine of the thirteen States. It is doubtless from this provision that the Federal Constitution took the clause requiring all treaties for their ratification to receive a two-third vote of the Senate.
Originally the Confederation was without executive officers, and all its business, both foreign and domestic, was conducted through committees. In 1775 a "Secret Committee on Foreign Correspondence" was appointed, of which Benjamin Franklin and John Jay were members, and in 1777 it was changed to the " Committee on Foreign Affairs." The personnel of this committee was frequently changed; Thomas Paine acted as its secretary for some time, but he was finally dismissed for misconduct in office. Through these committees all the foreign relations of the Colonies were conducted up to 1781, when the committee was abolished, and a " Department of Foreign Affairs " was established. By that time a considerable diplomatic representation had been sent to Europe, the treaties of alliance and of commerce with France had been negotiated, and important relations with other nations were being established. The conduct of these relations through a committee had proved most unsatisfactory. Mr. Lovell, the only member at that time who seemed to take an interest in its business, wrote in August, 1779, " There is really no such thing as a Committee of Foreign Affairs existing no secretary or clerk further than I persevere to be one and the other. The books and the papers of that extinguished body lay yet on the table of Congress, or rather are locked up in the secretary's private box." (The Department of State, its History and Functions (1893), pp. 7, 15.)
Congress finally took the matter in hand, and appointed a committee which submitted the plan for the organization of the department, and in its report states: " That the extent and rising power of the United States entitle them to a place among the great potentates of Europe, while our political and commercial interests point out the propriety of cultivating with them a friendly correspondence and connection. That, to render such an intercourse advantageous, the necessity of competent knowledge of the interests, views, relations, and systems of those potentates, is obvious. … That to answer those essential purposes the committee are of opinion that a fixed and permanent office for the Department of Foreign Affairs ought forthwith to be established as a remedy against the fluctuations, the delays, and indecision to which the present mode of managing our foreign affairs must be exposed." (2 Secret Journals of Congress, 580. a 5 Ib. 93.) The committee thereupon recommended that a Secretary of Foreign Affairs be appointed, and proceeded to set forth his duties. He was to keep an office, employ suitable clerks, and conduct the foreign correspondence of the government. It was provided that all his communications were to be laid before Congress; he was " to transmit abroad such communications, as Congress shall direct, to the ministers of these United States, and others at foreign courts, and in foreign countries; the secretary shall have liberty to attend Congress, that he may be the better informed of the affairs of the United States, and have an opportunity of explaining his reports respecting his department."
While the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Confederation possessed little of the independent action of the Secretary of State under the Constitution, he enjoyed one privilege not granted to the latter, to wit, the right of attending and taking part in the deliberations of Congress.
We learn from a report to Congress in 1782 that the entire force of the department consisted of the secretary, at a salary of $4,000; two assistant secretaries, at salaries of $800 and $700 respectively; and of one clerk at $500; making a total of four officials at a cost of $6,000. 2 The first secretary was Robert R. Livingston, a member of the celebrated Livingston family of New York which rendered such important service to the country during and after the Ee volution. He was a member of the committee which framed the Declaration of Independence, and was later the minister to France who negotiated the purchase of Louisiana. He was succeeded in 1783 by John Jay, whose services we shall have frequent occasion to consider in the succeeding chapters, one of the negotiators of two of the most important treaties of our country's history, and the first Chief Justice of the United States.
Some idea of the peculiar relation existing at that period between the Continental Congress, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and our ministers abroad, may be formed from the following extract from a report submitted by the secretary to Congress in 1782:
" Dr. Franklin has a part of Mr. Chamont's house at Passy; he keeps a chariot and pair, and three or four servants, and gives a dinner occasionally to the Americans and others. His whole expense, as far as I can learn, is very much within his income. Mr. Adams lives in lodgings; keeps a chariot and pair, and two menservants. He has hitherto retained a private secretary, who will, in the absence of Mr. Dana, it is presumed, be paid by Congress. I have lately heard that Mr. Adams was about to take a house. Mr. Dana's salary, even if he should assume a public character in a country where the relative value of money is so high, that, if I am well informed, an elegant house may be hired for fifteen guineas a year, is very ample. Of Mr. Jay's manner of living, I have been able to give no account, but I should conclude from the price of the necessaries of life in that part of Spain in which he lives, from the port the court and the people about it maintains, and above all, from its sitting in different parts of the kingdom, that to live in the same style with Dr. Franklin, his expenses must amount to nearly the double of theirs. But as every conjecture of this kind must be very uncertain, all I can do is to lay before Congress the relative expense, as far as I can learn it, between the different places at which the ministers reside, taking Philadelphia for a standard. Paris, if wine, clothing, and wages of servants are included, is about twenty per cent, cheaper than Philadelphia; Amsterdam, ten; and at Madrid the expenses of a family are somewhat higher than at this place. But from the unsettled state of those who follow the court, their traveling equipage and charges must greatly enhance this expense. Congress will make their own deductions from these facts, after allowing for their inaccuracy." (3 Secret Journals, 128.)
It may be said to the credit of the Congress, that though it concerned itself with these petty details, it made liberal allowances to its diplomatic representatives abroad, considering the poverty of its treasury and the large demands upon it for the conduct of the war. The annual allowances to Dr. Franklin and Messrs. Adams and Jay were over $11,000 each a more liberal sum than is granted to our representatives at those capitals to-day, if the relative cost of living is taken into consideration.
The Declaration of Independence was not only a challenge to Great Britain; it was the assertion by the colonies of their right to an independent place among the nations of the earth, and an appeal to the nations to recognize the justice of that claim. It opened up to Congress a new duty, and another field of effort besides the contest of arms in which the Colonies had engaged
