Speech in the Senate, on an Amendment to the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, March 15, 1864.
The Senate having under consideration the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, an amendment was reported by Mr. Fessenden from the Committee on Finance reviving the provision in the Act of August 18, 1856,[107] authorizing twenty-five consular pupils, and making an appropriation for them. The amendment was opposed by Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, and Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland. Mr. Sumner said in reply:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—The chief objection of the Senator from Maryland seemed to be that we might educate these young men at the national expense and very soon thereafter lose them,—in other words, not get our money back. In the first place, it is very easy, by regulations at the State Department before these appointments, to provide against any such contingency; and I understand that Mr. Marcy, indefatigable and ingenious as the Senator remembers he was, did, by a series of regulations, carefully provide for this very case. Should we return to the original law, the Secretary of State would have only to revive those original regulations by one of his most distinguished predecessors. I believe this a sufficient answer to the Senator.
But the Senator from Michigan [Mr. Chandler] has already answered him in another way, when he asked, very pertinently, What assurance have we that we shall enjoy the services of the cadets at West Point, or the naval cadets now at Newport? There are certain requirements of service, but the Senator knows well that nothing is more common than for cadets, especially military, to pass immediately from that education they have received at the expense of their country into occupations serving only their private advantage.
Mr. Johnson. That is with the consent of the Government. The Government accepts their resignations.
Mr. Sumner. Very well; what is to hinder regulations at the Department of State requiring the consent of the Government before these pupils shall be released,—in short, holding them by some words of contract for a certain term? Here let me say, that, unlike cadets, these pupils will give the Government valuable service even while pupils.
But, Sir, passing from these considerations, allow me for a moment to ask the attention of the Senate to this proposition in two aspects,—the first as a carrying out of the consular and diplomatic statute of the United States, and the second as in the nature of an educational provision calculated to benefit our consular service abroad.
In the first aspect, the Senate will bear in mind that down to 1855 we had no general diplomatic and consular statute. Our representation in foreign countries went under thorough review, and the result was the statute in our books, determining grades, adjusting salaries, and, in one word, systematizing the whole business. Let the character of the statute be borne in mind. But this statute, which aimed to present a complete system, contained the provision for consular pupils.
Now, Sir, at that time and by that statute our consular salaries were adjusted to this very provision of consular pupils. The one was in the nature of a complement to the other. The salaries were made lower than they otherwise would have been in certain cases, because the consuls were to be aided by pupils with a compensation fixed by statute. But the provision for pupils was repealed shortly afterwards, indeed before the experiment had been tried, without, however, raising the consular salaries in corresponding degree. It seems clear that something must be done now. You must do one of two things,—either raise the consular salaries or appoint consular pupils. Otherwise the original idea of the statute fails, and our system is defective.