344 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 



mation to be executable. The power to perform such acts has been 

 considered elsewhere.^" 



C. The Power to Terminate Treaties. 



i8i. Change in Conditions. 



Certain provisions of treaty may be terminated by war. The 

 courts have power, in controversies coming before them, to dis- 

 tinguish, on the basis of international law, those provisions of 

 treaty thus affected, from those which are unaffected or merely 

 suspended during the war, in case the political organs of the gov- 

 ernment have made no decision. ^^ In controversies with foreign 

 governments, the President may recognize these distinctions. Cer- 

 tain provisions may become obsolete by a change of material con- 

 ditions, through operation of the implied clause " rebus sic stan- 

 tibus." It belongs to the President as the representative organ to 

 decide when treaty provisions are thus terminated."^ 



182. Violation of Treaty by One Party. 



Treaties may become voidable by reason of violation by the 

 other party and question has been raised whether the power to de- 

 clare such a treaty void rests with Congress or the treaty-making 

 power."" Justice Iredell thought the power belonged to Congress"^ 

 and on July 7, 1798, Congress held that it had the power when it 

 declared that : ^°- 



" Whereas the treaties concluded between the United States and France 

 have been repeatedly violated on the part of the French government ; and 

 the just claims of the United States for reparation of the injuries so com- 

 mitted have been refused, and their attempts to negotiate an amicable ad- 

 justment of all complaints between the two nations have been repelled with 

 indignity, etc.," therefore, " Be it enacted . . . That the United States are 

 of right freed and exonerated from the stipulations of the treaties and of the 



^^ Supra, chap, x and sec. 137. 



88 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel v. New Haven, 8 Wheat. 

 464, 494 (1823), Moore, Digest. 5: 37-2-386. 



89 Moore, Digest, 3: 190; 5: 335-341; supra, sec. 107, note 63. 

 ii^o Mr. Madison to Mr. Pendleton, Jan. 2, 1791, ibid., 5: 321. 



101 Ware ?■. Hylton, 3 Dall. 199, 261 (1796). 



102 I Stat., 578; Moore, Digest, 5: 356; Richardson, Messages, 7: 518. 



