|
|
|
|
The National Interest
The Boldness of Charles Evans Hughes
by Margot Louria
. . . With the current high drama in our national life, commenced on September 11, 2001, it may seem odd to suggest an interest in the life and diplomacy of Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State from 1921 to 1925 under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. At first glance, his times seem much less daunting than ours: a period of peace, burgeoning prosperity and, flappers and Prohibition aside, what President Harding called "normalcy." But, in truth, Hughes became Secretary of State at a critical juncture. The United States had been tested by a horrific world war and had emerged divided over its proper international role. The awesome mortality rate of that war (more than 50,000 American soldiers were killed in action), and the use of poison gas as a method in it, alarmed many Americans. Just beneath the surface, too, many feared exposure to the historic vulnerabilities of the Old World, as if America's exceptional circumstance in history — having enjoyed sanctuary from attack by two surrounding oceans and two unthreatening neighbors — was melting away before a prospective devastation so frightening as to virtually paralyze imagination and response. . . . Like Wilson, Hughes was imbued with strong moral principles that he believed committed a society to the rule of law. Like Wilson, too, Hughes held that international society would do well to abide by the law to the extent possible, and that international institutions could play a constructive role in ensuring peace, progress and prosperity. But Hughes was not an idealist. He recognized the irreplaceable role of power standing behind principle and the more than occasionally base proclivities of human nature. Hughes was a moralist as befitted the temper of his times, but he loathed the kind of moralism that sacrificed consequences to high-sounding intentions. Wilson, after all, was a college president, but Hughes was a judge. . . .