The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

62 NOVEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL remarkable achievements during his distinguished career in public service. At the time of his death in 1948, at the age of 86, Hughes was regarded by many legal scholars as one of the two best chief justices of the Supreme Court (John Marshall was the other), a position he held from 1930 to 1941. He was an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1910 to 1916 and a member of the Court of International Justice from 1928 to 1930. His two terms as governor of New York (1907-1910) were marked by progressive legislation widely copied by other states. The muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell said at the time, “Charles E. Hughes is engaged in a passionate effort to vindicate the American system of government.” He was ahead of his time on laws relating to race, freedom of the press and women’s suffrage. Few Americans remember that Hughes was the Republican pres- idential nominee in 1916, losing by one of the narrowest margins in history. It was the only conspicuous failure in his career. A poll of diplomatic historians carried out shortly after Hughes’ death named him one of the three best Secretaries of State after John Quincy Adams and William H. Seward. Although the only full biography of him—the two-volume Charles Evans Hughes by Merlo J. Pusey—is now nearly 65 years old, Hughes was lionized in his time. “His is the best mind in Washington,” wrote a journalist in a survey of Washington personalities after World War I, “to this everyone agrees.” Hughes possessed a complicated personality, but he also had a remarkable ability to adapt to whatever job he took on. In private he was high-strung and, often due to overwork, anxious and self-doubting. He also was coldly objective and deliberate in his approach to issues. With his carefully groomed beard and aristocratic bearing, he had the daunting look of Jove. Hughes’ independence annoyed Theodore Roosevelt, who called him the “bearded iceberg.” He preferred the company of his family over public ceremonies and chummy bourbon-laced gatherings with politicians. This suited him well as Supreme Court Chief Justice in the 1930s. Because his work did not require socializ- ing, he only dined out on Saturday evenings. As Secretary of State, however, he made himself avail- able night after night, to the point of personal exhaustion. Hughes relished the application of law, which made him one of the most successful lawyers of his gener- ation. But he understood the special requirements of diplomacy, a profession that required compromises with multiple audiences to achieve larger objectives. Skillful Leadership at Foggy Bottom By the time Hughes became Secretary of State, on March 5, 1921, the United States had joined the ranks of the great pow- ers—but most Americans remained isolationists. Reflecting that mood, the Senate had rejected outgoing President Woodrow Wil- son’s proposal that the United States join the League of Nations. Hughes initially took up that cause himself, but backed down when it became clear that he was unlikely to succeed and the fight would distract the administration from other urgent issues. As a second-best option, Hughes’ diplomats collaborated with League committees on such humanitarian issues as trafficking in women and children, relief and narcotics. Because the Senate had also rejected the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I, Hughes crafted an agree- ment that used language from a 1921 congressional resolution that reserved to the United States the rights of all the victorious nations. He then incorporated language from the Treaty of Ver- sailles defining just what those rights were, an adroit gambit that satisfied Germany and the Senate. At last, the war was officially over for the United States. The Five-Power Treaty of 1922 was perhaps the greatest example of Hughes’ foreign policy leadership. His bold open- World leaders take a stroll during a recess at the World Disarmament Conference in Washington, D.C., in November 1921. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes is at the center. U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION