CONGRESS (Lat. together,' a meeting of rulers or representa tives of several states, to adjust disputes be tween different governments. It is necessary to distinguish the meeting in, which prelim inaries are settled, from the principal congress, which is to bring the affair in question to a decision. The plenipotentiaries when they meet, after mutual greetings, appoint, in a preliminary conference, the day on which the congress is to be opened, and determine the manner in which business is to be transacted, the forms of ne gotiation, the order of precedence among the different powers and the time of session. The congress opens by the exchange and perusal of credentials among the plenipotentiaries, which, in case the negotiating parties have referred to the arbitration of a mediator, are given to him. The envoys of the contending powers then carry on their negotiations directly with each other, or by the intervention of a mediator, either in a common hall or in their own resi dences by turns, or, if there is a mediator, in his residence. These negotiations are con
tinued either by writing or by verbal commu nication, until the commissioners agree upon a treaty, or until one of the powers dissolves the congress by recalling its minister. Such meet ings of the representatives of different countries are sometimes called conferences. The nominal difference between a conference and a congress is this, that the representatives of the different countries at the former are the ordinary ambassadors of the respective countries at the court at which the conference is held, while the representatives at the latter are specially deputed for the purpose. Among congresses of the 19th century the chief are the Congress of Vienna, 1815; of Paris 1856; of Berlin 1878; The Pan-American Congress at Washington, D. C. (1888-90).