Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/378

 370 public liberty. Time has demonstrated the fallacy of such prophecies; and has confirmed the belief of the friends of the constitution, that it would be, not only safe, but full of wisdom and sound policy. Perhaps no stronger illustration, than this, can be found, of the facility of suggesting ingenious objections to any system, calculated to create public alarm, and to wound public confidence, which, at the same time, are unfounded in human experience, or in just reasoning.

§ 1517. Some doubts appear to have been entertained in the early stages of the government, as to the correct exposition of the constitution in regard to the agency of the senate in the formation of treaties. The question was, whether the agency of the senate was admissible previous to the negotiation, so as to advise on the instructions to be given to the ministers; or was limited to the exercise of the power of advice and consent, after the treaty was formed; or whether the president possessed an option to adopt one mode, or the other, as his judgment might direct. The practical exposition assumed on the first occasion, which seems to have occurred in President Washington's administration, was, that the option belonged to the executive to adopt either mode, and the senate might advise before, as well as after, the formation of a treaty. Since that period, the senate have been rarely, if ever, consulted, until after a treaty has been completed, and laid before them for ratification. When so laid before the senate, that body is in the habit of deliberating upon it, as, indeed, it does on all executive business, in secret,