Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/176

156 This document was a poser, and gave the Secretary of State about as lively and as exacting a seven days as he ever had. Diplomacy became an active and important function in the City of Washington.

In so far as this country or any other is governed in its quarrels and conflicts by international law the problem was a very easy one. The joke was on Great Britain. It was simply splendid. For here was Lord Palmerston in the most concise and unequivocal manner staking everything he had and the seven seas upon the proposition that to stop a neutral boat and take off a passenger was an outrage and a scandal. Now that was just exactly what this country had contended for a century more or less, and it was this very kind of action that had called forth the resentment of the Frigate Constitution in the days of 1812. Provided my Lord's facts, so clearly put, were true, and provided we wished to follow the law in all its holy inviolability, all we had to do was politely acquiesce, and congratulate the Queen upon