AGREEMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES ish Crown, August 12, 1898, arranging for a termination of hostilities in the war between the United States and Spain, provided a basis for the terms of the treaty subse quently negotiated by commissioners of the two countries at Paris. Among its stipula tions were provisions for the relinquishment of Cuba, the cession of Porto Rico, and the control of the Philippines. According to the fifth article it was agreed that the treaty, embodying the terms agreed upon in the protocol, should be "subject to ratification according to the respective constitutional forms of the two countries." l Whatever be the limits of the power of the Executive in time of war to bind the nation by agree ments entered into with the enemy, his right to do so as Commander-in-Chief of the military and naval forces is clear, and its proper exercise concerns matters within a wide range, the adjustment of which in volves the use of a broad discretion. Without attempting their classification, attention is called to certain other agree ments entered into in behalf of the United States, which have not been submitted to the Senate for ratification. By the terms of a protocol signed at London, December 9, 1850, Great Britain ceded to the United States the Horse-Shoe Reef in Lake Erie in order to enable the grantee to build a lighthouse thereon, and "provided the Government of the United States will engage to erect such lighthouse, and to maintain a light therein; and provided no fortifica tion be erected on said Reef." The last paragraph of the protocol contains the statement that "Mr. Lawrence and Viscount Palmerston, on the part of their respective governments, accordingly agreed that the British Crown should make the cession, and that the United States should accept it, on the above-mentioned conditions." Shortly thereafter, Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, instructed Mr. Lawrence, as the American Minister at London, to inform the 1 U. S. For. Rel. 1898, p. 828.
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British Government that the arrangement was "approved by this Government." l A conditional agreement was entered into by Brigadier-General John C. Bates, subject to the approval of the Governor of the Philippine Islands, and confirmation of the President, and the Sultan of Jolo, August 20, 1899, by the terms of which the sover eignty of the United States over the archi pelago of Jolo and its dependencies was acknowledged and declared.2 There have been some agreements in the form of protocols, or concluded by an ex change of notes, explanatory of the meaning of treaties previously ratified by the Senate. Upon the exchange of ratifications of a treaty negotiated in 1830 with the Ottoman Porte,3 David Porter, who had been ap pointed American Charge d'Affaires, signed at Constantinople a paper in Turkish, by the terms of which it was agreed by himself and the Turkish Government, that the United States accepted without reserve the Turkish text of the treaty, and — "Therefore, on every occasion the above instrument shall be strictly observed, and if, hereafter, any discussion should arise between the contracting parties, the said instrument shall be consulted by me and my successors to remove doubts." * This agreement was duly received by the Department of State, and the act of Porter does not appear to have been disapproved. An agreement by protocol was entered into by the Hon. Caleb Cushing when Amer ican Minister at Madrid, and the Spanish 1 Treaties and Conventions of the United States, 1776-1887, pp. 444, 445- A lighthouse was duly erected on the Reef by means of Con gressional appropriations. 9 Stat. at L. pp. 380, and 627. 10 Stat. at L., p. 343.
- House Doc. 5&th Cong., ist Sess. No. i,
part 2 (Attached as an appendix to U. S. For. Rel. 1899). 1 Treaties and Conventions of the United States, 1776-1887, notes by J. C. B. Davis, p. 1370. 4 Porter's No. 22, Sept. 26, 1831, MS. Dept. of State.
