Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1920 — Consul. [ARTICLE]

Consul.

The word consul is of Latin origin, being derived from the verb consulo, I consider. As the name of an office it also had its origin in Rome in the early days of the republic. The' constitution of that republic was democratic^ beyond anything we knowtoday. The source of all power was the people. They elected the executive magistrates and the judges, and they enacted the laws, not through chosen representatives, but by direct action in an assembly of the whole people called the comitia. They had two chief executive officers of equal rank, elected each year, who were at the head of the work of governing. These were called consuls. In the end corruption and recurring periods of anarchy broke down the government, and an autocracy grew up, but which for years preserved many of the forms of the dead democracy. For five centuries under the empire, there were consuls, but they were without any real power. As a title of an office the word consul is still in use. Today a consul is a representative of his country’s commercial interests in a foreign country. The political representative is the ambassador.