372 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 



208. The Recognition of War by Congress. 



Suppose a foreign government commits such acts against the 

 United States. What authority can recognize them as in fact the 

 initiation of war? The power of Congress to declare war unques- 

 tionably embraces the power to recognize war. In fact all of the 

 foreign wars to which the United States has been a party have 

 been not declarations of war, but recognitions of war, if we are to 

 judge by the terms of the initiating act of Congress. Thus on June 

 18, 1812,^ Congress enacted "that war be and the same is hereby 

 declared to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Ireland and the dependencies, thereof, and the United States of 

 America and their territories." The act of May 13, 1846, recited:^ 



" Whereas, by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war exists 

 between that Government and the United States : Be it enacted by the 

 Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America 

 in Congress assembled, That, for the purpose of enabling the government of 

 the United States to prosecute said war to a speedy and successful termina- 

 tion, the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to employ the militia, 

 naval and military forces of the United States, etc." 



War resolutions of April 25, 1898, April 6, 191 7, and December 7, 

 1917, were of similar character.^" 



209. The Recognition of War by the President. 



But does the President also have power to recognize war? 

 President Jefferson thought not in 1801 but was not deterred from 

 authorizing defensive measure. Read his message of December 8, 

 1801 : " 



" Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come for- 

 ward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had per- 

 mitted itself to denounce war on our failure to comply before a given day. 

 The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron 

 of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances to that power of our 

 sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to protect our com- 



8 2 Stat. 755. A declaration that war " exists " is the usual form in all 

 countries. See British Proclamation of War, August 4, 1914, Naval War 

 College, Int. Law Docs., 1917, p. 117, and other declarations in that volume. 



9 9 Stat. 9. 



^° Infra, notes 18, 19. 



^1 Richardson, Messages, i : 326. 



