446 WRIGHT— CONTROL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



But lest the apologist of the "Ancient Regime" be thought 

 biased, let us hear a recent writer of a different school. Mr. Walter 

 Lippmann thus discusses the uses of a king : ^' 



" As for myself," he said, " I have no hesitation in avowing my con- 

 viction, that it is more especially in the conduct of foreign relations that 

 democratic governments appear to me to be decidedly inferior to govern- 

 ments carried on upon different principles. Foreign politics demand scarcely 

 any of those qualities which a democracy possesses, and they require on 

 the contrary the perfect use of almost all those faculties in which it is de- 

 ficient. . . . Democracy is unable to regulate the details of an important 

 undertaking, to persevere in a design, and to work out its execution in the 

 presence of serious obstacles. It cannot combine its measures with 

 secrecy and it will not await their consequences with patience. These are 

 qualities which more especially belong to an individual or to an aristocracy 

 and they are precisely the means by which an individual people attains to 

 a predominant position." i^ 



manner or measure. To discern and to profit by these tides in national af- 

 fairs is the business of those who preside over them ; and they who have had 

 much experience on this can inform us that there frequently are occasions 

 when days, nay, even when hours, are precious. ... So often and so essen- 

 tially have we heretofore suffered from the want of secrecy and dispatch that 

 the Constitution would have been inexcusably defective if no attention had 

 been paid to those objects. Those matters which in negotiations usually re- 

 quire the most secrecy and the most dispatch are those preparatory and 

 auxiliary measures which are not otherwise important in a national view 

 than as they tend to facilitate the attainment of the objects of negotiation. 

 For these the President will find no difficulty to provide ; and should any cir- 

 cumstance occur which requires the advice and consent of the Senate, he 

 may at any time convene them." (The Federalist, Jay, No. 64, Ford, ed., pp. 

 429-430.) . See also Hamilton, No. 70, Ford, ed., p. 467. 



15 " The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution and their suc- 

 cess must often depend on secrecy; and even when brought to a conclusion 

 a full disclosure of all the measures, demands, or eventual concessions which 

 may have been proposed or contemplated would be extremely impolitic ; for 

 this might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations, or produce 

 immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief, in relation to other 

 powers. The necessity of such caution and secrecy was one cogent reason 

 for vesting the power of making treaties in the President, with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate, the principle on which that body was formed 

 confining it to a small number of members." (Washington's Message to 

 the House of Representatives, March 30, 1796, Richardson, op. cit., p. 194.) 



1^ Democracy in America, N. Y., 1862, i : 254. 



1' The Stakes of Diplomacy, 2d ed., 1917, pp. 26, 29. See also remarks of 

 Senator Spooner, of Wis., in Senate, January 23, 1906: "The conduct of 

 our foreign relations is a function which requires quick initiative, and the 

 Senate is often in vacation. It is a power that requires celerity. One course 



