WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 375 



President AIcKinley accepted this opinion and applied it to foreign 

 war when on April 22, 1898, he recognized the Spanish rejection of 

 the congressional ultimatum of April 20/^ as a declaration of war 

 and authorized a blockade of Cuba.^' Three days later, on April 



25, Congress passed a resolution declaring : ^^ 



" That war be, and the same is hereby, declared to exist, and that war 

 has existed since the twenty-first day of April, Ayvno Domini eighteen hun- 

 dred and ninety-eight, including said day, between the United Sates of 

 America and the Kingdom of Spain." 



In his war message of April 2, 19 17, President Wilson asked 

 " Congress to declare the recent course of the German government 

 to be in fact nothing less than war against the United States." 

 Nevertheless, he admitted that it belonged to Congress to " formally 

 accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon 

 it." Congress did so by a resolution signed by the President i :iS 

 p.m., April 6, 1917, which asserted "that the state of war betweert 

 the United States and the Imperial German Government which has 

 thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally de- 

 clared." ^^ 



210. The Power to Recognize War. 



Practice and opinion indicate that the President concurrently with 

 Congress has power to recognize the existence of civil or foreign war 

 against the United States. It is believed, however, that such power 

 could not properly be exercised unless the fact of war against the 

 United States was so patent as to leave no doubt. Acts of war, 

 such as those committed by Germany from 191 5 to 1917, would not 

 justify presidential recognition of war. In fact it is believed that 

 with the general acceptance of the III Hague Convention of 1907, 



16 30 Stat. 738; Moore, Digest, 6: 226. 



1" Message April 25, 1898, Moore, Digest, 6: 229. 



18 30 Stat. 364. 



1^ Comp. Stat., p. 17, Naval War College, Int. Law Doc, 1917, p. 225. 

 A resolution of Dec. 7, 1917, stated : " Whereas the Imperial and Royal 

 Austro-Hungarian Government has committed repeated acts of war against 

 the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore 

 be it Resolved . . . That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between, 

 etc." Ibid., 1917, p. 230. 



