WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 387 



by passage of the thirteenth amendment.' During the Civil War, 

 Congress authorized the confiscation of many kinds of enemy prop- 

 erty on land, and during the World War it authorized sequestration 

 of such property in the United States by an alien property custo- 

 dian." 



219. Commercial Pressure and Retaliation. 



Through its power to regulate foreign commerce, the postal serv- 

 ice and by implication all means of conveyance and transmission 

 of intelligence with foreign nations. Congress may bring pressure by 

 means of retorsion, retaliation, non-intercourse and embargoes. 



Measures of retorsion and retaliation have been frequent. Thus 

 by an act of 1818, " the ports of the United States were closed, after 

 September 30, 1818, against British vessels arriving from a British 

 colony which, by the ordinary laws, was closed against American 

 vessels." ^^ The general revenue act of September 8, 1916, pro- 

 vides for retaliation against British commercial restrictions, the 

 black list and mail seizures although that country was not spe- 

 cifically referred to.^^ An act to protect American oil investors 

 abroad by retorsion was thus referred to in a note of November 10, 

 1920, protesting against the Allied policy in Asia Minor :'^*' 



" The General leasing law of February 25, 1920, has not always been 

 thoroughly understood. It proposes to treat the citizens of any foreign coun- 

 try precisely as that foreign country treats our citizens. It is no more re- 

 strictive than the golden rule. It is a purely defensive provision. ... At the 

 same time the United States must be prepared to meet promptly and effec- 

 tively any imwelcome developments or any kind of competition that may fall 

 to our lot with the purpose of safeguarding, so far as may be in our power, 

 the future security of this country." 



Non-intercourse measures and general embargoes were used 



during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars to bring 



pressure upon the belligerents and on March 14, 1912, an act was 



"^ Supra, note 64. Trading with the Enemy Act, Oct. 6, 1917, sees. 6, 

 7, 40 Stat. 415-416; Comp. Stat., sec. 3ii5V$cc, d. 



'8 3 Stat. 432 ; Moore, Digest, 7 : 106. 



8^39 Stat. 799, sees. 805, 806; Comp. Stat'., sec. 883oqr; Am. Year Book, 

 1916, pp. 68, 69, 73. 



^0 This act (Feb. 25, 1920, sec. i) was also referred to in a note to the 

 Netherlands government on April 19, 1921, protesting against exclusion of 

 American interests from oil development in the Djambi fields in the Dutch 

 East Indies. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LX, Z, MARCH I4, I922. 



