the archives of most of our legations exhibit only "a beggarly account of empty boxes;" and it has happened, even in the short time during which I have filled the office, that negotiations of much importance have been delayed, until, by a protracted correspondence, it has been discovered that documents indispensable to its progress, and which ought to have been with the legation, were wanting, and were to be supplied again from the department. To remedy this evil, as far as lay in my power, in future, supplemental general instructions were sent to all our ministers, a copy of which is hereunto annexed, marked A.

If these should be obeyed, as I trust they will, it can only be at a considerable expense for clerk-hire, office rent, and stationery, to be deducted from salaries scarcely adequate to a bare decent subsistence.

The want of a fixed place for doing business, and of a clerk always to be found in it, to receive and answer applications when the minister is unavoidably absent, is the more important, because of the nature of the affairs he has to transact. They are either with his countrymen, whose business will not admit of delay, or with the functionaries of the Government to which he is sent; the most subordinate of which would pay very little respect to a minister who had neither an office to receive them in, nor a clerk to answer their inquiries. At home, the head of every subordinate bureau attached to any of the departments, has an office, and a messenger, and clerks, and fire, and stationery, and lights, and every convenience for carrying on the business entrusted to him. This is as it should be. But, to represent the dignity of the country, and, on a scanty salary, to transact its most important concerns abroad, we send a man whom we provide with none of these necessaries for the transaction of his business; we force him to do all the drudgery of the office with his own hands, and either to live in some obscure place, where his countrymen blush to find him fixed, when, after some difficulty, they have discovered his tavern residence; or, at the expense of his own fortune, to provide what is necessary for the interest and dignity of the Government. The usual answer to these representations is that, notwithstanding all these inconveniences, candidates are always found eagerly seeking these appointments. But it must be remarked that these candidates are of two kinds. First, men of wealth, who are willing to purchase the honor of the station at the expense of their private fortunes. But, although these are not always the fittest, in other respects, for the place, they are sometimes selected, and their appointment is popular, because there seems to be no objection to a minister's keeping up decent appearance, provided he does it at his own expense. Secondly, there are others who seek these appointments, because they make false calculations on the consequences. They resolve to be very economical, to live within their income, and to be drawn into no extravagance. But, on arriving at their place of destination, they find that expenses which might, with prudence, have been avoided here, are inevitable abroad. Civilities are received which n.ust be returned; strangers are introduced who must be entertained; their countrymen call on them, and must be treated hospitably. In short, they find themselves obliged to live as others do; or, to forego all the advantages which social intercourse would give them in the business of their mission. The consequence is, that all our ministers return with impaired fortunes, however firm their resolutions have been to avoid unnecessary expense. It is possible there may be exceptions; but they are certainly very rare. If, then, none of the ministers we have sent abroad, however prudent, have

been able to live for the salaries that are allowed them, the conclusion is inevitable, that the salaries ought to be increased, or the ministers should be recalled. If the mission is useful it ought to be supported at the public, not at private expense; and the representatives of a great nation ought not to be obliged to employ, in devising parsimonious expedients for their support, that time and those talents which ought to be occupied in the service of their country.

The salary of a minister plenipotentiary, in the early part of our revolution, was two thousand five hundred pounds sterling, equal to eleven thousand one hundred dollars, besides which, they had, in some instances, an allowance for house rent. The embarrassed state of our finances at a subsequent period, induced Congress to reduce the salaries of our diplomatic agents to the present parsimonious scale. How adequate this is to the purpose designed, may be judged by the representations in the annexed paper, marked B, taken from the despatches of our most distinguished ministers; no one of whom can be supposed capable of misrepresenting facts, even where their interest was concerned. But, if any doubt should be entertained on the subject, they will be removed by conversing with any one of our ministers who have returned, and have now no motive for exaggerating the difficulties they experienced from a scanty income while they were abroad. Some of these facts, and some of the evils they produce, have been frequently brought to the notice of Congress, but as they have hitherto produced no alteration in the system, it is respectful to suppose that there is some good reason to prevent the obvious remedy, by a small increase of salary. the serious evil arising from the want of a fixed place to keep the records of our legations abroad, and the disgraceful state of imperfection in which they are kept, from the want of an allowance for clerk hire, have never, it is be lieved, been officially stated to the Legislature.

