360 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 



" The executive branch is the sole mouthpiece of the nation in communi- 

 cation with foreign sovereignties. Foreign nations communicate only through 

 their respective executive departments. Resolutions of their legislative de- 

 partments upon diplomatic matters have no status in international law. In 

 the department of international law, therefore, properly speaking, a congres- 

 sional recognition of belligerency or independence would be a nullity." 



Finally we may notice a practical consideration adverted to by 

 Professor Corwin after a comprehensive survey of the subject. 

 Concluding that " recognition, as it is known to international law, 

 belongs to the President alone, or to the President in conjunction 

 with the Senate " he adds : ^^ 



" Even if we should admit that Congress, incidentally to discharging 

 some legislative function like that of regulating commerce, might in some 

 sense ' recognize ' a new state or government, the question still remains how 

 it would communicate its recognition, having the power neither to dispatch 

 nor to receive diplomatic agents. As was said of the States of the Confed- 

 eration, Congress is as to other governments ' both deaf and dumb.' Why, 

 then, claim for it a power which it could not possibly use save in some 

 roundabout and inconclusive fashion?" 



B. The Power to Determine National Territory and Citizenship. 



196. Judicial Recognition of Territorial Limits. 



International law recognizes that territory may be acquired by 

 accretion and prescription; discovery and occupation; cession and 

 conquest.^* The courts in applying international law recognize 

 small acquisitions by accretion and prescription. Thus mud islands 

 formed at the mouths of rivers and gradual changes in boundary 

 river courses have been recognized as extending the jurisdiction.^^ 

 The courts have held general acceptance of certain marks as the 

 boundary for a long space of time will establish it, even though such 

 marks are ascertained to be incorrect by later surveys,^^ and they have 

 also recognized bays with headlands more than six miles apart, such 



33 Corwin, op. cit., p. 82. 



34 Wilson and Tucker, International Law, 7th ed., p. 108. 



35Cushing. Att. Gen., 8 Op. I75 (1856) ; Ocean City Assoc, v. Shriver. 

 46 Atl. 690 (N. J., 1900), and English case. The Anna, 5 Rob. 373 (1805) ; 

 Moore, Digest, i : 269-273, 747. 



36 As to interstate boundaries, R. I. v. Mass., 4 How. 591, 639 (i»4o) ; 

 Ind. V. Ky., 136 U. S. 479 (1890) ; Va. v. Tenn., 148 U. S. 503 (1893) ; Moore, 

 Dgest, I : 295, 747. 



