tentional thing, and based upon a principle, it
would not have stopped where it did: we should have applied it further.
Instead of clothing our admirals and generals, for courts-martial and
other public functions, in superb dress uniforms blazing with colour and
gold, the Government would put them in swallow-tails and white cravats,
and make them look like ambassadors and lackeys. If I am wrong in making
Franklin the father of our curious official clothes, it is no matter--he
will be able to stand it.

It is my opinion--and I make no charge for the suggestion--that,
whenever we appoint an ambassador or a minister, we ought to confer upon
him the temporary rank of admiral or general, and allow him to wear the
corresponding uniform at public functions in foreign countries. I would
recommend this for the reason that it is not consonant with the dignity
of the United States of America that her representative should
appear upon occasions of state in a dress which makes him glaringly
conspicuous; and that is what his present undertaker-outfit does when
it appears, with its dismal smudge, in the midst of the butterfly
splendours of a Continental court. It is a most trying position for a
shy man, a modest man, a man accustomed to being like other people.
He is the most striking figure present; there is no hiding from the
multitudinous eyes. It would be funny, if it were not such a cruel
spectacle, to see the hunted creature in his solemn sables scuffling
around in that sea of vivid colour, like a mislaid Presbyterian in
perdition. We are all aware that our representative's dress should not
compel too much attention; for anybody but an Indian chief knows that
that is a vulgarity. I am saying these things in the interest of our
national pride and dignity. Our representative is the flag. He is the
Republic. He is the United States of America. And when these embodiments
pass by, we do not want them scoffed at; we desire that people shall be
obliged to concede that they are worthily clothed, and politely.

Our Government is oddly inconsistent in this matter of official dress.
When its representative is a civilian who has not been a solider, it
restricts him to the black swallow-tail and white tie; but if he is a
civilian who has been a solider, it allows him to wear the uniform of
his former rank as an official dress. When General Sickles was minister
to Spain, he always wore, when on official duty, the dress uniform of
a major-gen