So I was instructed to call upon President McKinley and say
to him in behalf of the Committee, that they hoped the practice
would not be continued. That task I discharged. President
McKinley said he was aware of the objections; that he had
come to feel the evil very strongly; and while he did not
say in terms that he would not make another appointment of
the kind, he conveyed to me, as I am very sure he intended
to do, the assurance that it would not occur again. He said,
however, that it was not in general understood how few people
there were in this country, out of the Senate and House of
Representatives, qualified for important diplomatic service
of that kind, especially when we had to contend with the trained
diplomatists of Europe, who had studied such subjects all
their lives. He told me some of the difficulties he had encountered
in making selections of Ministers abroad, where important
matters were to be dealt with, our diplomatic representatives
having, as a rule, to be taken from entirely different pursuits
and employments.
That Congress in the past has thought it best to extend rather
than restrict this prohibition is shown by the statute which
forbids, under a severe penalty, members of either House of
Congress from representing the Government as counsel.
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