The American consul

"As a British colony Americans relied on the far-flung British consular system to take care of their sailors and merchants, but after the Revolution they had to scramble to create an American service. While the U.S. diplomatic establishment was confined to the major capitals of the world, U.S. consular posts proliferated to most of the major ports where the expanding American merchant marine called. As consular appointments were often used as a reward for authors and other talented people, the U.S. Consular Service could boast of such noteworthy members as Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fennimore Cooper, and William Dean Howells. Winston Churchill's grandfather was an American consul, as was Fiorello La Guardia, later mayor of New York"--Unedited summary from book cover.