My great-uncle said that it was not that two or three
conducted themselves in a manner unbecoming their positions, but,
that, representing us in a national capacity, they saddled the
responsibility on their honester fellow-countrymen. This, to me, had
something about it I could not clearly understand; but I have since
thought that if my eccentric uncle had lived to this day, and been in
possession of his crutch, a reckoning with General Pierce had been the
result. Either he had made the splinters fly, or that worthy
gentleman's ear tingle with certain facts relative to the manner in
which his gentry have strutted upon the stage we have before
mentioned. I say this of the old man because his regard for the
feelings of the nation was almost equal to his reverence for the
diplomatic body. And I am sure he, in the earnestness of his soul, had
prayed Mr. Pierce to take into his pious consideration the means of
remedying an evil so gross as that of his diplomatists making it the
fashion of paying their debts with that sacred character the comity of
nations has granted all missions.
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