8542. TREATIES, Power to make.—
The
States of America before their present Union
possessed completely, each within its own
limits, the exclusive right to * * * [make
treaties and] by their act of Union, they have
as completely ceded [it] to the General Government.
Art. 2d. Section 1st. “The President
shall have power, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, to make treaties,
provided two-thirds of the Senators present
concur.” Section 10th, “No State shall
enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation.
No State shall, without the consent
of Congress, * * * enter into any agreement
of compact with another State, or with
a foreign power * * *.” These paragraphs
of the Constitution, declaring that the
General Government shall have, and that the
particular ones shall not have, the right of
* * * treaty, are so explicit that no commentary
can explain them further, nor can
any explain them away.—
Opinion on Georgian Land Grants. Washington ed. vii, 468.
Ford ed., v, 166.
(1790)
