an envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary to Great Britain, or to Sweden, the compensation of that
minister shall be so much and no more."[276]

This line of reasoning is today only partially descriptive of facts. The
act of March 2, 1909, provides that new ambassadorships may be created
only with the consent of Congress,[277] while the Foreign Service Act of
1924[278] organizes the foreign service, both its diplomatic and its
consular divisions, in detail as to grades, salaries, appointments,
promotions, and in part as to duties. Theoretically the act leaves the
power of the President and Senate to appoint consular and diplomatic
officials intact, but in practice the vast proportion of the selections
are made in conformance with the civil service rules.

PRESIDENTIAL DIPLOMATIC AGENTS

What the President may have lost in consequence of the intervention of
Congress in this field, he has made good through his early conceded
right to employ, in the discharge of his diplomatic function, so-called
"special," "personal," or "secret" agents without consulting the Senate.
When President Jackson's right to resort to this practice was challenged
in the Senate in 1831, it was defended by Edward Livingston, Senator
from Louisiana, to such good purpose that Jackson made him Secretary of
State. "The practice of appointing secret agents," said Livingston, "is
coeval with our existence as a nation, and goes beyond our
acknowledgment as such by other powers. All those great men who have
figured in the history of our diplomacy, began their career, and
performed some of their most important services in the capacity of
secret agents, with full powers. Franklin, Adams, Lee, were only
commissioners; and in negotiating a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco,
the selection of the secret agent was left to the Ministers appointed to
make the treaty; and, accordingly, in the year 1785, Mr. Adams and Mr.
Jefferson appointed Thomas Barclay, who went to Morocco and made a
treaty, which was ratified by the Ministers at Paris.

"These instances show that, even prior to the establishment of the
Federal Government, secret plenipotentiaries were known, as well in the
practice of our own country as in the general law of nations: and that
these secret agents were not on a level with messengers,
letter-carriers, or spies, to whom it has been found necessary in
argument to assimilate them. On the 30th March, 1795, in the recess of
the Senate,