the Secretary of State of that day, he would scarcely have regarded it as
sufficiently disinterested to be qualified for the office it had
undertaken; and yet, if any advice in the present case has been asked, it
would seem that it must have been from houses that now look forward to
filling the place then occupied by that single one, and that cannot,
therefore, be regarded as fitted for the office of counsellors to the
Secretary of the present day. Recollect, I am, as is everybody else,
entirely in the dark. No one knows who furnished advice as to the treaty,
nor does any one know what is to be the law when it shall have been
confirmed. Neither can any one tell how the errors that may now be made
will be corrected. With a law regularly passed through both Houses of
Congress, these difficulties could not arise. They are a natural
consequence of this attempt to substitute the will of the Executive for
that of the people, as expressed by the House of Representatives, and
should, as I think, weigh strongly on the minds of Senators when called to
vote upon the treaty. Their constituents have a right to see, and to
discuss, the laws that are proposed before those laws are finally made,
and whenever it is attempted, as in the present case, to stifle
discussion, we may reasonably infer that wrong is about to be done. This
is, I believe, the first case in which, on account of the unpopularity of
the law proposed, it has been attempted to deprive the popular branch of
Congress of its constitutional share in legislation, and if this be
sanctioned it is difficult to see what other interests may not be
subjected to similar action on the part of the Executive. In all such
cases, it is the first step that is most difficult, and before making the
one now proposed, you should, as I think, weigh well the importance of the
precedent about to be established. No one can hold in greater respect than
I do, the honorable gentleman who negotiated this treaty; but in thus
attempting to substitute the executive will for legislative action, he
seems to me to have made a grave mistake.