338 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 



full powers of the negotiators. Not since the first few years of the 

 Republic have these been submitted to the Senate. In about eighteen 

 instances the advice of the Senate has been sought by the President 

 prior to signature of the treaty and almost half of these cases oc- 

 curred in the administration of Washington, prior to the negotia- 

 tion of the Jay treaty (1794) which established the precedent of 

 Presidential independence in negotiation.'" Only once was advice 

 sought by the President in person and on that occasion, a few months 

 after the Constitution went into operation, President Washington's 

 experiences were such that an eye witness described his departure 

 from the Senate chamber as " with sullen dignity " and " a discon- 

 solate air." "^ On the few occasions since this experience when 

 Senate advice has been sought before signature, it has been by mes- 

 sage responded to by Senate resolution. Thus in 1830 President 

 Jackson sought the advice of the Senate on an Indian treaty prior 

 to signature, but in doing so apologized " for departing from a long 

 and for many years an unbroken usage in similar cases," which de- 

 parture he thought justified by distinctive considerations applicable 

 to Indian treaties. In only ten later cases has such prior advice 

 been sought, though informal conferences with individual senators 

 or with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have been more 

 frequent.'^- 



"The fact," said Senator Bacon in 1906, "that he (Washington) con- 

 ferred personally with the Senate as to the propriety of making treaties 

 before attempting to negotiate them, shows what he understood to be the 

 intention of the Convention — that the Senate should be not simply the body 

 to say yes or no to the President when he proposed a treaty, but that the 

 Senate should be the advisor of the President whether he should attempt 

 to negotiate a treaty. What possible doubt can there be under such cir- 

 cumstances as to what was his understanding of the purpose and intention 

 of those who framed the Constitution? And what possible doubt can 

 there be that his understanding was correct? ... It is true that*that practice 



70 Hayden, op. cit., p. 80. 



71 Maclay, Sketches of Debates in the First Senate of the United States, 

 G. W. Harris, ed., p. 125. See also Crandall, op. cit., 67-68; Hayden, op. cit., 

 18-27, and infra, sec. 260. 



72 Senate debate, Feb. 6, 1906, cited supra, sec. 76, note 16. See also 

 Richardson, Messages, 2: 478. See also Senator Lodge, Scribncrs, 31: 

 33, Sen. Doc. 104, 57th Cong., ist Sess. ; and Crandall, op. cit., pp. 68-72, 75. 



