ious man might be tempted to betray the
interests of the state to the acquisition of wealth. An ambitious man
might make his own aggrandizement, by the aid of a foreign power, the
price of his treachery to his constituents. The history of human conduct
does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make
it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a
kind, as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world,
to the sole disposal of a magistrate created and circumstanced as would
be a President of the United States.

To have intrusted the power of making treaties to the Senate alone,
would have been to relinquish the benefits of the constitutional agency
of the President in the conduct of foreign negotiations. It is true that
the Senate would, in that case, have the option of employing him in this
capacity, but they would also have the option of letting it alone, and
pique or cabal might induce the latter rather than the former. Besides
this, the ministerial servant of the Senate could not be expected to
enjoy the confidence and respect of foreign powers in the same degree
with the constitutional representatives of the nation, and, of course,
would not be able to act with an equal degree of weight or efficacy.
While the Union would, from this cause, lose a considerable advantage
in the management of its external concerns, the people would lose the
additional security which would result from the co-operation of the
Executive. Though it would be imprudent to confide in him solely so
important a trust, yet it cannot be doubted that his participation would
materially add to the safety of the society. It must indeed be clear to
a demonstration that the joint possession of the power in question, by
the President and Senate, would afford a greater prospect of security,
than the separate possession of it by either of them. And whoever has
maturely weighed the circumstances which must concur in the appointment
of a President, will be satisfied that the office will always bid fair
to be filled by men of such characters as to render their concurrence in
the formation of treaties peculiarly desirable, as well on the score of
wisdom, as on that of integrity.

The remarks made in a former number, which have been alluded to in
another part of this paper, will apply with conclusive force against the
admission of the House of Representatives to a share in the formation
of treaties.