38-' WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 



Congress has sometimes authorized the use of the navy for police 

 purposes on the high seas, as to enforce neutrahty and the suppres- 

 sion of piracy and the slave trade as required by treaty, but the 

 President would seem to have power even in the absence of such acts, 

 though seizures could not be made except of American vessels, 

 pirates, or vessels liable under treaties.*^ 



Forces may also be displayed on land frontiers by authority of 

 the President as a defensive measure. An illustration is furnished 

 by the mobilization on the Mexican border in 19 14.'** 



216. Occupation and Administration of Territory. 



The President doubtless has power to order the occupation of 

 foreign territory to defend the territory of the United States 

 against an " instant and overwhelming " menace.^^ Thus the Amelia 

 Island pirates were destroyed in 1817 and General Pershing's ex- 

 pedition was sent into Mexico in pursuit of Villa in 1916.^^ An 

 " instant and overwhelming " menace to American citizens abroad 

 would give similar justification. The bombardment of Greytown, 

 Nicaragua, in 1852 and the dispatch of troops to Peking in 1901 are 

 illustrations.*^ The President may similarly dispatch troops in fulfil- 

 ment of treaty guarantees. Thus several Presidents dispatched 

 troops to Panama in pursuance of the guarantee treaty of 1846 and 

 President Roosevelt sent troops to Cuba in 1906 in pursuance of the 

 treaty of 1903.*^ 



Where foreign territory is occupied in order to bring pressure 

 upon a foreign government, the action is very likely to lead to war 

 and an authorizing resolution of Congress would seem necessary. 

 However, such occupations have occurred without express authoriza- 

 tion, as for example- President Taft's dispatch of troops to Nicara- 

 gua and San Domingo, and President Wilson's dispatch of troops to 



*^ Supra, sees. 125, 126, 151. 



** Am. Year Book, 1914, p. 303. 



*5 The legitimacy of self-help in the presence of "a necessity of self- 

 defense, instant, overwhelming and leaving no choice of means and no 

 moment for deliberation " was recognized in the Caroline controversy of 

 1840, Moore, Digest, 2: 412. 



*6 For other instances see Moore, 2 : 402-408. 



*'' Ibid., 2: 400-402, 414-418; 5: 476-493. 



*8 Supra, sec. 145, Taft, op. cit., p. 87. 



