WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 325 



refused to consent to treaties delegating this power to the Pres- 

 ident.2« 



164. Independent Administrative Agreements. 



The President, as head of the administration, may also make 

 international agreements, without express authority of statute or 

 treaty, though it would seem that such agreements should not go 

 beyond his own powers of execution. In 1850, however. President 

 Fillmore authorized an agreement, whereby Great Britain ceded 

 Horseshoe Reef, near the outlet of Lake Erie, on condition that 

 the United States erect a lighthouse thereon, and refrain from 

 fortifying it. The execution of this agreement required congres- 

 sional appropriation and permanent abstention of Congress from 

 authorizing fortification of this island. It would seem properly 

 a subject for treaty, rather than executive agreement, but Congress 

 had already made the necessary appropriation in 1849. This was, 

 reenacted in 1854.^^ 



In 1864, President Lincoln agreed to extradite Arguelles to Spain, 

 though no treaty required such action. It has generally been held 

 since, that he exceeded his powers in thus making an agreement for 

 extradition, yet on September 23, 1913, the President entered into 

 an agreement with Great Britain for extradition between the Philip- 

 pine Islands or Guam and British North Borneo, of fugtives for 

 offenses specified in existing treaties.^® 



165. Recent Practice. 



Perhaps the most remarkable example of such agreements is 

 that made by President Roosevelt in 1905 for administering the 

 customs houses of San Domingo : ^" 



" The Constitution," writes President Roosevelt in his Autobiography, 

 " did not explicitly give me power to bring about the necessary agreement 

 with Santo Domingo. But the Constitution did not forbid my doing what I 

 did. I put the agreement into effect, and I continued its execution for two 



20 Willoughby, op. cit., p. 473; Crandall, op. cit., pp. 11CH120, supra, 

 sec. 62. 



27 Malloy, treaties, etc., p. 663, 9 Stat. 380, 627 ; 10 Stat. 343. 



28 Crandall, op. cit., p. 117; Corwin, The President's Control of Foreign 

 Relations, p. 125. 



23 Roosevelt, Autobiography, pp. 551-552. 