But

The inconvenience is every day felt. The minister abroad is ignorant of what his predecessors have done. A prodigious expense for extra clerk hire is called for at the department, for the copying such of the documents as are found there, to send to the minister when the occasion calls for them. He is obliged to grope his way through the mutilated documents he finds in the archives of his legation, before he finds what is wanting, and he is then forced to send to the department to know whether they are found there; and, after all this delay, he, perhaps, finds himself so straitened in his circumstances, as to ask a recall before he can make himself master of the several subjects committed to his charge. Another minister succeeds; another outfit must be given, and, in the end, false economy in this, as well as in other cases, defeats its own end.

Taking it, however, from past decisions, that no increase of salary will be given, I respectfully suggest, as a remedy for the evils I have stated, that every diplomatic agent be obliged, by law, to keep regular books for the recording of all the business appertaining to his mission, in such form as has been directed by the Department of State, and that, for this purpose, a reasonable allowance be made in the settlement of his account, for house rent, stationery, and clerk hire; and that provision be also made, by law, to de fray the expense of copying all documents and corresponder.ce in the Department of State which are necessary for completing the archives of the several legations abroad. Without these provisions, our foreign relations can never be carried on with any regularity; with them, your ministers may live, with strict economy, without material injury to their fortunes;

they will be enabled to comply with the instructions given them for the preservation and regular record of their papers; their correspondence with the department will be regularly kept up; and a minister succeeding another within a short time, may have a complete knowledge of all that has beendone by his predecessor, and what remains to be done by him. Instructions from the department will be less voluminous, because they will contain references, only, to documents, instead of being burdened with copies, sometimes of great bulk; and, in short, some of the first duties of the office, which are now omitted, will be performed, because there will be no excuse for neglecting them.

If these allowances should be directed to be made, it will require an additional annual expenditure in the fund for missions abroad, for our present establishment, of about thirty-six thousand dollars; and, in addition to the advantages which will be purchased at this comparatively trifling expense, there will be one of no small advantage in a national point of view. Young men of education will gladly attach themselves to the several missions, in the character of private secretaries, for the moderate allowance which the minister, by this arrangement, will be enabled to give; they will acquire habits, knowledge, and talents, which will fit them to serve their country in the higher ranks of diplomacy, according to their merits.

It is probable, sir, that some of the opinions expressed in this report may not merit your sanction. They are the result of my best reflection on some of the most important functions of the department you have committed to my care; and I should deem myself wanting in duty if I did not bring them to your notice, and request that they might be submitted to Congresa, whose wisdom will determine the consideration, if any, to which they are entitled. All which is respectfully submitted.

EDW. LIVINGSTON.

Gircular supplemental to the Personal Instructions to the Ministers, &c., of the United States abroad.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, 24th February, 1832.

SIR: The direction contained in your personal instructions which relates to the archives of your mission, was introduced to avoid a great evil which that direction has hitherto only partially removed. Neither the instructions given to a diplomatic agent by his Government, nor the official letters he receives, nor the records of his answers, and of other transactions relating to his office, are his private property: they are to be kept subject to the order of the department to which his office is attached. The public interest, and the convenience of official intercourse with our agents in a foreign country, require that every minister who succeeds to a mission should know accurately the directions that have been given by the Government to his predecessors, and what they have done-what communications they have received from other sources, and what answers they have given. It was, therefore, made a standing direction to all our diplomatic agents, to preserve the archives of their mission with the utmost care, that they might be delivered to their successors, either immediately, or by means of

such persons as might be ordered to receive them until the successor should arrive. It has been observed, with regret, at the department, that these directions have been, in many instances, but imperfectly executed, and in others totally disregarded.

It is, therefore, that, by the President's direction, I call your attention. to the subject by this communication, which, being addressed without any exception to each of our ministers abroad, is not to be considered as implying a charge against any one in particular, but is intended to secure a more strict compliance with the instructions of the department, and to render them more explicit, and the compliance with them, in the several missions, more uniform.

