after the passage of this act, enter into
commercial treaty or treaties with any other country concerning
the admission to such country of goods, wares, or merchandise of
the United States . . . and in such treaty or treaties shall provide
for reduction during a specified period of the duties imposed by
this act, to the extent of twenty per centum thereof, upon such
goods, wares, or merchandise as may be designated therein, . . .
or shall provide for the transfer during such period from the
dutiable list of this act to the free list thereof of such goods,
wares, or merchandise the product of foreign countries; and when
. . . any such treaty shall have been duly ratified by the Senate
and approved by Congress, then and thereafter the duties which
shall be collected by the United States upon any of the designated
goods, wares, or merchandise from the foreign country with which
such treaty has been made, shall, during the period provided for,
be the duties specified and provided in such treaty, and none
other."

There was a considerable opposition to the ratification of these
treaties in the Senate, and very strong opposition to them in the
committee. President McKinley was very much in favor of their
ratification, and as one treaty after another expired, a new one
would be made reviving it.

The first problem which confronted me was this: The fourth section
of the Dingley Act provided that such treaties should be made only
within two years after the passage of the act; the two years had
long since expired--could the Senate ratify them at all?

I submitted to the Senate a report on the constitutional question.
The single question covered was, whether the treaties not having
been ratified by the Senate within the two years specified in the
Dingley Act were still within its jurisdiction.

The committee determined that the President and the Senate are,
under the Constitution, the treaty-making power. The initiative
lies with the President. He can negotiate such treaties as may
seem to him wise, and propose them to the Senate for the advice
and consent of that body. The power of the President and the Senate
is derived from the Constitution. There is under our Constitution
no other source of treaty-making power. The Congress is without
power to grant to the President or to the Senate any authority with
respect to treaties; nor does the Congress possess any power to
fetter or limit in any way the President or the S