288 BURK— THE TREATY-MAKING POWER [April 20, 



. was appointed. In the report to the House of its conferees they 

 say: 



" [The Committee] are persuaded that the House of Representatives 

 does not assert the pretension that no treaty can be made without their 

 assent ; nor do they contend that in all cases legislative aid is indispensably 

 necessary, either to give validity to a treaty, or to carry it into execution. 

 On the contrary, they are believed to admit, that to some, nay many treaties, 

 no legislative sanction is required, no legislative aid is necessary. 



" On the other hand the committee are not less satisfied that it is by no 

 means the intention of the Senate to assert the treaty-making power to be in 

 all cases independent of the legislative authority. So far from it, that they 

 are believed to acknowledge the necessity of legislative enactment to carry 

 into execution all treaties which contain stipulations requiring appropriations, 

 or which might bind the nation to lay taxes, raise armies to support navies, 

 to grant subsidies, to create States, or to cede territory; if indeed this power 

 exists in the government at all. In some or all of these cases, and probably in 

 many others, it is conceived to be admitted, that the legislative body must act, 

 in order to give effect and operation to a treaty ; and if in any case it be 

 necessary, it may confidently be asserted that there is no difference in prin- 

 ciple between the Houses; the difference is only in the application of the 

 principle. For if, as has been stated, the House of Representatives contend 

 that their aid is only in some cases necessary, and if the Senate admit that in 

 some cases it is necessary, the inference is irresistible, that the only question 

 in each case that presents itself is, whether it be one of the cases in which 

 legislative provision is requisite for preserving the national faith or not.'""* 



And they added relative to the point in dispute : 



" The Senate believe legislation unnecessary. The House regard it as 

 indispensable." 



The Senate conferees reported: 



" Even a declaratory law ... is a matter of mere expediency, adding 

 nothing to the effect of the treaty, and serving only to remove doubts here- 

 after that existed."*''* 



Finally an amended declaratory act passed both houses of Congress. 

 In 1844, a proposed reciprocity treaty with Prussia was rejected 

 by the Senate, after a report by a committee antagonistic to I'resi- 

 dent Tyler, in which the constitutionality of the treaty was denied. 

 This action of the Senate finds its explanation, it is believed, in the 

 extraordinary political conditions created by the accession to the 



*' Ibid., pp. 1019-20. 

 *" Ibid., p. 160. 