1. On the arrival of any minister at the place of his destination, at his first leisure he is to examine the archives of the legation; if an inventory has been left by his predecessor, he is to verify it with the person from whom he received it, by comparing the archives with the inventory; and to acknowledge, by his signature, the receipt of the several articles contained in the inventory, or of such as are found, noting those which are wanting, and adding those found in the archives which are not contained in the inventory.

If no inventory has been left, he must proceed to make one, and verify it in the manner above described.

This inventory in both cases to be fairly written and copied; one copy to be sent to the department, and the other kept in the archives of the legation.

Ia preceding inventory has been sent to the department, the continua. tion of it only need be sent, but, in all cases where no such inventory has been sent, it must be done without delay, in order to enable us to supply deficiences, as far as it can be done, from the materials to be found here, it being the intention of the President that the archives of each legation shall be made complete, and that henceforth they shall be kept so, on the responsibility of the minister or agent in whose charge they may, for the time being, be placed.

2. Every instruction or letter from the department-every written communication addressed to the minister from any other source, is to be carefully filed, endorsed with a short note of the contents, and an index formed of the contents of each bundle, package, or box, in which they are contained.

3. Proper books are to be procured in which every official paper of the legation, without exception, is to be fairly copied and indexed. This is to include, as well protocols of conferences, notes of official conversations, and every memorandum necessary to the full understanding of the history of his mission, as copies of his correspondence.

4. Great care is to be taken to furnish the department with copies of all official notes or letters received, as well as of the answers given; to note all conversations with men in office, having any material bearing on the relations of the country to which you are sent, with the United States, and which you think it important that your Government should be informed of; to make these notes as soon after the conversations occur as possible, and to send copies in your next despatches. Whenever such notes, or any other communication you make, would have an injurious effect, if intercepted, either on the interest of the country or individual feelings, it is recommended to you to use the cypher with which you are furnished.

5. Your attention is particularly called to that part of your personal in

structions which requires you to furnish statistical information for the purpose of intimating that, at this period, tables of export and import, and tonnage, both foreign and domestic; the rates of duties, and every other information relating to the commerce and navigation of the country to which you are accredited, will be particularly acceptable to the department, together with any interesting publications on those subjects.

I am, with great respect,

Your obedient servant,

EDW. LIVINGSTON.

B.

Statement in relation to the Inadequacy of the Salaries of our Ministers abroad.

ENGLAND.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Jay.

"LONDON, 15th December, 1785.

"In this state of things, I must be cautious. I am not able to pay the scribes, like an exchequer; nor to promise them pay or promotion, like an opposition. And, indeed, paragraphs in our favor seem only to provoke ten inventions against us. Something might be done in time, however, by mixing in conversation, and explaining or contradicting the grossest and Worst abuses. But this can be done, in these countries, only by the civilities of the table, and by a liberal hospitality, in which we are much straitened. House rent, furniture, carriage, and a certain number of servants, with the daily expenses of living, which cannot be avoided, without becoming the scorn of the world, and without being insulted by every footman and porter, consume all, and more than all, our allowance.

"I feel for the circumstances of my country as much as any man in it, but I am sure those circumstances will not be mended by extreme parsimony in the support of her servants and negotiators in Europe. When your ministers are seen to take rank of nobles and bishops at St. James', who spend many thousands a year, and are observed to live at home and appear abroad, with what is called "la plus infame economie," which is the expression every day in vogue, you will find that neither you nor they will be considered as of any consequence. Your ministers abroad must keep a table for the entertainment of strangers who are presented at court, and consequently to them, to return the civilities that are shown them by foreign ministers, and by people of high rank in the country. They ought to keep a table, at times, for the entertainment of men of letters and eminence in arts and sciences, by which they might remove the prejudices of the world against their country and themselves, and attract some attention and good will to both. How far any of these things are in our power to do, I cheerfully submit to the consideration of Congress; being determined to do everything in my power, with the means I have, and to be happy, myself, whether I make a little figure or a great one.

"With great esteem, &c.

"JOHN ADAMS.