The Foreign Service Journal, November 2014

66 NOVEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL ROBERT C. SCHENCK: POLITICAL AMBASSADOR AND SCOUNDREL Stephen H. Muller spent 26 years as a Foreign Service economic-cone officer, serving in Quito, Brasilia, Mexico City, Ottawa, London and Washington, D.C. After retiring from the Service in 2000, he worked for 12 years as a writer and editor for a group of newsletters serving the electric utility industry. He currently lives in Troy, New York, where he does freelance writing and serves on the boards of several nonprofits. When non-career ambassadors are bad, they are sometimes very bad. BY STEPHEN H . MUL L ER M ost Foreign Service officers serve under a political ambassador at least once during their careers; I served under five of them at three embassies. While some non-career appointees are unprofes- sional and poor managers, few are as deplorable as Robert C. Schenck, an Ohio lawyer, politician and Civil War general who was the U.S. minister (ambassador) to the Court of St. James’s from 1871 to 1876. Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant, Schenk used his position for personal gain, becoming entangled in promoting the fraudulent Emma Silver Mine to British investors. His con- duct was investigated by the House of Representatives Com- mittee on Foreign Affairs. But though the committee issued a scathing report, the minister was merely reprimanded, and by that time had finally resigned as minister. FEATURE Robert C. Schenck Library of Congress/Brady National Photographic Art Gallery