Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/387

 makes to them; they cannot therefore, meddle with the subject in any other way than by a declaration of war; neither can the president and senate touch it. They can make treaties; but the constitution ^ives them no power to expound a treaty; much less to declare it void: they can only unite with the house of representatives, in punishing an infraction by a declaration of war. iTo the judiciary alone, then, belongs this pacific power of withholding legal benefits, claimed under a treaty, because of the mala Jides of the party claiming them. Now, what will be the situation of this country, com- pared with that of Great Britain, if you deny this power to the judiciary? If you have not observed the treaty with good faith, and go to England, claiming any be- nefit under the treaty, there is a power there, called royal prerogative, which will tell you — no — go home and act honestly, and you shall have your rights under the treaty. Your breach of faith will not drive them to a declaration of war — there is a power there which obtains redress by withholding your rights, until you act with good faith: but where is the recriprocal and corresponding power in our government, if it be not in the judiciary.^ It is no where; — we have no redress short of a declaration of war. Is this one of the pre- cious fruits of the adoption of the federal constitution, to bind us hand and foot with the fetters of technicality, and leave us no way of bursting them asunder, but by a declaration of war, and the effusion of human blood! It was never intended. The wisdom and virtue which framed the constitution, could never have intended to place the countiy in this humiliating and awful predica- ment Give to this power of deciding on treaties, which is delegated to the federal judiciary, a liberal construction — give them all the incidental powers.

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