tion is that offices in general are held during the pleasure of the President, unless the Constitution, or the law by which they are created, provides otherwise.

§ 429. Some of the reasons which led to this construction of the Constitution were, that the President is intrusted with the supreme executive power, and is bound to carry the laws into operation, which he can do only by means of officers responsible to him; also, that it might frequently be necessary to make removals when Congress was not in session, and the consent of the Senate, if necessary, could not for that reason be obtained.

§ 430. The power of the President to remove an officer from the public service, extends to all officers in the army navy, as well as to civil officers.

and

§ 431. An important branch of the appointing power, expressly vested in the President jointly with the Senate, is that which relates to ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls. Public ministers are sent abroad by a sovereign State to transact public business in behalf of their country with a foreign government.

§ 432. In strictness, no State is obliged to send ministers to, or receive them from, another State; the practice in this respect arises from long usage, and the in their intercourse with each other. State, however, has the right to send and receive them from, any other sovereign State with which it desires to maintain friendly relations.

courtesy of nations. Every independent public ministers to,

§ 433. There are, according to the practice of nations, three grades of public ministers, or diplomatic agents:

(1.) Cardinals, papal legates, or nuncios, and ministers sent with the character of ambassadors. These represent the State, or the person of the sovereign, by whom they are sent, in the highest and most eminent degree, not only

in the particular affairs with which they are charged, but on all occasions. Ambassadors are divided into ordinary and extraordinary; the former are employed in permanent missions, the latter, in special and extraordinary negotiations.

§ 434. (2.) Envoys, envoys extraordinary, ministers plenipotentiary.

(3.) Ministers, ministers resident, chargés d'affaires. The ministers of the second and third classes are destitute of the representative character, strictly so called, and represent their State or sovereign only for the affairs with which they are charged, either in behalf of the government or its subjects.

§ 435. Consuls are commercial agents of a government, appointed to reside in a foreign country to protect the commercial interests of their government. Although consuls are, to some extent, under the special protection of the law of nations, yet they are not considered as public ministers or diplomatic agents; they cannot enter upon their . duties until they have been confirmed by the sovereign in whose dominions they are about to reside. A vice-consul is one who acts in the place of a consul.

§ 436. The duties of our consuls relate chiefly to the commerce of the United States, and to the masters of ships, mariners, and other citizens of the United States. They have authority to receive protests or declarations which captains, crews, passengers, merchants, and others may make, relating to American commerce; they are required, when the laws of the country permit it, to administer on the estate of American citizens dying within their consulate and leaving no legal representatives; to take charge of stranded American vessels in the absence of the master or owners; to settle disputes between the masters of ves

sels and the seamen; to provide for destitute seamen, and send them to the United States at the public expense. They may also grant passports to American citizens

abroad.

§ 437. The diplomatic and consular systems of the United States were remodelled by an act of Congress, approved March 1, 1855. By that act certain countries are designated, in which the United States are to be represented by an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, together with a secretary of legation. Consuls are appointed to reside, during their continuance in office, in the principal cities and ports throughout the world, and consuls and commercial agents, in the less important localities, receiving a fixed annual compensation for their services. The consuls at certain of the more important places are not permitted to transact business in their own name, or through the agency of others; but consuls and commercial agents at other places are not thus restricted. By this act, none but citizens of the United States can be appointed as diplomatic or consular agents.

§ 438. The persons and household goods of foreign ambassadors or public ministers, are, by the law of nations, exempt from arrest or seizure; nor are ambassadors responsible to the civil or criminal laws of the country to which they are sent. As they are the representatives of their governments, and are deputed for the purposes of negotiation and friendly intercourse, they are exempt from all molestation. If they insult the government to which they are sent, or violate its laws, the government may refuse to treat with them, or application may be made to their own government for their recall, or they may be dismissed and required to depart within a reasonable time.

§ 439. But consuls, as above stated, are regarded merely

as commercial agents, and are not, by the law of nations, entitled to the privileges of public ministers; they are generally subject, in civil and criminal cases, to the laws of the country where they reside.

§ 440. Congress passed an act, April 30, 1790, declaring that all writs and processes issued out of any court of the United States, or of a particular State, or by any judge or justice, whereby any ambassador or other public minister of any foreign prince or State, or any servant of any such ambassador or minister, may be arrested, or his goods and chattels seized, shall be deemed utterly void. But to entitle the servants of an ambassador to the protection of this act, the names of such servants should be first registered in the office of the Secretary of State, and further publicity given to them in a manner pointed out in

the act.

[Clause 3.] "The President shall have Power to fill up Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

§ 441. This clause refers to vacancies in offices under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Vacancies may happen from death, resignation, promotion, or removal. The power of temporary appointment is given to the President alone, because the consent of the Senate cannot be obtained when it is not in session. But the appointment by the President in such case expires at the end of the next session of the Senate.

§ 442. Sometimes offices are created by law while the Senate is in session, and are not filled at the time. The President cannot appoint to those offices after the adjournment of the Senate, without special authority is given tc

him, because in such case the vacancy does not happenduring the recess.

§ 443. But if a vacancy occur before the session of the Senate, and the President fills it by an appointment, which, by the clause we are now considering, expires at the end of the next session, and the President during the session should nominate a person for the office, and the nomination is not acted upon, or approved by the Senate, then it has been the practice of the government to consider that, after the adjournment of the Senate, a vacancy has again. happened in the office during a recess of the Senate, so that the President may proceed to make another appointment until the end of the following session of the Senate. If this were not done, the office would be unoccupied, and public business might suffer.

"SECTION 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the officers of the United States."

§ 444. From the first part of this clause has originated the practice of the President to send a written message concerning public affairs to Congress, annually, and special messages at other times. The first two Presidents, Wash