336 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 



and by direct statement of the supreme court/"* we may be certain 

 that the power extends to " any matter which is properly the sub- 

 ject of negotiations with a foreign country," limited only by express 

 or implied constitutional prohibitions the effect of which is in the 

 main confined to the means through which the purposes of the treaty 

 may be attained.*'^ 



174. The Initiation of Treaties. 



Treaties may of course be initiated or suggested by a foreign 

 power, but if by the United States, the initiative has ordinarily been 

 taken by the President. Congress has sometimes suggested nego- 

 tiations by joint or concurrent resolutions originating in the House 

 of Representatives as well as the Senate. Thus resolutions of 1890, 

 1897, s"d 1910 suggested the negotiation of arbitration treaties and 

 acts of 1 91 6 and 1921. negotiations for general disarmament. A 

 resolution of 1904 suggested the negotiation of a treaty for protecting 

 the Behring Sea seals and one of 1909 the protection of American 

 citizens in Russia. In most of these cases, negotiations were at- 

 tempted, not always with success (at least once, success was frus- 

 trated by the Senate veto ) , but says Crandall : ^^ 



"Although it is not to be doubted that the President will always give 

 careful consideration to the views of Congress, deliberately expressed as to 

 instituting negotiations, he cannot be compelled to exercise a power en- 

 trusted to him under the Constitution by a resolution of either house or 

 of both houses of Congress." 



The reason was pointed out in a report of the Senate foreign rela- 

 tions committee in 181 5: 



" Since the President conducts correspondence with foreign nations, he 

 would be more competent to determine when, how and upon what subjects 

 negotiations could be urged with the greatest prospect of success." ^"^ 



6* Geofroy v. Riggs, 133 U. S. 258 (1890) ; Wright, The Constitutionality 

 of Treaties, Am. Jl. Int. Law, 13: 262. 



6^ Supra, sees. 67-69. 



66 Crandall, op. cit., p. 74. 



6T Compilation of Reports of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 

 Sen. Doc, No. 231, 56th Cong., 2d Sess., 8: 22; Crandall, op. cit., p. 75; 

 Hayden, op. cit., p. 206, infra, sec. 203. 



