376 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 



by which " the contracting powers recognize that hostilities between 

 themselves must not commence without previous and explicit warn- 

 ing, or of an ultimatum with conditional declaration of war/' the 

 President could not consider any act by a foreign power, short of 

 such declaration or ultimatum, as a justification for recognition of 

 war on his own responsibility. The commencement of war implies 

 not only " acts of war " but also the intention to make war.^" Thus 

 where acts of violence or reprisal alone are in question, Congress is 

 the only authority that can put the country in a state of war, though 

 the President may take defensive measures, and doubtless with a 

 wider scope than President Jefferson's message of 1801 indicated. 



211. The Pozver to Declare War. 



Where no war exists in fact. Congress is the only authority in 

 the United States that can declare one, and Congress cannot dele- 

 gate this power. 



" The Constitution," said Senator Stone, of Missouri, " vests the war- 

 making power alone in the Congress. It is a power that Congress is not 

 at liberty to delegate. Moreover, I am personally unwilling to part with 

 my constitutional responsibility as a Senator to express my judgment upon 

 the issue of war, whenever and however it may be presented." 21 



However, this does not mean, as Senator Stone was contending 

 when he made this unimpeachable statement, that Congress cannot 

 delegate power to the President to use force for protective pur- 

 poses.^^ Nor does it mean that the treaty-making power may not 

 create an obligation upon Congress to declare war or to refrain from 

 declaring it under given circumstances.^^ 



212. The Power to Terminate War. 



Though war may be begun by one nation, it takes two to end it. 

 The President can make an armistice which suspends or terminates 



20 The Ekaterinoslav, The Argun, Takahashi, International Law Ap- 

 plied to the Russo-Japanese War, pp. 573, 761 ; Cobbett, Leading Cases on 

 International Law, pp. 78. 



21 Cong. Rec, 64th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 5895 ; Corwin, op. cit., p. 153. 



22 In the Federal Convention, Aug. 17, 1787, " declare " war was sub- 

 stituted for " make " war on motion of Madison and Gerry so as to " leave 

 the executive the power to repel sudden attacks." Farrand, op. cit., 2: 318. 



^^ Supra, sees. 37, 59, 151, 173. 



