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CHAPTER XX

HARRISON AND BLAINE

HE election of President Harrison presupposed a return of James G. Blaine to the Department of State, and his predominance in the administration, for he possessed a mind more daring and aggressive than his chief's. It has been generally supposed, in fact, that the more brilliant of the two men overshadowed his chief in the conduct of foreign relations, but researches by Professor Albert T. Volwiler in the Harrison Papers indicate that Harrison more nearly dominated this department of his administration than had previously been suspected.

An early test of the department was its choice of ministers and minor agents. Here its record was not bad, though it compared somewhat unfavorably with Cleveland's. At London, Robert T. Lincoln, a younger man of good but not exceptional fitness for the office, possessor of a name his country loves to reverence, succeeded E. J. Phelps, a diplomat of high ability. Similar reasons prompted the selection of General Frederick Dent Grant as minister to Austria. Three editors were named to leading missions; Whitelaw Reid to France, Murat Halstead to Germany, and Allen T. Rice to Russia. Halstead failed of confirmation by the Senate. But the choice of three suggests a definite policy of editorial preferment. The minister to Spain, T. W. Palmer, understood the language of the country—an unusual acquirement. The choice of Patrick Egan for minister to Chile harmonized with Blaine's hostility to British influences in South America. An Irishman would guard our interests wherever they opposed the British.

Requiring an immediate settlement was the question of Samoa. In February, 1889, just as the previous administration was going out, Secretary Bayard had accepted the

invitation of Prince Bismarck to resume negotiations with a view to a tripartite agreement. The Harrison Administration named for this special mission George H. Bates, whose direct knowledge of the issue was extensive, William Walter Phelps, and John A. Kasson, who had previously represented the United States at the Congo Conference of 1885.

While the commissioners were journeying to Berlin, a tidal wave and hurricane destroyed with one exception every vessel in the harbor of Apia. The stupendous power of nature, which carried disaster impartially to each of the nations concerned, relieved the tension which had developed over the seizure by armed Germans of the American flag at Apia (January, 1889) and the negotiators were able to draw up their treaty. The three contracting powers jointly guaranteed the neutrality of Samoa, and erected a protectorate in the islands. In the course of the negotiations, Blaine uttered one of his best remembered phrases. When informed of Bismarck's persistent pressing of the German claims, Blaine cabled to our agents in Berlin, "The extent of the Chancellor's irritability is not the measure of American right." Our own conception of this right was growing.

Samoa was a step in America's development as a world power. An enlarging consciousness is indicated of American rights and interests beyond our borders. The most influential of the three commissioners for Samoa was William Walter Phelps, who although he never held the highest offices in his party's gift was one of its chief ornaments.2 At Berlin he won the friendship of the Iron Chancellor, and when the Samoan treaty was completed, he returned to Germany as minister. Here he lived in splendid style and his hospitality alike to Germans and his countrymen attested the value of liberality in diplomacy. He maintained his friendship with Prince Bismarck, and in 1890 when the old prince quit office in disgrace with the young Kaiser Wilhelm II, Phelps had the manhood to

1 Dewey, Davis Rich, National Problems 1885-1897 (New York and London, 1907), p. 205.

2 William Walter Phelps, His Life and Public Services, by Hugh M. Herrick (New York, 1904), is a valuable study.

escort him to the railway station as a mark of friendship and respect. Yet so tactful was the minister that even this clear evidence of loyalty to Bismarck did not antagonize the Kaiser.

DIPLOMACY MADE PRACTICAL

The serious business of Phelps' mission was to procure admission into Germany for American pork. In spite of Junkers, and their clamor for agricultural protection, the Germans had concluded that certain food supplies were essential from abroad. Both in and out of season, Phelps pleaded the cause of the American hog, and though at the moment success was in his reach negotiations were suddenly transferred to the United States, where unnecessary reciprocal concessions were granted Germany, Phelps deserved the credit, as the Germans freely granted, for a successful outcome. At last, as the minister expressed it, the American pig "marched in triumph through the Brandenburger Gate.” This porcine victory achieved, Phelps applied himself to cattle and cornmeal, in order to provide new European markets for the American farmer. True diplomacy helped the popularity of the latter, for Phelps' Virginia cook prepared it in most tempting forms to please the German palate. These homely triumphs lie outside traditional diplomacy. But they are the essence of an economic age in which a foreign market is more tempting as a conquest than foreign territory could by any possibility be.

