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170 drama, was their first and greatest diplomat—Anson Burlingame, late orator of Faneuil Hall, Boston, State of Massachusetts.

A narrative of this unique envoy, sent from the Past to negotiate with the Future, is not out of place in the chronicle of American diplomatic exploits, for he was also minister from the United States to China, and the founder of the American policy of "Hands Off" and a square deal. He was one of the few men in history trusted to the extent of representing both sides of an international discussion at one and the same time—a particularly trying position, considering that neither side had the slightest idea what the other was talking about, and from their cradles were fundamentally incapable of finding out.

This Back Bay politician possessed precisely no diplomatic training whatever. His original appointment was in large measure due to the answer he gave to Preston Brooks, after the South Carolinian had beaten the Senator from Massachusetts with a cane in full view of the