484 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE- III 



der: Ex-Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, Andrew D. 

 White of New York, and Samuel Gr. Howe of Massachu 

 setts. On receiving notice of my appointment, I went to 

 Washington, was at once admitted to an interview with the 

 President, and rarely have I been more happily disap 

 pointed. Instead of the taciturn man who, as his enemies 

 insisted, said nothing because he knew nothing, had 

 never cared for anything save military matters, and was 

 entirely absorbed in personal interests, I found a quiet, 

 dignified public officer, who presented the history of 

 the Santo Domingo question, and his view regarding it, in 

 a manner large, thoughtful, and statesmanlike. There 

 was no special pleading; no attempt at converting me: 

 his whole effort seemed given to stating candidly the his 

 tory of the case thus far. 



There was much need of such statement. Mr. Charles 

 Sumner, the eminent senator from Massachusetts, had 

 completely broken with the President on this and other 

 questions; had attacked the policy of the administration 

 violently; had hinted at the supremacy of unworthy mo 

 tives; and had imputed rascality to men with whom the 

 President had close relations. He appeared, also, as he 

 claimed, in the interest of the republic of Haiti, which 

 regarded with disfavor any acquisition by the United 

 States of territory on the island of which that quasi- 

 republic formed a part; and all his rhetoric and oratory 

 were brought to bear against the President s ideas. I had 

 long been an admirer of Mr. Sumner, with the feeling 

 which a young man would naturally cherish toward an 

 older man of such high character who had given him 

 early recognition ; and I now approached him with especial 

 gratitude and respect. But I soon saw that his view of the 

 President was prejudiced, and his estimate of himself ab 

 normal. Though a senator of such high standing and so 

 long in public affairs, he took himself almost too seri 

 ously ; and there had come a break between him, as chair 

 man of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 

 President Grant s Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, who had 



