392 BURR— THE TREATY-MAKING POWER [April 20, 



Finally, in The Employers' Liability Cases, ^•'"* it is said of inter- 

 state commerce : 



" An obstruction of such commerce by unlawful violence may he made 

 punishable under the laws of the United States, suppressed by the armies of 

 the United States, or, at the instance of the United States, enjoined in its 

 Courts.'""' 



Similarly, and with no possibility of contradiction based on an 

 examination of the Federal decisions, one may say: A violation of 

 rights secured by treaty provisions may be made punishable under 

 the laws of the United States, suppressed by the armies of the 

 United States, or, at the instance of the United States, enjoined in 

 its courts. 



An examination of the proceedings of the Federal Con- 

 stitutional Convention shows that such was the intention of its 

 framers. Article II., Section 3, provides that the President " shall 

 take care that the laws be faithfully executed." • At one time in the 

 Convention this clause stood thus in enumerating the powers of the 

 President : 



"To call forth the aid of the militia, in order to execute the laws of the 

 Union, enforce treaties, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." 



At this stage, according to Madison's journals: 



" Mr. Govr Morris moved to strike the following words out of the 18 

 clause ' enforce treaties,' as being superfluous since treaties were to be ' laws ' 

 . . . which was agreed to nem : contrad :""" 



It is thus conclusively established that when the Constitution says 

 the President shall execute " the laws," treaties, since they have the 

 force of laws, come within this constitutional provision. 



It must therefore be concluded from this survey of decided 

 cases that an act of Congress providing for the punishment of vio- 

 lations of treaty provisions, or otherwise tending to secure their 

 enforcement, would be constitutional, and that State police powers^ 

 however defined, must yield. Such statute would receive identically 

 the same sanction as the acts enforcing the postal laws or prohibit- 



•™207 U. S., 463 (1908). 



""'Ibid., p. 525. 



"■'■ Farrand, Vol. II., pp. 38(>-go. 



