342 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 



controlled by subsequent explanations of some of those who may 

 have voted to ratify it." ^'^ 



178. TJie Ratification of Treaties. 



The final act of ratification belongs to the President.^' He may 

 refuse to submit a treaty to the Senate altogether as he has done in 

 nine instances ; he may submit it with recommendations for amend- 

 ment as he has done in eleven cases ; he may withdraw it from the 

 Senate before that body has voted on it, illustrated by ten cases ; 

 and he may refuse to ratify a treaty consented to by the Senate 

 with or without reservations as he has done in fifteen cases.*® Thus 

 Presidents Roosevelt and Taft each abandoned arbitration treaties 

 when it appeared that the Senate was prepared to insist upon es- 

 sential alterations.*^ As he is the best judge of the advisability of 

 initiating negotiations on a given subject, so he is the best judge 

 of the probability of a foreign nation accepting reservations or 

 amendments. Foreign nations sometimes regard it as a discourtesy 

 to have modifications of a negotiated treaty presented to them as 

 an ultimatum, without their having had an opportunity to discuss 

 them."'' It is therefore often advisable for the President to aban- 

 don a treaty which he thinks will probably be unacceptable to the 

 other signatory. 



179. The Exchange of Ratifications. 



The exchange of ratifications is performed under authority of 

 the President and makes the treaty internationally binding."^ The 

 other party to the treatv may refuse to accept Senate amendments 

 or reservations in which case the treaty fails. Thus Great Britain 



86 Fourteen Diamond Rings v. U. S., 183 U. S. 176. See also N. Y. 

 Indians v. U. S., 170 U. S. i (1898); Moore, Digest, 5: 210; Crandall, 

 op. cit., p. 88; supra, sec. 27. 



8^ Shepherd v. Insurance Co., 40 Fed. 341, 347; Willoughby, op. cit., 

 p. 466; Crandall, op. cit., pp. 81, 94, 97: Taft, op. cit., p. 106; Black, Con- 

 stitutional Law, p. 124; Foster, op. cit.. p. 274; Senator Spooner of Wis., 

 debate referred to supra, sec. 76, note 16 ; Moore, Digest, 5 : 202. 



88 Crandall, op. cit., pp. 95, 99. 



^^ Ibid., p. 98; Taft, op. cit., p. 106; Charles, Treaties, etc., p. 380. 



90 Willoughby, op. cit., p. 464, and supra, sec. 26. 



91 Crandall, op. cit., p. 93, and supra, sec. 29. 



