am
confident that he will leave no stone unturned to promote good will
among nations as he is wont to do among men. Whatever differences
of opinion there may be, regarding the details of any particular
negotiation, no person of whatever party or creed can doubt President
Taft's splendid patriotism and devotion to the highest ideals of
citizenship. I am sure that these treaties have been inspired by
these sentiments, and, being honest and benevolent in their purpose,
the principle they embody must prevail in the end.

CHAPTER XXIX
TITLES AND DECORATIONS FROM FOREIGN POWERS

The Constitution of the United States provides:

"No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and
no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall,
without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument,
office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or
foreign State."

When I became chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, there
were numerous bills pending, and numerous requests submitted through
the State Department, for authority, on the part of officers of
the United States, to accept gifts and decorations from foreign
Governments. At first I was disposed to consent to the report and
passage of such bills, and during the first year or two they were
reported from the committee from time to time and passed in the
Senate. The House did not act upon the individual bills, but a so-
called "omnibus bill" was passed in the House containing all the
bills that previously had been passed by the Senate, and in addition
quite a number of House bills. I had not realized until then how
extensive the practice had become, and I thereupon determined to
use what influence I had to put a stop to it. Since then but two
decorative bills of an exceptionally meritorious nature, one in
favor of Captain T. deWitt Wilcox, and one in favor of Admiral B.
H. McCalla, have been enacted by Congress.

I thoroughly disapprove of the practice, and wanted to put an
effectual stop to it. At the same time the requests came pouring
in from session to session, and certain Senators, both on the
committee and others who were not members of it, insisted and urged
that favorable action be taken in behalf of officers of the United
States in whom they were interested. After more than two hundred
requests had accumulated, I determined to appoint a subcommittee
to consider the whole matter and report to the commi