it would
be because the President and Senators would be pleased to admit
it. The power of making treaties under the Constitution extends
farther than in any country in the world. Treaties have more force
here than in any part of Christendom." And he begged the convention
to stop before it conceded this power unguarded and unaltered.

The power was conferred on the President and the Senate, unguarded
and unaltered, when the Constitution was adopted.

The question came before the House of Representatives the first
time just seven years after the Constitution was adopted, and has
been before the House many times since then. The Jay Treaty called
for an appropriation of eighty thousand dollars. It was a very
unpopular treaty, and a very notable debate took place on the
resolution requesting the President to lay before the House copies
of the correspondence and other papers relating to the treaty.
President Washington declined to furnish the papers, on the ground
that the treaty needed no legislative action, and the House had
nothing whatever to do with treaties, but was morally bound to make
the appropriation, thereby carrying out the contract. The House
responded by passing a long series of resolutions; but finally the
appropriation was made.

The whole question has been discussed in the House, practically
every time an appropriation has been called for to carry out a
treaty; but the House, while always contending that it had a voice
in the treaty-making power, never declined to make the appropriation,
and only on one occasion do I now recall that the House declined
to enact legislation to carry out a treaty where the treaty
specifically itself provided for such legislation. This was in
the case of the reciprocity treaty with Mexico, negotiated by
General Grant.

I concluded my speech in the Senate with this statement:

"This question before us here has been before the Senate for a
hundred years. The Executive and Senate have taken one position,
and that is a treaty is the supreme law of the land. That position
has been sustained by the Supreme Court. On the other hand, during
all these hundred years, the House of Representatives has, as a
rule, insisted that they should be considered in reference to
certain treaties. That does not relieve the Senate from standing
by its prerogatives and rights and insisting that the rights of
the Executive be maintained. The point here is this: the Constitution
gives