New-York tribune., 1920-01-01
Our Foundation Stone
A Poor Time to Chip Pieces
of the Constitution
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The Constitution of the United
States was not drawn by committee
on resolutions of a town meeting. 1t
required four long months of the most
intense brain work upon the part of
men whose names have lived one hun
dred and thirtytwo years to carve its
syllables. Hence its words, it's punctu-
alton, its most delicate shades of
form, have a meaning that careless
rh etorc never conveys
Once more, let us look at the para
graph that clothes the President with
all the power he has a right to claim
in the making of treaties:
SO. He shall have power, by and
with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two
thirds of the Senators present concur;
and he shall nominate, and by and with
the advice and consent Of the Senate
shall appoint ambassadors, other public
ministers, and consuls. judges of the
Supreme Court, and all other officers
OF the United States. whose appoint.
r,ents are not herein otherwise pro
vided for. and which shall be estab-
lished by law; but the Congress may
by law vest the appointment of such
inferior officers as they think proper
in the President alone, in the courts
Of law, or in the heads of departments :"
We reproduce the whole paragraph
IN order that the punctuation may be
noted. The clause "by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate" is
used twice: First, in defining the
Presidents power as to treaties, and,
second, in defining his power as to the
nomination and appointment of "am-
bassadors, other public minister's" etc.
Note we'll, in the second instance, the
President is given the power to nomi-
nate, to initiate, to suggest, all by him
self, unhampered by consulting the
Senate. 1t is only the approval of his
nomination. the confirming of his ini-
tlative, the indorsing of his suggestion
which calls for the advice and consent
o. the Senate. He nominates without
the advice and consent Of the Senate.
That is as plain as sunlight. After
the Constitution says che shall nomi-
nate" it then uses the coniunctive
"and" in saying "and by and with the
advice and consent Of the Senate. shall
appoint ambassadors" etc. But it does
not say that the President shall make
treaties and then add the coniunctive
and" in saying "and by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate. shall
'hnlsh the treaties, or execute the
treaties, or promulgate' the treaties" :"
etc. No, it does not permit the Presi-
dent to take single step in treaty.
making save "by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate"
The Constitution has no grammati-
cal error in it. The syntax of Ham
iton and Jefferson vas quite as cal
culated as their reasoning. If their
precise English meant anything. it
meant that Woodrow Wilson violated
the Constitution of the United States
from the very moment that he pur
posed to appoint himself sole treaty-
maker for the United States; he vio
lated it when he failed to acouaint
.he Senate with his foreign plans; he
violated it when he appointed the little
bunch OF Boswells who acted as train
bearers for him in France; he violated
il when he held court in Europe and
- ~'AN
kept the Senate in ignorance of every
step of the treatymaking; he violated
it when he allowed the Allied rations
to believe that he was the treatv-
maker; he violated it when he rushed
home last March and announced that
his treaty must and would be accepted