REDUCTION OF THE EXPENSE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS BY REDUCING THE NUMBER.
A question of permanent and increasing interest was opened at this
session, which has become more exigent with time, and deserves
to be pursued until its object shall be accomplished. It was the
question of reducing the expenses of foreign missions, by reducing
the number, and the expediency of returning to the Jeffersonian
policy of having no ministers resident, or permanent succession of
ministers abroad. The question was brought on by a motion from Mr.
Charles Jared Ingersoll to strike from the appropriation bill the
salaries of some missions mentioned in it; and this motion brought
on the question of, how far the House had a right to interfere in
these missions and control them by withholding compensation? and
how far it was expedient to diminish their number, and to return to
the Jeffersonian policy? Chargés had been appointed to Sardinia and
Naples: Mr. Ingersoll thought them unnecessary; as also the mission
to Austria, and that the ministers to Spain ought to be reduced
to chargéships. Mr. Caleb Cushing considered the appointment of
these ministers as giving them "vested rights in their salaries,"
and that the House was bound to vote. Mr. Ingersoll scouted this
idea of "vested rights." Mr. Adams said the office of minister was
created by the law of nations, and it belonged to the President and
Senate to fill it, and for the Congress to control it, if it judged
it necessary, as the British parliament has a right to control the
war which the king has a right to declare, namely, by withholding
the supplies: but it would require an extreme case to do so after
the appointment had been made. He did not think the House ought to
lay aside its power to control in a case obviously improper. And he
thought the introduction of an appropriation bill, like the present,
a fit occasion to inquire into the propriety of every mission;
and he thought it expedient to reduce the expenses of our foreign
missions, by reducing the number: and with this view he should offer
a resolution when it should be in order to do so. Mr. Gilmer, as one
of the Committee on Retrenchment, had paid some attention to the
subject of our foreign representation; and he believed, with Mr.
Adams, that both the grade and the destination of our foreign agents
would admit of a beneficial reduction. Mr. Ingersoll rejoined on the
different branches of the question, and in favor of Mr. Jefferson's
policy, and for following up the inquiry proposed by Mr. Adams; and
said:
"If the stand he had now taken should eventually lead to the
retrenchment alluded to in the resolution of the venerable
gentleman from Massachusetts, he should be content. He still
thought the House might properly exercise its withholding
power, not, indeed, so as to stop the wheels of government,
but merely to curtail an unnecessary expenditure; and he hoped
there would be enough of constitutional feeling, of the _esprit
du corps_, to lead them to insist upon their right. He scouted
the idea of the President's appointment creating a vested
interest in the appointee to his salary as minister. Such a
doctrine would be monstrous. The House might be bound by high
considerations of policy and propriety, but never by the force
of a contract, to appropriate for an appointed minister. This
was carrying the principle totally _extra moenia mundi_. Mr.
I. disclaimed opposing these measures on the mere ground of
dollars and cents; he alluded to the multiplication of missions
to and from this country as introducing examples of lavish
expenditure and luxurious living among our own citizens. As
to the distinction between temporary and permanent missions,
the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. CUSHING] perfectly well
knew that originally all public missions were temporary; such
a thing as a permanent foreign mission was unheard of. This was
an invention of modern times; and it had been Mr. Jefferson's
opinion that such missions ought not to exist. It was high time
that public attention was called to the subject; and he hoped
that at the next session Mr. Adams would bring forward and press
his resolution of inquiry as to the expediency of reducing the
whole system of foreign intercourse."
Mr. Adams afterwards introduced his proposed resolution, which
was adopted by the House, and sent to the Committee on Foreign
Relations; but which has not yet produced the required reform. This
was his resolve:
"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs be instructed
to inquire into the expediency of reducing the expenditures in
the diplomatic department of the government, by diminishing the
number of ministers and other diplomatic agents abroad, and
report thereon to the House."
It would be a public benefaction, and a great honor to the member
who should do it, for some ardent man to take charge of this
subject--revive Mr. Adams' resolution, and pursue the inquiry
through all the branches which belong to it: and they are many.
First: The full mission of minister plenipotentiary and envoy
extraordinary, formerly created only on extraordinary occasions,
and with a few great courts, and intrusted to eminent men, are now
lavished in profusion; and at secondary courts; and filled with
men but little adapted to grace them; and without waiting for an
occasion, but rapidly, to accommodate political partisans; and
as a mere party policy, recalling a political opponent to make
room for an adherent: and so keeping up a perpetual succession,
and converting the envoys extraordinary into virtual ministers
resident. In the second place, there are no plenipotentiaries
now--no ministers with full powers--or in fact with any powers at
all, except to copy what is sent to them, and sign what they are
told. The Secretaries of State now do the business themselves,
either actually making the treaty at home while the minister is idle
abroad, or virtually by writing instructions for home effect, often
published before they are delivered, and containing every word the
minister is to say--with orders to apply for fresh instructions
at every new turn the business takes. And communications have
now become so rapid and facile that the entire negotiation may
be conducted at home--the important minister plenipotentiary and
envoy extraordinary being reduced to the functions of a messenger.
In the third place, all the missions have become resident,
contrary to the policy and interest of our country, which wants no
entangling alliances or connections abroad; and to the damage of our
treasury, which is heavily taxed to keep up a numerous diplomatic
establishment in Europe, not merely useless, but pernicious. In
the fourth place, our foreign intercourse has become inordinately
expensive, costing above three hundred thousand dollars a year;
and for ministers who do not compare with the John Marshalls of
Virginia, the John Quincy Adamses, the Pinckneys of South Carolina,
the Pinkney of Maryland, the Rufus Kings, Albert Gallatins, James
Monroes, the Livingstons, and all that class, the pride of their
country, and the admiration of Europe; and which did not cost us
one hundred thousand dollars a year, and had something to do,
and did it--and represented a nation abroad, and not a party.
Prominently among the great subjects demanding reform, is now the
diplomatic intercourse of the United States. Reduction of number,
no mission without an object to accomplish, no perpetual succession
of ministers, no ministers resident, no exclusion of one party by
the other from this national representation abroad, no rank higher
than a chargé except when a special service is to be performed and
then nationally composed: and the expenses inexorably brought back
within one hundred thousand dollars a year. Such are the reforms
which our diplomatic foreign intercourse has long required--which
so loudly called for the hand of correction fifteen years ago, when
Mr. Adams submitted his resolution; and all the evils of which
have nearly doubled since. It is a case in which the House of
Representatives, the immediate representatives of the people, and
the sole constitutional originator of taxes upon them, should act
as a check upon the President and Senate; and do it as the British
House of Commons checks the king, the lords and the ministry--by
withholding the supplies.