Note 347 — ARTICLE II (continued 3)

Moore, International Law Digest, I, 243-244. The course of the Monroe Administration in inviting the cooperation of Congress in connection with recognition of the Spanish-American Republics, although it was prompted mainly by the consideration that war with Spain might result, was nonetheless opposed by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. "Instead," said he, "of admitting the Senate or House of Representatives to any share in the act of recognition, I would expressly avoid that form of doing it which would require the concurrence of those bodies. It was I had no doubt, by our Constitution an act of the Executive authority. General Washington had exercised it in recognizing the French Republic by the reception of Mr. Genet. Mr. Madison had exercised it by declining several years to receive, and by finally receiving, Mr. Onis; and in this instance I thought the Executive ought carefully to preserve entire the authority given him by the Constitution, and not weaken it by setting the precedent of making either House of Congress a party to an act which it was his exclusive right and duty to perform. Mr. Crawford said he did not think there was anything in the objection to sending a minister on the score of national dignity, and that there was a difference between the recognition of a change of government in a nation already acknowledged as sovereign, and the recognition of a new nation itself. He did not, however, deny, but admitted, that the recognition was strictly within the powers of the Executive alone, and I did not press the discussion further.'" Ibid., 244-245; citing Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, IV, 205-206.