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“Again, and as another check upon the executive, in his conduct of international relations, the diplomatic representatives of the government must be, as we the people provided in the Constitution, nominated by the President and approved by the Senate. But the habit is growing of appointment by the President of quasi-diplomatic representatives, ‘ambassadors at large’ they call them, who ‘going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down’ — to use Job’s phrase — bring their harvests to the President. President Wilson was the first to give this device considerable importance when he sent the ubiquitous Colonel House to Europe. Col. House (not approved by the senate) with the President’s approval, committed us to enter World War I on the side of the Allies more than a year before Congress declared war. (J. Reuben Clark, Church News, November 29, 1953.)

Related Categories
Our Decline: CFR
War: 1915. World War I