EXECUTIVE ASSUMPTION OF WAR MAKING POWER
Executive Assumption of War Making Power DR. ALBERT H. PUTNEY, Professor of Constitutional Law, National University Law School, says that "the sending of marines into Nicaragua to support the...
...He is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States...
...The Supreme Court of the United States has also given the broadest possible interpretation to the meaning of the term "war," holding it to embrace all cases where a country attempts to maintain its rights by the employment of force: "The whole powers of war being, by the Constitution of the United States, vested in Congress, the acts of that body can alone be resorted to as our guides in this inquiry...
...Putney...
...This action, together with similar action in Haiti, is a part of history that President Wilson's friends would wish to forget, says Dr...
...These early decisions of the Supreme Court have never been overruled, or even modified, by that Court...
...This was when President Roosevelt in plain violation of sovereignty of Columbia intervened, using the naval force of the United States to secure the independence of Panama in order to expedite the building of the...
...In 1915 President Wilson sent troops into the Republic of Santo Domingo and proclaimed a temporary military government...
...or partial hostilities, in which case the laws of war, so far as they actu-ally apply to our situation, must be noticed...
...The article demonstrates that President Cooiidge violated the Constitution when he made war on Nicaragua in behalf of Diaz...
...The issue raised is one of the most important of the many vital questions to be fought out in the 70th Congress...
...On the other hand...
...Dr...
...Thus does recent history of the United States violate one of the wisest innovations made by the framers of the Federal Constitution when they took the war-making power away from the Executive and placed it in the Legislative body— the chosen representatives of the people...
...Putney...
...President Wilson, Dr...
...It is in effect here asserted that the President of the United States has the power to wage an offensive war, upon his own authority, against any country, and for any reason which in his opinion appears to affect 'the lives, the property, and the interests of its citizens and of this Government itself.' If this claim is correct it would only be necessary to appeal to Congress if an increase in the numbers of the land and naval forces were required...
...Putney's important and valuable discussion of executive assumption of the war-making power is the leading article of the National University Law Review for May...
...The question is whether Congress is going to tolerate continued usurpation of its Constitutional power to declare war...
...Canal...
...Putney quotes from President Coolidge's message of January 10, 1927, and says...
...In the space of an editorial comment it is possible to give only a suggestion of his argument...
...An extract from a political speech made by Harding during the campaign which resulted in his election to the Presidency is quoted by Dr...
...It is not denied, nor in the course of the argument has it been denied, that Congress may authorize general hostilities, in which case the general laws of war apply to out situation...
...President Taft's administration followed with a somewhat contradictory, record...
...The argument is from a strictly legal standpoint...
...In 1913 a President of the United States first exercised the war-making powers without the consent of Congress, says Dr...
...The only question considered is whether the recent exercise of the war-making power by the Executive Department is justified under the Constitution of the United States...
...be was an uncompromising opponent of "Dollar Diplomacy...
...He has no power to initiate or declare a war either against a foreign nation or a domestic state...
...Putney's article is a comprehensive review of the precedents revealing the position of Presidents and their Secretaries of State since the inception of our government...
...The Constitution of the United States (Article I, Section 8, clause 2) provides that: "The Congress shall have power...
...Putney concludes that up to the last quarter of a century the war-making powers vested by the Constitution in Congress were with few exceptions jealously, guarded by that body and officially recognized and conceded by our Presidents and Secretaries of State...
...After a careful examination and review of the debates in the Federal Constitutional Convention, the explanation of the Constitution contained in the Federalist, various decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the attitude and conduct of both Legislative and Executive Departments of the Government, Dr...
...In his annual message to Congress in 1911 the President quoted from a letter he had written to the General Staff relating to the assembling of troop* on the Mexican frontier: "The assumption by the press that •SI contemplate intervention on Mexican soil to protect American lives or property is of course gratuitous, because I seriously doubt whether 1 have such authority under any circumstances, and if I had I would not exercise it without express congressional approval.'' In his next annual message President Taft referred to "the intervention of the United States in Nicaragua," and the report of the Secretary of Navy for 1913 gives the story of the intervention by the United States in Nicaragua in great detail and in somewhat boastful spirit...
...Putney as a statement of his views on foreign policy: "Nor will I misuse the powers of the Executive to cover with a veil of secrecy repeated acts of unwarrantable interference in domestic affairs of the little republics of the Western Hemisphere, such as in the past.few years have not only made enemies of those who should be our friends, but have rightfully discredited our country as their trusted neighbor...
...Putney points out, had a broader view of the President's power over foreign relations than that held by any of his predecessors prior to President Roosevelt...
...The Supreme Court of the United States has declared, in the most unequivocal language, that this power of Congress is an exclusive one: "By the Constitution, Congress alone has the power to declare a national or foreign war . . . The Constitution confers on the President the executive power...
...In its definition of the scope to be given the term "war" the Supreme Court was merely asserting a well recognized principle of International Law...
...ALBERT H. PUTNEY, Professor of Constitutional Law, National University Law School, says that "the sending of marines into Nicaragua to support the tottering rule of the revolutionary President Adolph Diaz . . . clearly constitutes 'war' if we are to use the definition of that term contained in decisions of the United States Supreme Court and in the public utterances of a long line of Presidents and Secretaries of State...
...The construction of the United States Constitution is not affected by the question whether the intervention by the United States in Nicaragua was necessary to protect legitimate American interests, or whether, as is charged, it was in support of the rebellion financed by American interests who desired to keep control of property in Nicaragua after they had sold the same to the government of Nicaragua...
...It may, I believe, be safely laid down, that every contention by force between two nations, in external matters, under the authority of their respective governments, is not only war, but public war...
...to declare war...
Vol. 19 • July 1927 • No. 7
