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. 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.

But this seems to be the least important aspect of the subject. A mere question of salary, or, if you please, of system in the statute, is trivial, to my mind, by the side of that other consideration to which Senators have already alluded. I said that this was part of an educational system for the advancement of our service abroad. I do not think you can exaggerate its importance in this respect. Let any one who has been abroad, or had personal acquaintance with those who have been abroad, bear testimony to the abounding ignorance in our foreign service, from the circumstance that there is nobody there, unless a hired foreigner, acquainted with the language, the laws, or the usages of the people about him. Sir, it is a shame that our offices abroad, whether consular or diplomatic, are served in this inferior way. Here, now, is a practical proposition beginning a remedy. It is simple and direct. It seems to me that it cannot fail to be of considerable advantage. The business of these offices will be better done, and there will be a staff of educated experts, familiar with foreign life, whose knowledge and experience, even if not always in the service of Government, will pass into the capital stock and resources of the country. Nothing is clearer than that the education of the people is a source of national wealth, even of national power.

But the Senator from Vermont says that education is needed more in the diplomatic service than in the consular. Granted; it is needed very much in the diplomatic service; but because needed there, is that any reason why we should not supply it here? The argument, it seems to me, was hardly worthy of that Senator. Let a proposition be brought forward for an educational system applicable to our diplomatic representatives, and we will entertain it. Meanwhile let us act on that before us, which, I submit, is eminently practical in character. Who are our consuls? They are not diplomatic or political agents in the common sense of the term; they are commercial agents. To discharge their duties fitly, they should be familiar with the interests of commerce, how it is conducted, and the language it employs, where they happen to be. And permit me to say, that a great country like ours, one of whose chief sources of wealth and of grandeur is commerce, must not hesitate to supply the education needed to secure commercial representatives not unworthy of the Republic they represent.

As the consul is a commercial representative, he is on this account especially the agent of a commercial country. If our commerce were less, our interest in having good consuls would be less. But with the surpassing growth of our commerce this interest enlarges. To send abroad consuls without proper education must necessarily bring the national character into disrepute, and jeopard the concerns intrusted to them. For the sake of our good name abroad, which is part of our national possessions, and also for the sake of those vast commercial concerns which encircle the globe, I hope that this proposition, which is a small beginning in the right direction, will not be rejected.