Ambassador

(am-ba a-dor.) [It. a mba sci are, to solicit, perhaps because originally sent to ask favors.] (Pol.) The representative of one sovereign power to another, to which he is sent properly accredited. Amba adors are the highest order of foreign ministers. An ordinary A. resides permanently at the foreign court to which he is accredited, and his duties consist in acting as the medium of intercourse between his own court and that to which he is accredited, and in transmitting such intelligence as is likely to interest his own court. An extraordinary A. is sent on some important occasion, and is generally surrounded with great pomp and splendor; but he leaves the country as soon as the affair is dispatched. The persons of A. are sacred, both in peace and war: so that, according to the law of nations, if hostilities break out between two nations, the respective amba adors are permitted to depart without molestation. The U. States never send agents of the rank of an A. in the diplomatic sense. They are represented C by ministers-plenipotentiary, appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate. [s. 25]