WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 367 



Congress promptly resolved upon receipt of this communication 

 that: 



" Congress has a constitutional right to an authoritative voice in declaring 

 and prescribing the foreign policy of the United States, as well in the recog- 

 nition of new powers as in other matters, and it is the constitutional duty of 

 the President to respect that policy, not less in diplomatic negotiations than 

 in the use of the national forces when authorized by law ; and the propriety 

 of any declaration of foreign policy by Congress is sufficiently proved by the 

 vote which pronounces it ; and such proposition, while pending and undeter- 

 mined, is not a fit topic of diplomatic explanation with any foreign power." 



Mr. Blaine criticized this resolution in the House: 



" To adopt this principle is to start out with a new theory in the adminis- 

 tration of our foreign affairs, and I think the House has justified its sense 

 of self-respect and its just appreciation of the spheres of the coordinate 

 departments of government by promptly laying the resolution on the table." 



But after changing the term " President " to " Executive Depart- 

 ment " the House passed the resolution, which, however, failed to 

 come to a vote in the Senate.'''' 



Though congressional resolutions on concrete incidents are en- 

 croachments upon the power of the Executive Department and are 

 of no legal effect, yet they may be of value as an index of national 

 sentiment. 



"They have," says Professor Corwin, "often furnished the President 

 valuable guidance in the shaping of his foreign policy in conformity with 

 public opinion. Thus the resolutions which were passed by the Senate and 

 House separately in the second session of the Fifty-third Congress, warning 

 the President against the employment of forces to restore the monarchy of 

 Hawaii, probably saved the administration from a fatal error. Again, the 

 notorious McLemore resolution, requesting the President ' to warn all citi- 

 zens of the United States to refrain from traveling on armed merchant 

 vessels,' though ill-judged enough as to content, did nevertheless furnish the 

 administration a valuable hint as to the state of the public mind, and one 

 which it was quick to take. For the President, even in the exercise of his 

 most unquestioned powers, cannot act in a vacuum. He must ultimately have 

 the support of public sentiment." •'i 



eoMcPherson, History of the Rebellion, pp. 349-354! Sen. Doc. No. 56 

 (cited supra, note 30), p. 47. See also President Wilson's refusal to carry 

 out provisions of the Jones Merchant Marine Act of June 5, 1920, directing 

 the termination of certain treaty provisions, and President Lincoln's failure 

 to terminate the Great Lakes disarmament agreement of 1817 in accord with 

 a resolution of 1865, supra, sees. 174. 184. 



61 Corwin, op. cit., p. 45. 



