AMBAS'SADOR (Med. Lat. ambasciator, agent, from ambasciare, to go on a mission, ear lier ambactiare, from Lat. am/ictus, vassal; ac cording to Festus, of Celtic origin; compare Welsh amacth, husbandman, and Goth. andbuhts, servant; Ger. Amt, office). The highest rank of public minister accredited to a foreign court. Though used popularly and sometimes by writ ers on public law in a loose sense as the equiva lent of minister (q.v), the term is strictly appro priately used only of the highest of the four orders of diplomatic agents established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and that of Aix-la Chapelle in ISIS. The classification then adopted, which has been generally accepted, is as follows: (1) Ambassadors, and legates and nun cios of the Pope. (2) Envoys and ministers plenipotentiary. (3) Ministers resident, accredi ted to the sovereign. (4) Charg6s d'affaires.
The ambassador is supposed to represent di rectly the person of his sovereign, who signs his credentials, or letters of credence, and the am bassador, therefore, enjoys of right the privilege of personal communication with the sovereign to whom he is accredited. Ministers and eharpss d'affaires do not, in theory, possess this right, though in the case of the minister, at least, the privilege is not usually denied. The chargts d'affaires is, in fact, not accredited to the sov ereign, but to the minister of foreign affairs, and is regarded merely as an agent of his government to transact the business intrusted to him. Mod
ern methods of carrying on the diplomatic inter course of states have greatly diminished the relative importance of ambassadors, as compared with other diplomatic agents, and little remains of their primacy excepting a superior dignity and impressiveness and certain rights of precedence on ceremonial occasions. Prior to 1S93 the Gov ernment of the United States had been repre sented abroad by no agents of higher rank than ministers resident, who were, in the ease of the great Powers, accredited as envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary. But in that year, in order to give our diplomatic representatives at foreign courts an equal dignity and importance with that enjoyed by the representatives of other great Powers, Congress passed an act authoriz ing the President to accredit ambassadors to rep resent the United States at certain European courts. The privileges and immunities of am bassadors, which are shared by them with other international representatives, will be dealt with in the article on Diel.oNiAric AGENTS. See al-40 ASYLE3.1, RIGHT OF; ENTER/HM[111A I.ITY ; LEGATION.