on British shipping had lapsed, Congress passed a new law stating that
those restrictions should be renewed in the event the President found
and proclaimed that France had abandoned certain practices which
violated the neutral commerce of the United States. To the objection
that this was an invalid delegation of legislative power, the Court
answered briefly that "we can see no sufficient reason, why the
legislature should not exercise its discretion in reviving the act of
March 1st, 1809, either expressly or conditionally, as their judgment
should direct."[68]


MODIFICATION OF TARIFF LAWS

This point was raised again in Field _v._ Clark,[69] where the Tariff
Act of 1890 was assailed as unconstitutional because it directed the
President to suspend the free importation of enumerated commodities "for
such time as he shall deem just" if he found that other countries
imposed upon agricultural or other products of the United States duties
or other exactions which "he may deem to be reciprocally unequal and
unjust." In sustaining this statute the Court relied heavily upon two
factors: (1) legislative precedents which demonstrated that "in the
judgment of the legislative branch of the government, it is often
desirable, if not essential, * * *, to invest the President with large
discretion in matters arising out of the execution of statutes relating
to trade and commerce with other nations";[70] (2) that the act "did
not, in any real sense, invest the President with the power of
legislation. * * * Congress itself prescribed, in advance, the duties to
be levied, * * *, while the suspension lasted. Nothing involving the
expediency or the just operation of such legislation was left to the
determination of the President. * * * He had no discretion in the