CONGRESS. (REOIPEOOITT TREATIES.) 



committee believe that the general rule of our sys- 

 tem is, indisputably-, that the control of trade and the 

 function of taxing belong, without abridgment or par- 

 ticipation, to Congress. 



They infer this from the language of the Constitu- 

 tion, from the nature and principles of our Govern- 

 ment, from the theory of republican liberty itself, 

 from the unvaried practice, evidencing the universal 

 belief of alL in all periods, and of all parties and 

 opinions. They think, too, that, as the general rule, 

 the representatives of the people, sitting in their legis- 

 lative capacity, with open doors, under the eye of the 

 country, communicating freely with their constitu- 

 ents, may exercise this power more intelligently, more 

 discreetly, may acquire more accurate and more mi- 

 nute information concerning the employments and 

 the interests on which this description of measures 

 will press, and may better discern what true policy 

 prescribes or rejects, than is within the competence 

 of the executive department of the Government. 



" Mr. President, this was the well-consid- 

 ered and determinate argument accepted by a 

 united Senate, solemnly bound as we are by an 

 oath, and though floods of eloquence may come, 

 and the winds of rhetoric beat against it, it 

 will stand, for it is founded on the bed-rock of 

 the Constitution. Its high and thorough seri- 

 ousness, Senators will find, can not be dis- 

 missed with the sneer of silence, nor can its 

 cogency be checkmated even by an imposing 

 front of numbers. Antagonism to the consti- 

 tutional position then announced by the Sen- 

 ate will not win future colossal reputations. 



" I regret not to find myself in accord with 

 some of the ablest constitutional lawyers of 

 the Senate at the present time ; but, as hum- 

 ble as I feel myself to be, I am not ashamed to 

 appeal from the new to the old Senate, and to 

 remain an adherent to the constitutional doc- 

 trine asserted and promulgated by some of the 

 most illustrious, names that have adorned the 

 history of the American Senate. One of the 

 present distinguished Senators from Massachu- 

 setts with whom on this question it is my 

 misfortune to differ has told me that 'the 

 great expounder of the Constitution,' a grand- 

 er name than even that Africa gave to Scipio, 

 was once reported to have said, ' I hope I 

 know the Constitution of my country better 

 than to think a reciprocity treaty is constitu- 

 tional.' If reciprocity treaties were unconsti- 

 tutional when this declaration was made by 

 Mr. Webster, they are surely none the less so 

 now, and my friend the learned Senator from 

 Massachusetts may find, even in the wayside 

 opinions of his distinguished predecessor, * the 

 bones of a giant.' 



" The powers separately and specially grant- 

 ed by the Constitution to one branch of our 

 Government can not be assumed or held in 

 common by any other branch at its pleasure. 

 The invasion of the jurisdiction of one by an- 

 other can not be accounted less than rank 

 usurpation. Any other interpretation of the 

 Constitution would be derogatory not only to 

 the Constitution itself, but to its far sighted 

 framers. The President is the Commander-in- 

 Chief of the Army and Navy, but this gives 

 him no authority to invade the power of Con- 



gress ' to raise money to support the army and 

 navy.' The President, with the concurrence 

 of two thirds of the Senate, may make treaties, 

 but under cover of this authority no constitu- 

 tional treaty can be made ' to regulate com- 

 merce with foreign nation?,' or to initiate ' rev- 

 enue bills,' any more than to establish a 4 uni- 

 form law of bankruptcy ' or ' of naturalization ' ; 

 and these, together with all other powers which 

 were specially confided to Congress or to tho 

 House of Representatives by the Constitution, 

 stand as a flaming sword against all encroach- 

 ments of the Executive, and forever limit and 

 exclude the reach of its treaty-making power. 

 44 The House of Representatives has ever 

 been open-eyed as to the least apparent sena- 

 torial usurpation of the power to originate 

 revenue bills, and the Senate in all contro- 

 versies on this point has promptly yielded to 

 the claims of the House. This exclusive power 

 of the House is consecrated in all of our earli- 

 est traditions, and will ultimately be found im- 

 pregnable, whether threatened by the Senate 

 alone or with the aid of the auxiliary forces of 

 the Executive. 



" I know that the constitutional barrier is 

 assumed to be avoided, if a profane illustration 

 may be pardoned, by whipping his Sooty Ma- 

 jesty around the stump, or by obtaining the 

 subsequent consent of Congress, or of the 

 House of Representatives, to the stipulated re- 

 quirements of the treaty; but this consent 

 subjects Congress and the House to a state of 

 suspended animation, and is only a flimsy sub- 

 terfuge, by which the full power of Congress, 

 or of the House of Representatives, for a term 

 of years, is to be curtailed and abridged. In 

 the first place, the Constitution does not con- 

 template the action of the House at all upon 

 treaties. All legitimate treaties must be made 

 by the Executive, with the concurrence of two 

 thirds of the Senate, and, when so made, no 

 action of the .House can amend or change them 

 or defeat them by a legislative veto. But, in 

 the examples of hybrid treaties now officially 

 made known to the public, the vital part of 

 each treaty is to be carried into effect, not by 

 the concurrence of two thirds of the Senate, 

 but by a bare majority of each house. The 

 rule of majorities is to prevail in contraven- 

 tion to fundamental law. In the second place, 

 the action of the House, or even of Congress, 

 in 1885, can not impair, abridge, or take away 

 the legislative authority of the next or of any 

 succeeding Congress 'to regulate commerce,' 

 nor of the House of Representatives l to origi- 

 nate revenue bills.* Nor can this legislative 

 authority be abdicated even by making the 

 Executive the heir-apparent. No act of the 

 executive branch of the Government or of 

 Congress can suspend, repeal, or blot out plain 

 provisions of the Constitution. If such pro- 

 visions could be suspended and renounced for 

 six years by a temporary majority of Congress 

 or of the House of Representatives, they could 

 of course be suspended or renounced for twen- 



