1. These officers, called Consuls, are employed by most civilized nations, all those at least who have an extensive intercourse with foreign countries, and they are recognized by the Law of Nations as being clothed, when acting in their official capacity, with the authority and inviolability of their respective governments. Their place of official business is protected by the flag of their country, an insult to which renders reparation or war necessary to maintain its honor. Consuls are agents of their governments, but most of their duties have reference to the interests of private citizens who may be within their Consulate. There may be a great number of them in one country, and they are usually located in the seaports. 2. The Constitution provides that the President and Senate shall appoint all our Consuls. The President signs their commissions, which bear the great seal of the United States, and which prove to the government where they are sent that they are duly appointed and authorized to discharge the duties of[257] Consuls at the ports or places to which they have been appointed.
3. In order to show the nature of a Consul’s duties, such as the laws impose upon him, we will state the substance of several acts relating to this subject.
1. Whenever a vessel belonging to a citizen of the United States arrives at the port where he is stationed, it is his duty to receive the ship’s papers, and to see if they are all correct.
2. It is his duty to provide for sick, disabled, and destitute American seamen, and to send them home by some vessel going to the United States.
3. He must hear the complaints of seamen, and settle disputes between the captain and men; and for good cause he may discharge the whole ship’s crew.
4. It is made his duty to receive and take care of the personal property of any citizen of the United States who has died within his Consulate, and to send any balance which may be left after paying his debts and necessary expenses, to the treasury of the Uni............