the grounds of the controversy, since the deliberate sense of the nation has gone along with the exercise of the power, as one properly belonging to the executive duties.[1] If the President is bound to see to the execution of the laws, and treaties of the United States; and if the duties of neutrality, when the nation has not assumed a belligerent attitude, are by the law of nations obligatory upon it, it seems difficult to perceive any solid objection to a proclamation, stating the facts, and admonishing the citizens of their own duties and responsibilities.[2]
§ 1565. We have seen, that by law the president possesses the right to require the written advice and opinions of his cabinet ministers, upon all questions connected with their respective departments. But, he does not possess a like authority, in regard to the judicial department. That branch of the government can be called upon only to decide controversies, brought before them in a legal form; and therefore are bound to abstain from any extra-judicial opinions upon points of law, even though solemnly requested by the executive.[3]
- ↑ Rawle on Const. ch. 20, p. 197.—The learned reader, who wishes to review the whole ground, will find it treated in a masterly manner, in the letters of Pacificus, written by Mr. Hamilton in favour of the power, and in the letters of Helvidius, written by Mr. Madison against it. They will both be found in the edition of the Federalist, printed at Washington, in 1818, and in Hallowell, in 1826, in the Appendix.
- ↑ 1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 846.—Both houses of Congress, in their answers to the President's speech at the ensuing session, approved of his conduct, in issuing the proclamation.—1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 346.
- ↑ 5 Marshall's Life of Washington, ch. 6, p. 433, 441; Serg. Const. ch. 29, [ch. 31.] See also Hayburn's Case, 2 Dall. R. 409, 410, and note; Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch. 137, 171.—President Washington, in 1793, requested the opinion of the Judges of the Supreme Court, upon the construction of the treaty with France, of 1778; but they declined
