I9I2-] OF THE UNITED STATES. 287 



senators present concur; and that every treaty so made and promulgated, 

 thenceforward becomes the law of the land." 



Washington further pointed out that this had been the construction 

 which had obtained in the State conventions ; and that the proposition 

 " that no treaty should be binding on the United States which was 

 not ratified by a law" had been explicitly rejected in the Federal 

 Convention. 



"A just regard to the Constitution and to the duty of my office," he 

 concluded, " forbid a compliance with your request." 



One month after the receipt of this message, the House passed an 

 appropriation for carrying the treaty into effect.*^ Previously, 

 however, they had answered the President in resolutions disclaiming 

 the power to interfere in making treaties, but asserting their right 

 to determine on the expediency of carrying into effect whatever 

 treaty stipulations be made on subjects committed to Congress. The 

 language of the resolution is appended in note 5. 



The position taken by the House in 1796, accurately summarized 

 by Marshall, has been persistently maintained. The treaty of 1815 

 with Great Britain was a commercial treaty providing also that no 

 tariff discrimination should obtain. The existing laws embodied 

 such discrimination and the Senate adopted a declaratory act in 

 which they provided that such laws should be " taken to be of no 

 force and effect." The declaratory nature of this act was distasteful 

 to the House, and that body passed a new bill reenacting the treaty 

 provisions. In the course of the debate, Mr. King of Massachusetts 

 said : 



" Whenever a treaty or convention does, by any of its provisions, en- 

 croach upon any of the enumerated powers vested in the Constitution in the 

 Congress of the United States, or any of the laws by them enacted in execu- 

 tion of those powers, such treaty or convention, after being ratified, must 

 be laid before Congress, and such provisions cannot be carried into effect 

 without an act of Congress.""' 



And he added as an instance a treaty which would affect " duties on 

 imports, enlarging or diminishing them." A conference committee 



""Annals of Congress, 4th Congress. First Session, p. 1291. 

 "Annals of Congress, 14th Congress, ist Sess., p. 538. 



