649

1796.

The address of Mr. Adet, the answer of the CHAP. VIII. president, and the colours of France, were transmitted to congress with the letter from the committee of safety.

In the house of representatives, a resolution was moved, requesting the president to make known to the representatives of the French republic, the sincere and lively sensations which were excited by this honourable testimony of the existing sympathy and affections of the two republics; that the house rejoiced in an opportunity of congratulating the French republic on the brilliant and glorious achievements accomplished during the present afflictive war; and hoped that those achievements would be attended with a perfect attainment of their object, the permanent establishment of the liberty and happiness of that great and magnanimous people.

The letter to congress having come from the committee of safety, which, under the revolutionary system, was the department that was charged with foreign intercourse; and a constitution having been afterwards adopted in France, by which an executive directory was established, to which all the foreign relations of the government were confided, an attempt was made to amend this resolution, by substituting the directory for the representatives of the people. But this attempt failed; after which the resolution passed unanimously.

In the senate also, a resolution was offered, expressive of the sensations of that house, and requesting the president to communicate them to the proper organ of the French republic. An

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CHAP.VIII. amendment was moved to vary this resolution so 1796. as to express the sentiment to the president, and

omit the request that it should be communicated to the French republic. The complimentary correspondence between the two nations, had, it was said, reached a point when, if ever, it ought to close. This amendment though strenuously combatted by the opposition, was adopted.

In the early part of the session, the attention of congress was principally directed to objects which, though important in themselves, did not involve those points on which the two great parties were at variance, nor particularly relate to that political system which had been observed towards foreign nations. But in February, the treaty with Great Britain was returned, in the form advised by the senate, ratified by his Britannic majesty.

The constitution declaring a treaty, when made, the supreme law of the land, it became essentially the duty of the president officially to announce it to the people of the United States. In pursuance of this duty, he issued his proclamation dated the last day of February, stating the treaty, and the completion of the solemnities requisite to its obligation, and requiring from all persons its ob. servance and execution. For the information of congress, a copy of this proclamation was transmitted to each house on the first of March.

The party which had obtained the majority in one branch of the legislature, having openly denied the right of the president to negotiate a treaty of commerce, was not a little dissatisfied at his venturing to issue this proclamation before the sense

1

of the house of representatives had been declared CHAP.VII. on the obligation of the instrument.

On the

1796.

representa

upon the president for

This dissatisfaction was not concealed. second of March, Mr. Livingston, after stating that the treaty lately negotiated with Great Britain must give rise to several important and constitutional questions, laid upon the table a resolution, The house of requesting the president "to lay before the house tives call a copy of the instructions to the minister of the papers reUnited States, who negotiated the treaty with the treaty with king of Great Britain, communicated by his message of the first of March, together with the correspondence and other documents relative to the said treaty.'

On the seventh of March, he amended this resolution by adding the words, "excepting such of the said papers as any existing negotiation may render improper to be disclosed."

After some debate, Mr. Madison proposed to modify the amendment of Mr. Livingston, so as to except such papers as, in the judgment of the president, it might be inconsistent with the interest of the United States at this time to disclose. This proposition was rejected by a majority of ten voices, and the discussion of the original resolution was resumed. The debate soon glided into an argument on the nature and extent of the treaty making power.

By the friends of the administration, it was maintained, that a treaty was a contract between two nations, which, under the constitution, the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, had a right to make, and that it was

lating to the

Britain

CHAP. VIII. made when, by and with such advice and consent, 1796. it had received his final act. Its obligations then

became complete on the United States, and to refuse to comply with its stipulations, was to break the treaty, and to violate the faith of the nation.

By the opposition it was contended, that the power to make treaties, if applicable to every object, conflicted with powers which were vested exclusively in congress. That either the treaty making power must be limited in its operation so as not to touch objects committed by the constitution to congress, or the assent and co-operation of the house of representatives must be required to give validity to any compact so far as it might comprehend those objects. A treaty, therefore, which required an appropriation of money, or any act of congress to carry it into effect, had not acquired its obligatory force until the house of representatives had exercised its powers in the case. They were at full liberty to make or to withhold such appropriation, or other law, without incurring the imputation of violating any existing obligation, or of breaking the faith of the nation.

The debate on this question was animated, vehement, and argumentative, all the party passions were enlisted in it, and it was protracted without much intermission until the 24th of March, when the resolution was carried in the affirmative by sixty two to thirty seven vöices. The next day, the committee appointed to present it to the chief magistrate reported his answer, which was, "that he would take the resolution into consideration."

The situation in which this vote placed the executive was peculiarly delicate. In an elective

government, the difficulty of resisting the popular CHAP. VIII. branch of the legislature is at all times of serious 1796. magnitude, but is particularly so when the passions of the public have been strongly and generally excited by exertions which have pervaded the whole society. The popularity of a demand for information, the large majority by which, in the present instance, that demand was supported, the additional force which a refusal to comply with it would give to suspicions already insinuated, that circumstances had occurred in the negotiation which the administration dared not expose, and that the president was separating himself from the representatives of the people,' furnished motives, not lightly to be overruled, for yielding to the request which had been made.

But these considerations were opposed by others which, though less operative with men who fear to deserve the public favour by hazarding its loss, possess an irresistible influence over a mind resolved to pursue steadily the path of duty, however it may abound with thorns.

That the future diplomatic transactions of the government might be seriously and permanently affected by establishing the principle that the house of representatives could demand as a right, the instructions given to a foreign minister, and all the papers connected with a negotiation, was too apparent to be unobserved. Nor was it less obvious that a compliance with the request now made would go far in establishing this principle. The form of the request, and the motives which induced it, equally led to this conclusion. It left