AND UTTERANCES OF NATIONAL ORGANS. 139 



doubtless have been justified in issuing neutrality proclamations, 

 even had they not been obliged to consider the President's act 

 conclusive.* 



Aside from declarations of war and recognitions of new states, 

 governments and neutrality,^ the President's assertions may be con- 

 sidered authoritative by foreign nations when they relate to the 

 termination of war, the termination of a treaty, or the existence of 

 a national sentiment or policy.^ Thus Great Britain officially rec- 

 ognized the President's proclamation of the termination of the Civil 

 War,'^ and Mr. C. F. Adams, the American Minister to Great Britain, 

 insisted that the British government \vas incompetent to inquire 

 into the competence of the Secretary of State to give notice of the 

 denunciation of the Great Lakes disarmament treaty of 1817 or to 

 withdraw that notice,^ 



" It could," he said, " only accept and respect the withdrawal as a fact." 

 The question of competency, " being a matter of domestic administration af- 

 fecting the internal relations of the executive and legislative powers," in 

 no wise concerned Great Britain. The raising by her of a question as to 

 " the auhority of the executive power " in the matter, would have consti- 

 tuted " an unprecedented and inadmissible step in the international relations 

 of governments." 



22. National and State Statutes. 



Thus statements of a decision on fact or policy, authorized by 

 the President, must be accepted by foreign nations as the will of the 

 United States. We have noticed that acts prima facie law are 

 subject to international cognizance whether issuing from state or 



^ Dana, note to Wheaton, pp. 37-38; Willoughby, op. cit., p. 1212; Moore, 

 Digest, I : 189. 



5 The recognition power is vested in the President. See Moore, Digest, 

 1 : 243-248, and " Memorandum on the method of recognition of foreign 

 governments and foreign states by the government of the United States, 

 1789-1892. 54th Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Docs. 40, 56; The Divina Pastora, 

 4 Wheat, 52; Corwin, op. cit., p. 71. See also infra, sec. 192. 



^ Lord Salisbury considered the interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine 

 given by President Cleveland and Secretary of State Olney as subject to 

 international cognizance as an official expression of American opinion. See 

 Moore, Digest, 6: 560. See also supra, sec. 20. 



■^ U. S. Dip. Correspondence, 1865, i: 409; Moore, Digest, i: 187. 



8 Report of Mr. Foster, Sec. of State, to the President, Dec. 7, 1892, H. 

 Doc. 471, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 4, 36; Moore, Digest, 5: 169-170. 



