WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 321 



more than do such contracts between states of the union. ^" Agree- 

 ments and contracts of the kind here referred to do not involve a 

 national responsibility.^^ 



158. Power of the National Government to Make Agreements. 

 Thus with limited exceptions, the power to make agreements is 



vested exclusively in the national government, and apparently the 

 Constitution vests it in two authorities, the President acting alone, 

 and the President acting with advice and consent of two-thirds of 

 the Senate. President Washington pointed out in his message on 

 the Jay treaty that the House of Representatives had no part in 

 treaty-making.^^ The House has several times asserted, by resolu- 

 tion, its power to exercise a free discretion as to the execution of 

 treaties requiring an appropriation or other legislation. This has 

 never extended to a claim to participation in treaty-making, and 

 with its more limited interpretation has never been accepted by 

 other branches of the government. ^^ 



159. Congress Cannot Make International Agreements. 



It is true that Congress has sometimes passed legislation which 

 by its terms is to go into effect as to any foreign nation, upon proc- 

 lamation by the President, that such nation offers a specified reci- 

 procity, but such arangements are not agreements, since either 

 party is entitled to discontinue them at its own discretion." ^* Some- 

 times Congress has delegated authority to the President to make 

 agreements with foreign nations upon subjects within its powers, 

 but here, also, the arrangement seems to be terminable at discre- 

 tion of Congress and is, in fact, an agreement made by the Pres- 

 ident." Congressional resolutions may suggest the making of a 

 treaty on a specified subject, or the modification by negotiation of an 



10 S. Dak. z'. N. Car., 192 U. S. 286 (1904). 



11 Supra, sec. 136. 



12 Richardson, Messages, i : 195. 

 ^3 Supra, sec. 149, note 82. 



1* Field V. Clark, 143 U. S. 649; Taft, Our Chief Magistrate, p. iii. 

 ^5 Supra, sec. 61 ; Moore, Digest, 5 : 362. 



