Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1889 — Official Courtesy at Washington. [ARTICLE]

Official Courtesy at Washington.

St. Nicholas. V; All through the Government service as in private business establishments,we of course, find the relation of superior and subordinate, and from this relation necessarily follow certain distinctions of grade, or official classification, and certain rules of courtesy governing the business intercourse between agsntk of equal or unequal rank. The President is higher than a Secretary of Department, a Secretary higher than'a bureau, chief, a bureau chief higher than a clerk. An officer, issuing instructions or commands, the conventional or complimentary forms, observed by him when communjcating with afficers of equal or higher 1 grade; a subordinate,corresponding with one | above him in authority, is more or less deferential in his address. This complaisance, however, extends chiefly td such harmless expressions as, “To the Honorable Secretay,”and “I am, w .ta g-eat respect, your obedient servant, at the begining and ending of letters; and is only objectionable when it becomes indiscriminate or extravagant. In strict propriety, official communications should be addressed to their“office”—not to the name of the individual holding the [office; and a public office receives no augmented dignity by reason of mere wordy additions,, Thi s was the vie W. taken by. the House of Representatives at the begin ing of tbe Government, when the Senate desireX to style the President “His High Mightiness,” or by some other senseless title; and, the Senate, by submitting to this view; established a precedent applicable to every subordinate office. ;' In writing to a high official or a member of Congress by name, the prefix “ Hon.” is permissible on grounds of general usage, but the employment of this title in addressing minor officers is meaningless, as also is the phrase, “To His Excellency the President”; yet, this and other errors of over-effusion are frequently made/by correspondents both in "anil out of official circles. In ranking the President as head of the Republic we regared him only in his public capacity. His preeminence is the preeminence of his office; and this office, we have said; was intended to exercise business functions.