interpose. It is then admitted that while a general power on the
subject of commerce is given to Congress, that yet important
commercial regulations may be adopted by treaty, without the
co-operation of the legislature, notwithstanding the generality of
the grant of power on commercial subjects to Congress. If it be true
that the President and Senate have, in their treaty-making power, an
exclusive control over part and not over the whole, I demand to know
at what point that exclusive control censes? In the clause relied
upon, there is no limitation. The fact is, sir, none exists. The
treaty-making power over commerce is supreme. No legislative
sanction is necessary, if the treaty be capable of self-execution,
and when a legislative sanction is necessary, as I shall more at
large hereafter show, such sanction, when given, adds nothing to the
validity of the treaty, but enables the proper authority to execute
it; and when the legislature do act in this regard, it in under such
obligation as the necessity of fulfilling a moral contract imposes.

If it be inquired of me what I understand by the clause in question,
in answer I refer to the principle with which I set out: that this
was a grant of power to the general government of which Congress was
in the first instance merely the depository, which power, had not a
portion thereof been transferred to another branch of the
government, would have been exclusively exercised by Congress, but
that a distribution of this power has been made by the constitution;
as a portion thereof has been given to the treaty-making power, and
that which is not transferred is left in the possession of
Congress. Hence, to Congress it is competent to act in this grant in
its proper character by establishing municipal regulations. The
President and the Senate, on the other hand, have the same power
within their sphere, that is, by a treaty or convention with a
foreign nation, to establish such regulations in regard to commerce,
as to them may seem friendly to the public interest. Thus each
department moves in its own proper orbit, nor do they come in
collision with each other. If they have exercised their respective
powers on the same subject, the last act, whether by the legislature
or the treaty-making power, abrogates a former one. The legislature
of the nation may, if a cause exist in their judgment sufficient to
justify it, abrogate a treaty, as has been done; so the President
and