Diplomatic Protocol Crisis of 1887

The English diplomat, accustomed to being second socially only to the Royal family, delayed his courtesy call for months after Hobart, a New Jersey native, snubbed Lord and Lady Pauncefote’s invitation to a British garden party. Washington was entranced with the squabble. Finally, after advice from the crown itself, Lord Pauncefote buckled and paid the first call on Hobart.  

–Public domain image of Sir Julian Pauncefote

All the fuss over Nancy Reagan’s china and interior decorating at the White House has caused some to urge that official Washington return to an era when leaders wasted little time on questions of etiquette and social standing. Apparently there never was such a time.

The National Historical Society recently recalled the crisis of protocol that gripped Washington 85 years ago. It seems the British ambassador, Sir Julian Pauncefote, and William McKinley’s first vice president, Garret Augustus Hobart, embroiled themselves in a raging public controversy over who should sit next to the President at State Dinners, and who should call on the other first.

The English diplomat, accustomed to being second socially only to the Royal family, delayed his courtesy call for months after Hobart, a New Jersey native, snubbed Lord and Lady Pauncefote’s invitation to a British garden party. Washington was entranced with the squabble. Finally, after advice from the crown itself, Lord Pauncefote buckled and paid the first call on Hobart. Hobart later missed a chance at being President by dying in office in 1899. – San Bernardino Sun, 1982

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia