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preparing an edition of his speeches or some similar work, and Fish urged him to apply himself to this as a distraction.
But Sumner said he could not afford to go abroad, and Fish in the effusion of the moment, and knowing that Motley was to be recalled, exclaimed: ‘How would you like to be Minister to England?’
The moment he heard his own words, he recognized his mistake.
He perceived that the offer might be misconstrued, and regretted what he had said.
But Sumner simply replied: ‘No, I cannot disturb Motley,’ and Fish eagerly acquiesced; ‘No, I see,’ he said, ‘you are right, you could not supplant Motley.’
Not another word passed between them on the subject, yet this has been called an attempt to bribe Mr. Sumner into the support of the St. Domingo treaty by the offer of the English mission.
In this very interview Fish had already urged Sumner to bring up the treaty and reject it; for the Administration had fully made up its mind that the measure was lost.
Twice before this Grant had told Fish that he meant to remove Motley; once when Motley's report of his first interview with Lord Clarendon arrived; next when it was discovered that Motley had submitted his account of the interview to the Foreign Office in London, and thus made it a part of the British archives; but on each occasion Fish had interposed to save the envoy.
I have already stated in a previous chapter that in May when I was leaving Washington, the President told me he had certainly determined to remove Mr. Motley.
On the 30th of June, the St. Domingo treaty was rejected, and on the 1st of July Motley was requested to resign.
The determination was executed then which had long before been arrived at; but I have no doubt whatever that the decision of the Senate accelerated the action of the President.
The axe had been hanging, but now Grant let it fall.
It was on the night of July 1st that General Grant desired Mr. Fish to request the resignation of Motley; but the President supposed
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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