132 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XV 



many and there taken his degree, his graduating thesis 

 being on i The Commercial and Diplomatic Relations be 

 tween the United States and Germany. &quot; In preparing 

 this he had been allowed to work up a mass of material in 

 our embassy archives, and had afterward expanded his 

 thesis into a book which had gained him credit. As the 

 most serious questions between the two countries were 

 commercial, he seemed a godsend ; and, going to the Presi 

 dent, I stated the matter fully. Though the young man 

 was as far as possible from having any &quot; pull&quot; in the State 

 from which he came, was not at all known either to the 

 President or the Secretary of State or assistant secretary 

 of state, all of whom came from Ohio, and was equally 

 unknown to either of the Ohio senators or to any repre 

 sentative, and though nothing whatever was known of his 

 party affiliations, the President, on hearing a statement of 

 the case, ignored all pressure in favor of rival candidates, 

 sent in his nomination to the Senate, and it was duly con 

 firmed. 



The next thing was the appointment of a military attache. 

 The position is by no means a sinecure. Our government 

 must always feel the importance of receiving the latest in 

 formation as to the armies and navies of the great powers 

 of the world ; and therefore it is that, very wisely, it has 

 attached military and naval experts to various leading 

 embassies. It is important that these be not only thor 

 oughly instructed and far-seeing, but gentlemen in the 

 truest sense of the word; and I therefore presented a 

 graduate of West Point who, having conducted an expedi 

 tion in Alaska and served with his regiment on the Western 

 plains most creditably, had done duty as military attache 

 with me during my mission at St. Petersburg, and had 

 proved himself, in every respect, admirable. Though he 

 had no other supporter at the national capital, the Secre 

 tary of War, Governor Alger, granted my request, and he 

 was appointed. 



These matters, to many people apparently trivial, are 

 here alluded to because it is so often charged that political 



