WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE AGREEMENTS. 347 



and while he may not be able to give notice without consent of Con- 

 gress or other authority, he cannot be compelled to act by Congress. 

 This would be in accord with the general practice of presidential 

 independence in conducting foreign relations.^"^ 



185. Denunciation by the Treaty-Making Power. 



The Senate has contended that consent of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives to the denunciation of a treaty is not necessary and the 

 Danish treaty of 1826 was denounced by the President with con- 

 sent of the Senate alone. This method was questioned by Senator 

 Sumner on the ground that it was the repeal of a law to which 

 Congress must assent, but was sustained by the Foreign Relations 

 Committee : ^^° 



" As to this convention, and all others of like character, the com- 

 mittee are clear in the opinion that it is competent for the President and 

 Senate, acting together, to terminate it in the manner prescribed by the 

 nth article (of the treaty) without the aid or intervention of legislation 

 by Congress, and that when so terminated it is at an end to every extent, 

 both as a contract befween the governments and as a law of the land." 



186. Denunciation by the President. 



Finally there have been several examples of denunciation by the 

 President alone. President Taft tells of his denunciation of the 

 Russian treaty of 1832 in 191 1. The issue had arisen over Russian 

 persecution of American Jews : ^^^ 



" The resolution of the House of Representatives was drawn in lan- 

 guage which would have given offense to Russia, as doubtless its framers 

 intended to do. With the responsibility of maintaining as friendly relations 

 as possible with all the world, it seemed to me that if the treaty had to be 

 abrogated, it ought to be done as politely as possible, with the hope of 

 negotiating a new treaty less subject to dispute, and giving more satisfactory 

 results. With the knowledge that the resolution was sure to pass the Senate, 

 I took the step of annulling the treaty myself and giving a year's notice 

 to Russia of the annulment in proper and courteous expressions, on the 

 ground that we had differed so radically as to its construction and the 

 treaty was so old that it would be wiser to make a new treaty more 



^"^ See infra, sees. 174, 202, 203. 



110 Thirty-fourth Cong., ist Sess., Senate Report, No. 97, reprinted in 

 Cong. Rec, Nov. 8, 1919, 58: 8605. See also IVIessage of Pres. Pierce, Dec. 

 3, 1855. Richardson, Messages, 3: 334; Crandall, op. cit., p. 459. 



^11 Taft, op. cit., pp. 116-117. 



