There had
been several attempts to make a change in this matter, always
unsuccessful, until I went abroad in 1892.

When I was in London in that year, I saw a great deal of
Mr. Lincoln. He told me how vexatious he found his position.
When the Minister for Foreign Affairs received the diplomatic
representatives of other countries at the Foreign Office,
Ambassadors were treated as belonging to one rank, or class,
and the Ministers as to a lower one. The members of each
class were received in the order of their seniority. We change
our Ministers with every Administration. So the Minister
of the United States is likely to be among the juniors. He
might have to wait all day, while the representatives of insignificant
little States were received one after another. If, before
the day ended, his turn came, some Ambassador would arrive,
who would get there, perhaps, five minutes before it was time
for Mr. Lincoln to go in, he had precedence at once. So the
representative of the most powerful country on earth might
have to lose the whole day, only to repeat the same experience
on the next.

An arrangement was made which partly cured the trouble by
the Minister for Foreign Affairs receiving Mr. Lincoln, on
special application, informally, at his residence, on some
other day. But that was frequently very inconvenient. And,
besides, it was not always desirable to make a special application
for an audience, which would indicate to the English Government
that we attached great importance to the request he might
have to make, so that conditions of importance would be likely
be attached to it by them. It was quite desirable, sometimes,
to mention a subject incidentally and by the way, rather than
to make it matter of a special appointment.

When I got to Paris, I found Mr. Coolidge complaining of the
same difficulty. I told our two Ministers that when I got
home I would try to devise a remedy. Accordingly I proposed
and moved as an amendment to the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation
Bill, the following clause:

"Whenever the President shall be advised that any foreign
government is represented, or is about to be represented in
the United States, by an Ambassador, Envoy Extraordinary,
Minister Plenipotentiary, Minister Resident, Special Envoy,
or Charge' d'affairs, he is authorized, in his discretion,
to direct that the representatives of the United States to
such government shall bear the same designation. This