REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC
BILL, CREATING THE OFFICE OF SECOND ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, MAY
16 AND 17, 1866.
May 16th, the Senate having under consideration the bill making
appropriations for the consular and diplomatic expenses,
Mr. Sumner moved an addition of twenty per cent. to the
compensation allowed to the clerks of the State Department. A
petition from the clerks was read. Mr. Sumner then said:--
I do not know that there is any necessity for me to add anything.
The petition speaks for itself. It states the whole case. But a word
will not be out of place with regard to the gentleman who heads the
petition,--Mr. Hunter. He is one of the oldest public servants now
connected with the Government. He has been in the Department of State
for more than thirty years. He may be called the living index to that
Department; and I believe I do not err in saying that in our Blue
Book of office there is no person whose integrity is more generally
recognized. Placed in a position of especial trust, where all the
foreign correspondence of the Government passes under his eye, that
which comes and that which goes, I believe he has passed a life without
blame. He has been in a position where, had his integrity been open to
seduction, he might have been tempted. No human being imagines that he
has ever yielded. He has discharged his very important trusts on a very
humble salary. I think the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] knows him
well enough to know that he has brought to those functions ability of a
peculiar character. And now, in the decline of life, he finds himself
with the small salary of a clerk, on which he can with difficulty
subsist,--and yet all the time rendering these important services and
discharging these considerable trusts, absorbed in the business of the
office so that he takes it home with him nightly. It leaves with him
in the evening and returns with him in the morning, and then it fills
the long day. I think that such a public servant deserves recognition.
I have for some time felt that his compensation was inadequate. I have
thought that his salary ought to be raised; but, after consideration of
the question in committee, and consultation with others, it was thought
best to present the case in a general proposition such as I have now
moved, being for the addition of twenty per cent. to the compensation
of all the clerks in the Department. The argument for this is enforced
in the petition from these gentlemen which has been read at the desk. I
can see no objection to it, especially after what we have done for the
clerks of the Treasury. Are not public servants at the State Department
as worthy as public servants at the Treasury?
The debate showed the indisposition of Senators to any general
addition to the compensation of the clerks of the State
Department, but with recognition of the merits of Mr. Hunter.
* * * * *
May 17th, after conversation and discussion, Mr. Sumner
changed his motion, so as to read:--
“_And be it further enacted_, That the President be, and he
is hereby, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, a second Assistant Secretary of
State in the Department of State, at an annual salary of
$3,500, to commence on the first day of July, 1866; and the
amount necessary to pay the same is hereby appropriated.”