At Paris similar endeavors occupied Mr. Whitelaw Reid. He brought to his mission wide business experience from his connection in America with the linotype machine and his control of the New York Tribune. Like his colleague, Phelps, he employed great wealth to the furtherance of diplomatic ends. As a critic of his mission said, he combined Yankee shrewdness with French urbanity. While he observed the rapid rise and fall of cabinets in a France still shaken by the Boulanger plot, his cultivation of amicable relations never flagged. Pork and extradition were his

3 Cortissoz, Royal, The Life of Whitelaw Reid (New York, 1921). II, 121-152.

principal objectives. In the former he combated high protection. In the latter great difficulty was experienced in harmonizing definitions in Anglo-Saxon common law and the Napoleonic code. Phelps' success in Germany helped the cause of pork in France, and in 1891 Reid gained his point. Extradition was well advanced but not definitely settled when his mission terminated and he returned to the United States to be named as running mate for Harrison in the campaign of 1892.

PAN-AMERICANISM

While his ministers were winning these lesser but by no means negligible successes, the Secretary enjoyed in 1889 a triumph of his own in finally effecting what in 1881 had been denied him by his removal from office and the canceling of the Pan-American Congress. A similar invitation was presented by President Cleveland on May 24, 1888, to all the independent nations of the two Americas, including Haiti and Santo Domingo, to gather at Washington for discussion of affairs of common interest. The delegates assembled on October 2, 1889. It was Blaine's privilege to welcome them. This he did with dignity, enthusiasm, and rare personal charm, opening the session with a speech which indicated a large grasp of the significance and opportunities of the Congress.

The sessions continued till April, 1890, and though not one of the seventeen participating nations forfeited its freedom of action, and peace was therefore far from guaranteed, discussion on an equal and friendly basis did undoubtedly promote the cause of peace among the American nations. So that Blaine was justified in his noble words at the conclusion of the Congress when he declared: "If, in this closing hour, the conference had but one deed to celebrate, we should dare to call the world's attention to the deliberate, confident, solemn dedication of two great continents to peace and to the prosperity which has peace for its foundation. We hold up this new magna charta which abolishes war and substitutes, arbitration between the American re

publics as the first and great fruit of the International American Conference."

In contemplating steps toward peace in a world of so many conflicts and antagonisms as our own, one is tempted to be cynical unless he takes the long view. Horrible as wars now are, they are at any rate less frequent than in the long ago. Ideals that make for peace have made some gains during the centuries that history has kept watch. Even in the period since 1889, a notable decrease is evident in the wars and tumults of Latin-America. This desirable result may be attributed in some part to Blaine's Conference and others that have followed. Yet the immediate aftermath was a ridiculous anti-climax.

The Conference had scarcely adjourned when revolution took place in Salvador. Guatemala refused to recognize the new government. War followed during which the Guatemalans trespassed on the rights of the United States. Arms were taken off an American merchantman, and telegrams to the United States minister were intercepted. Not to be outdone in these civilities, Salvador attacked the United States consulate in its capital, removed the flag, and damaged the building. Worse yet, the good offices of the United States as mediator were rejected. Thus on this immediate test of arbitration so recently proclaimed as panacea for all the ills of peace, only disappointment followed. Blaine himself was forced to a firm stand in defense of the interests of the United States." Isaiah's prophecy was not yet fulfilled. The lion refused to lie down by the lamb. Swords refused the work of plow-shares. Peace on earth, good will toward men, remained as yet a glorious vision. But to proclaim even from such evidence as this the failure of the Conference is to miss the broad significance of history. The principle of arbitration still survives, while the squabbles of Salvador and Guatemala now dwell in the limbo of forgotten things.

4 Stanwood, Edward, James Gillespie Blaine (Boston, 1908), pp. 316-317.

5 Ibid. pp. 317-318.