326 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 



years before the Senate acted ; and I would have continued it until the end of 

 my term, if necessary, without any action by Congress. But it was far 

 preferable that there should be action by Congress, so that we might be pro- 

 ceeding under a treaty which was the law of the land, and not merely by 

 a direction of the Chief Executive, which would lapse when that particular 

 Executive left office. I, therefore, did my best to get the Senate to ratify 

 what I had done. There was a good deal of difficulty about it. Enough 

 Republicans were absent to prevent the securing of a two-thirds vote for 

 the treaty, and the Senate adjourned without any action at all, and with 

 the feeling of entire self-satisfaction at having left the country in the po- 

 sition of assuming a responsibility and then failing to fulfill it. Apparently 

 ihe Senators in question felt that in some way they had upheld their dignity. 

 All that they had really done was to shirk their duty. Somebody had to 

 do that duty, so accordingly I did it. I went ahead and administered the 

 proposed treaty anyhow, considering it as a simple agreement on the 

 part of the Executive which would be converted into a treaty whenever the 

 Senate acted. After a couple of years, the Senate did act, having previously 

 made some utterly unimportant changes, which I ratified and persuaded 

 Santo Domingo to ratify." 



This statement indicates that agreements of considerable political 

 importance may be made by the President and that they cannot be 

 prevented by the Senate, when the President controls the necessary 

 ■means of execution. It is to be noted, however, that in President 

 Roosevelt's opinion, they are binding only on the President that 

 makes them. The latter limitation often does not apply in practice, 

 though presumably the foreign government would have no ground 

 for objection if a subsequent President discontinued such an execu- 

 tive agreement. President Taft describes the executive agreement 

 made by him as Secretary of War, under authority of President 

 Roosevelt, for defining the relative jurisdictions of the United States 

 and Panama in the cities of Colon and Panama at either end of 

 the Canal.^" 



" The plan contained a great many different provisions. I had no 

 power to make a treaty with Panama, but I did have, with the authority 

 of the President, the right to make rules equivalent to law in the Zone. I 

 therefore issued an order directing 'the carrying out of the plan agreed upon 

 in so far as it was necessary to carry it out on our side of the line, on 

 conditions that, and as long as, the regulations to be made by Panama were 

 enforced by that government. This was approved by Secretary Hay, and the 

 President, and has constituted down until the present day, I believe, the 

 basis upon which the two governments are carried on in this close proximity. 



30 Taft, op. cit., p. 112. 



