AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. By EDWIN A. GROSVENOR. A few days ago a brilliant lady of my acquaintance asked me on what subject I was to speak before this learned body. On my reply she exclaimed "American diplomacy! I did not know there was any!" A prominent New England daily concludes a recent protest against territorial extension with the despairing query, "Where are the trained diplomatists in this country who can be opposed to those whom those great nations have at their service?" The manner and inference of the question is that American diplomatists do not exist; that for lack of them America can not sit in the parliament of the nations because defenseless against the diplomatic shafts of foreign rivals. A leading paper of the New York press, discussing the peace commission shortly after it convened at Paris, says, "All accounts agree that the Spanish commissioners have displayed a high order of ability. In debating power and dialectic resource as well as legal equipment they are said to have shown themselves the superiors of the Americans." A metropolitan magazine said on its opening page last June, "Even though a second-rate power and frightfully distracted by conditions at home, the Spaniards thus far have been more than a match for us, not only in diplomacy but also in their naval strategy." This is an editorial paragraph, written after the indiscreet letter of Señor Don Dupuy de Lome and after the victory of Commodore Dewey in Manila Bay. Similar quotations might be multiplied almost without end. They emanate from no one party or section but from all. They simply voice the conviction, well nigh universal in this land, that the United States possess no diplomatists or at least none to be compared with those of Europe; that there is really no such thing as American diplomacy. It is possible that similar sentiments are entertained by some of this distinguished company. Met together to study great themes of history, is there any theme more worthy our attention as scholars and of more vital interest to us as citizens and patriots than this? It is a subject not only of vast but of ever-expanding moment. passing day increases its importance. Barriers of national seclusion are every where tumbling like the great wall of China. Every nation elbows every other nation to-day. When any statesman speaks, his words are caught not only by the audience at the banquet or in the hall, but by listeners all over the globe. What was whispered at evening in the conclave of envoys and embassadors is shouted the next morning by newsboys thousands of miles distant. In the fierce light beating upon every man who represents his country's interests at a foreign court ignorance of or acquaintance with social forms, a tactful remark, or a blunder in high place, each detail of conduct or bearing, and the sum of his capacity or incapacity are flashed homeward and worldward with impartial and sometimes cruel speed. If, then, the opinion current in America of American diplomacy be founded upon fact, our condition is pitiable, even perilous, and can not fail to produce in us each a feeling of humiliation and shame. In many a mind to the word "diplomacy" attaches a subtle meaning, as of something abstruse, mysterious, almost magical or necromantic. It is supposed to employ language like a juggler, not for the purpose of expressing but of concealing thought, and thereby diverting attention from a trick. Its methods are to be tortuous, and its object is not to be approached direct, but by windings and detours. Like Napoleon's army at Verona, it marches westward when about to attack an enemy which is encamped behind it toward the east. And so the second definition given by Bescherelle is often acknowledged as the true meaning, "Diplomacy is skill in deceit." Thus was it taught by Machiavelli before the modern name was coined. Thus was it practiced by Talleyrand. But there is another and, I think, a still more common acceptation of the term. Said a lady to me once, "I just dote on diplomacy. It is so sweet; it is just lovely!" The occasion of her satisfaction was a ball at a European embassy in Vienna, and the hour was still early in the morning. My fair companion attached to the expression small thought of |