jeopardize the treaty. Finally, he relented and submitted the treaty for Senate ratification. Accepting the ends as justification for the means, the Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 26 to 6.

The War of 1812 saw serious reverses for American forces on land and sea, including the sacking of the city of Washington and burning of the Capitol by British troops. To reach a peace accord with the British, President James Madison dispatched a highlevel negotiating team that included John Quincy Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay. At Ghent, they arrived at a treaty that reestablished peace between the nations without resolving the issues that had originally sent them to war, notably British impressment of American seamen and American neutrality rights. Although it left much to be desired, the treaty ended an extremely unpopular war. Another impetus toward ratification was the news that American forces under General Andrew Jackson had defeated the British at New Orleans-two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed. News of the victory caused celebration throughout the United States and brought about a unanimous vote in the Senate to ratify the treaty.

By contrast, United States military campaigns from 1846 to 1848 thoroughly defeated Mexico and opened the way for acquisition of western territories even larger than the Louisiana Purchase. President James K. Polk had recalled his chief negotiator in Mexico, Nicholas Trist, and was therefore surprised when word arrived that Trist had reached an agreement with the Mexican government. Although Polk had reservations about the unauthorized treaty, believing that recent military victories could have won even greater territorial concessions from Mexico, he also recognized that should he reject the peace treaty he could not count on further congressional appropriations to continue the war. Polk therefore submitted the treaty to the Senate, which ratified it by a vote of 38 to 14. It was hardly a poor bargain. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States purchased for $15 million more than a half million square miles of territory from Mexico, comprising what are today the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. Eventually, however, the price was greater, for the unresolved issue of whether slavery could spread into the new territories was a major factor in America's Civil War.

In August, the Senate considered a motion to discuss nominations only in the president's presence. A committee of three senators then took the proposal to President Washington. But Washington thought it would create an awkward situation for both himself and the Senate if he were present while his nominations were debated. He reasoned that "as the President has a right to nominate without assigning his reasons, so has the Senate a right to dissent without giving theirs." Accepting this logic, the Senate agreed to receive Washington's written nominations, including those for the first cabinet secretaries, which the Senate received on September 11, 1789.

During the first Congress, and for most of its first century, the entire Senate heard all nominations as a committee of the whole, in executive session. Nominations were referred to committee only if the candidate was unknown or if there were some charges pending against him. By 1868, the executive clerk began routinely referring nominations to the appropriate standing committees for initial screening, before they were debated and voted upon by the entire Senate. Until 1929, the Senate conducted its executive sessions behind closed doors, barring both the public and the press, on the grounds that it could more easily discuss the individual merits of nominees when not on public display.