POWER IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM. 229 



yy. Essentially Executive Nature. Practice. 



Advocates of this theory notice that in practice the President 

 alone has recognized foreign governments and states and pro- 

 claimed neutrality. He has initiated all foreign negotiations and 

 has held himself free to ignore congressional resolutions or acts on 

 the subject. He has even authorized foreign military expeditions 

 on his own authority and has initiated all wars. He has on his 

 own responsibility executed treaties of extradition, guarantee, and 

 intervention. He has made executive agreements terminating hos- 

 tilities, outlining terms of peace, annexing territory and providing 

 for administration in foreign territory, and he has denounced 

 treaties. 



78. Essentially Executive Nature. Recent Opinion. 



A debate on the extent of executive prerogative in foreign rela- 

 tions was indulged in by Senators in 1906 on the occasion of Pres- 

 ident Roosevelt's negotiation of the Algeciras convention through 

 personal agents, whose appointments had not been consented to by 

 the Senate. Senator Spooner of Wisconsin supported the Pres- 

 ident.^® 



" From the foundation of the Government it has been conceded in practice 

 and in theory that the Constitution vests the power of negotiation and the 

 various phases — and they are multifarious — of the conduct of our foreign re- 

 lations exclusively in the President. And, Mr. President, he does not exer- 

 cise that constitutional power, nor can he be made to do it, under the tutelage 

 or guardianship of the Senate or of the House or of the Senate and House 

 combined. . . . 



16 Cong. Rec, Jan. 22,, Feb. 6, 1906, 40: 1417-1421, 2125-2148; Rekisch, 

 Readings in Am. Fed. Govt., 81-124; Corwin, op. cit., pp. 170, 172, 176, 203. 

 Senator Beveridge remarked during this debate : " Does not the Senator 

 (Bacon) think that in the natural division of the powers of the Government 

 into legislative, executive, and judicial the treaty-making power has always 

 been considered an executive function, and therefore, if the Constitution had 

 been silent upon the subject of treaties, it would have been completely under 

 the President's control, under that provision of the Constitution which con- 

 fides in the President executive power, and that the section concerning trea- 

 ties is merely a limitation upon that universal power?" Ibid., p. 184. "All 

 duties in connection with foreign relations not otherwise specified fall within 

 the sphere of the executive." Sen. Doc. No. 56, 54th Cong., 2d sess. See 

 also infra, sec. 92. 



