Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 6.djvu/294

270 whole field of politics. We agreed to disagree on the question of the tariff. As to the money question he said that he would employ the whole influence of his office to secure the best kind of currency legislation. He assured me that he was a convinced civil service reformer and that in this respect he hoped his Administration would leave nothing to desire. Then he asked me: “How do you like my foreign appointments?” The part of our conversation which then followed has remained very clearly and firmly fixed in my mind, for very soon afterwards I had peculiar reason for remembering it.

Responding to Mr. McKinley's question I said that I thought his foreign appointments would on the whole be considered as comparing favorably with those of his predecessors, and I complimented him especially upon the ideal selection of Mr. Andrew D. White for the embassy at Berlin. “But,” said I, “there is one appointment foreshadowed in the newspapers which, if made, may give you a good deal of trouble. It is reported that you are likely to send young Mr. Sewall of Maine as Minister to the Hawaiian Islands. Is he not connected with that coterie in Maine which some years ago instigated the revolution at Honolulu and precipitated the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands upon us? If he is, you will have to look for a repetition of such intrigues and of the same trouble in consequence.”

“Oh,” said Mr. McKinley, “I have thought of that, too, and have taken my precautions. I have had Mr. Sewall come to the White House and told him that there was a strong pressure from New England in favor of his appointment to the Hawaiian mission; that I had not concluded yet to appoint him, but, if I did, I wanted him distinctly to understand that I did not want any of that scheming for annexation, and that, if he went one hair's breadth beyond the instructions given him by the State