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CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
still constitutionally refuse to ratify it. Such an occurrence will probably be rare, because the president will scarcely incline to lay a treaty before the senate, which he is not disposed to ratify.[1]
§ 1518. The next part of the clause respects appointments to office. The president is to nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and other officers, whose appointments are not otherwise provided for.
§ 1519. Under the confederation, an exclusive power was given to congress of "sending and receiving ambassadors."[2] The term "ambassador," strictly construed, (as would seem to be required by the second article of that instrument,) comprehends the highest grade only of public ministers;[3] and excludes those grades, which the United States would be most likely to prefer, whenever foreign embassies may be necessary. But under no latitude of construction could the term, "ambassadors," comprehend consuls. Yet it was found necessary by congress to employ the inferior grades of ministers, and to send and receive consuls. It is true, that the mutual appointment of consuls might have been provided for by treaty; and where no treaty existed, congress might perhaps have had the authority under the ninth article of the confederation, which conferred a general authority to appoint officers managing the general affairs of the United States. But the admis-- ↑ Rawle on the Constitution, ch. 20, p. 194, 195; 4 Jefferson's Correspondence, 317, 318.
- ↑ Article 9.
- ↑ An enumeration of the various grades and powers of foreign ministers properly belongs to a treatise on public law. The learned reader, however, will find ample information in the treatises of Grotius, Vattel, Martens, and Wicquefort.
