Washington then went on to discuss the secrecy required in negotiations with foreign governments, and cited that as a reason for vesting the power of making treaties in the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. He felt that to admit the House of Representatives into the treaty-making power, by reason of its constitutional duty to appropriate monies to carry out a treaty, would be to establish a dangerous precedent. He closed his message to the House as follows:
“As, therefore, it is perfectly clear to my understanding that the assent of the House of Representatives is not necessary to the validity of a treaty; ... and as it is essential to the due administration of the Government that the boundaries fixed by the Constitution between the different departments should be preserved, a just regard to the Constitution and to the duty of my office, under all the circumstances of this case, forbids a compliance with your request” (Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 1, p. 196).
PRESIDENT JEFFERSON’S ADMINISTRATION
In January 1807, Representative Randolph introduced a resolution, as follows:
“Resolved, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, requested to lay before this House any information in possession of the Executive, except such as he may deem the public welfare to require not to be disclosed, touching any illegal combination of private individuals against the peace and safety of the Union, or any military expedition planned by such individuals against the territories of any Power in amity with the United States; together with the measures which the Executive has pursued and proposes to take for suppressing or defeating the same” (16 Annals of Congress [1806-1807], p. 336).
The resolution was overwhelmingly passed. The Burr conspiracy was then stirring the country. Jefferson had made it the object of a special message to Congress wherein he referred to a military expedition headed by Burr. Jefferson’s reply to the resolution was a Message to the Senate and House of Representatives. Jefferson brought the Congress up to date on the news which he had been receiving concerning the illegal combination of private individuals against the peace and safety of the Union. He pointed out that he had recently received a mass of data, most of which had been obtained without the sanction of an oath so as to constitute formal and legal evidence. “It is chiefly in the form of letters, often containing such a mixture of rumors, conjectures, and suspicions as renders it difficult to sift out the real facts and unadvisable to hazard more than general outlines, strengthened by concurrent information or the particular credibility of the relator. In this state of the evidence, delivered sometimes, too, under the restriction of private confidence, neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed beyond question” (Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 1, p. 412, dated January 22, 1807).
SIMILAR ACTIONS BY PRESIDENTS JACKSON, TYLER, BUCHANAN, AND GRANT
On February 10, 1835, President Jackson sent a message to the Senate wherein he declined to comply with the Senate’s resolution requesting him to communicate copies of charges which had been made to the President against the official conduct of Gideon Fitz, late Surveyor-General, which caused his removal from office. The resolution stated that the information requested was necessary both in the action which it proposed to take on the nomination of a successor to Fitz, and in connection with the investigation which was then in progress by the Senate respecting the frauds in the sales of public lands.
The President declined to furnish the information. He stated that in his judgment the information related to subjects exclusively belonging to the executive department. The request therefore encroached on the constitutional powers of the executive.
The President’s message referred to many previous similar requests, which he deemed unconstitutional demands by the Senate: