7692. SALARIES, Foreign Ministers.—
The bill on the intercourse with foreign nations
restrains the President from allowing
to Ministers Plenipotentiaries, or to Congress,
more than $9,000, and $4,500 for their
“personal services, and other expenses”.
This definition of the object for which the
allowance is provided appearing vague, the
Secretary of State thought it his duty to confer
with the gentlemen heretofore employed
as ministers in Europe, to obtain from them,
in aid of his own information, an enumeration
of the expenses incident to these offices,
and their opinion which of them would be
included within the fixed salary, and which
would be entitled to be charged separately.
He, therefore, asked a conference with the
Vice-President, who was acquainted with the
residences of London and the Hague, and the
Chief Justice, who was acquainted with that
of Madrid. The Vice-President, Chief Justice,
and Secretary of State concurred in the
opinion that the salaries named by the act
are much below those of the same grade at
the courts of Europe, and less than the public
good requires they should be. Consequently,
that the expenses not included within the
definition of the law, should be allowed as an
additional charge.
[441]
—
Opinion on Salaries. Washington ed. vii, 501.
(1790)
