Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-04-24

common understanding than that the President Is
thus prohibited from the exercise of any such pow
er as, on the ground Of existing war, that of estab
fishing Civil Governments, Custom Houses, Ia
riffs, &c. in foreign countries. Ii to do SO be
right OF war, under the law of nations, il is right
which can in this country, until we acknowledge
our President to be our Sovereign Lord and King
only be exercised by Congress and, in the alb
sence OF law, must be dormant right.
But the American !" views the President in
this case Gas Commander-n-Ch chief Of the Army
and Navy, exercising military authority against
enemies" &c. We are afraid that this ground
will not bear close examination. II this view
depends upon analogy, in reference to pow
ers exercised by European Sovereigns, it would
equally sustain power in the President to raise
and regulate fleets and armies, which in those
Governments results from the Executive being, pre-
rogatioely, COMMANDMENTS Chief, &C. .Phe King
(says Blacksone) is considered as the Generals
simo, or the first in military command, within the
Kingdom" "In this capacity of General of the
Kingdom, the King has the sole power of raising
and regulating fleets and armies.' But the Con-
stituton of the United States has expressly granted
these powers 10 the Congress, and refused them,
with various other prerogatves, to the President Of
the United States.
4 The President is, it is true, by virtue of his of
fee, " Conmander-in-C Chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States.' But he is to command the
Army, &c, consttufionaliy, and not prerogatiuely
and in that distinction lies the difference between
ourselves and our Baltimore neighbor With a
reasonable confidence in our own knowledge of the
Constitution under which we live, we are yet COM
: forted wonderfully when find, in differing from
our friends, that we are sustained by the trainers
: of the Constitution themselves.
The feature Of the Constitution which encoun-
tered the strongest objection on the part of the Anti
Federalists, that which regarded the very pow
; er proposed to be conferred on the President as
Commander-in-Chief, &c. las it now stands in the
) Constitution.) On this head, PATRICK HENRY said
) in the Convention of Virginia, among other things
This Constitution has an awful squirting il
squints towards monarchy: and does not this
raise Indignation in the breast of every American 2
. " Ii we make King, we may prescribe the rules
Il by which he shall rule his people, and interpos,
such checks as shall prevent him from infringing
them but the President in the field at the hcd
: Of his army can prescribe the terms on which h
snail reign maSter, &C.
: 1t was in answer to objections of this characte
industriously disseminated among the People, +
that part of the Constitution which proposed t
E make the President COMMANDMENTS Chief, &c. tina
: the patriotic founders of the Constitution, the au
thors of the "Federalist" gave, in No. 80, the fol
lowing authentic and true Interpretation of that pre-
D vision:
n L ~ 4 ~.
o the Army and Navy Of the United States.
: this respect his authority would be nominay tin
4 same with that of the King of Great Britain, bu
in substance much inferior TO it. 1t would amour
to nothing more than the supreme command ant
direction Of the military and naval forces as frs
S General and Admiral of the Confederacy willis
s that of the British King extends to the declarin
. Of war; and to the raising and regulating of fleet
and armies; all which, by the Constitution ur
der consideration, would appertain to the Legsla
mre."
:. The power of regulation here referred to-th
power, in the terms of the Constitution, TO MAXI
RULES CONCERNING CAPTURES on land and ,cater,
thus conferred upon Congress, and refused TO tn
President is the identical po,oer ,ohich the Presi
: dent has undertaken TO exercise, and which t.
bring in question is, according to the Executive ant
us organ, notnlng less IMAM treason!
fit be necessary further TO fortify our consruc
ton by authority contemporary with the Constitu
ton, Tor nearly SOY we proud to be able to cit
that of the illustrous MADISON, from the Letters
, Hevidius, "a. d. 1899 in the following conclu
sive passage:
: "Were it once established that the powers o
war and treaty are in their nature executive tina
so far as they not by strict construction trans
ferred to the Legislature, they actually belong &c
the Executives that of course all powers not less
{ executive in their nature than those powers, if no
granted to the Legislature, may be claimed by the
, Executive; if granted to be taken strictly
with residuary right in the Executive-or, as
will hereafter appear, perhaps claimed as a con
current right by the Executive-no citizen couid
any longer guess at The character Of The Govern.
menf under which he ives; THE MOST PENETRAT.
ING 1URIsT WOULD DE UNABLE TO SCAN THE EXTENT
OF CONSTRUCTIVE PRERoGATIvE."
And again, in the next page, in the following las
, it seems to us) unanswerable arguments
"If the right to declare war be an exception ou
OF the general grant to the Executive power, every
: thing INCLUDED in the right must be included IN
; the exception; and, being included in the excep
ton, is EXCLUDED FROM THE GRANT"
That this was the intention of the Constitution
is proved by the grant to Congress of the specific