^912.] OF THE UNITED STATES. 273 



judge from the illustrative and ephemeral; with what power of 

 inductive logic he has acquired, to trace through the recorded deci- 

 sions the development and validity of the judicial conclusions 

 reached. And however weak and inadequate may be the natural 

 faculties and acquired knowledge of the student, let him and those 

 who do him the honor of examining his work, remember that true 

 method, laboriously and sincerely used, can alone reach valid results. 

 The most brilliant a priori discussion of what the law will be found 

 to be, must give place to the humblest study of what the law really 

 is. The crowning advantage of true method is that the method, 

 and not the student's genius, attains the goal. Grant only to the 

 student capacity for sincerity and for labor, and, as he works by 

 the historical method, the circumstances and political conditions of 

 the time spread themselves out before us; the judges speak to us in 

 language, the authority and prophecy underlying which we at this 

 distance of time far better understand than did they; the slowly 

 developing principles of law lie self-revealed before us in their 

 beginnings, their growth, their maturity. The student is rightly 

 forgotten, the method is all. 



To collect together the cases relevant to our subject decided by 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, and then to spread them 

 before us in historical sequence for examination and analysis in the 

 light of surrounding circumstances and preexisting decisions, is the 

 object of this essay. The assumption is general that such cases are 

 few in number. A recent essay thus begins : 



" Something has been written on the extent of the treaty-making power 

 of the President and the Senate. Little has been decided. ... A very few 

 cases have involved a determination of the extent of the treaty-making power, 

 and in these few the point decided is so narrow, was so inadequately, or not 

 at all argued, or has been rendered so doubtful by dicta of later judges of the 

 Supreme Court as to leave the whole question open."* 



This is a conclusion which has little foundation in fact. Rather 

 must one prepare oneself for a great number of cases which require 

 consideration, and the student must be careful not to obscure the 



* " The Extent of the Treaty-making Power of the President and Senate 

 of the United States," Professor William E. Mikell, American Law Register, 

 Vol. 57, P- 435- 



