Opinion of Thomas, J.
utive power” includes “not only what is properly called military power, but the power likewise of making war or peace, the power of engaging in alliances for an encrease of strength, . . . the power of entering into treaties, and of making leagues to restore peace . . . and the power of adjusting the rights of a nation in respect of navigation, trade, etc.,” 2 Institutes of Natural Law 55–56, 54–61 (1756). During the ratification debates, James Wilson likewise referred to the “executive powers of government” as including the external powers of a nation. 2 J. Elliot, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution 500–502 (1863). And Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius, asserted that “[t]he actual conduct of foreign negotiations,” “the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of the operations of war . . . and other matters of a like nature” are “executive details” that “fal[l] peculiarly within the province of the executive department.” The Federalist No. 72, pp. 435–436 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961).
Given this pervasive view of executive power, it is unsurprising that those who ratified the Constitution understood the “executive Power" vested by Article II to include those foreign affairs powers not otherwise allocated in the Constitution. James Iredell, for example, told the North Carolina ratifying convention that, under the new Constitution, the President would “regulate all intercourse with foreign powers” and act as the “primary agent” of the United States, though no specific allocation of foreign affairs powers in the document so provided. 4 Elliot, supra, at 127, 128. And Alexander Hamilton presumed as much when he argued that the “[e]nergy” created in the Constitution's Executive would be “essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks,” even though no specific allocation of foreign affairs powers provided for the Executive to repel such assaults. See The Federalist No. 70, p. 423. These statements confirm that the “executive Power” vested in the President by Article II includes the residual foreign affairs
