If such a decision. however. should be renderedwhich is a purely hypothetical case. in my judgment. beyond the realms of reasonthen the President and the Congress of the United States would peremptorily decline to be bound by the judgment. Let me illustrate this. Suppose that the commission would send to arbitration the question whether the United States had the right to enact immigration laws. and thus attempt to sap and undermine the foundations of sovereignty. and our American coinmissioners. acting under some hallucination. should acquiesce in the decision. what would the result be? ThePresident and the Senate and the House of Representatives would immediately say to the commission. "You have gone so far beyond the limits of your jurisdiction that we shall never acquiesce -in your- decision." and If any court of arbitration should ever undertake to decide a question of that sort. which is also an utter impossibilitynot an improbability. but an impossibilitythen we would decline to recognize its award. and Congress. not the Senate alone. but Congress. under its constitutional power. would to the last degree resist the enforcement of it. I have dwelt upon these points because I want to demonstrate to the Senate. if I can. that. from any standpoint of law or equity or reason or common sense. there is not the remotest probability in the world that the obstacles that are created in the report of the majority will ever be brought to the point of practical execution.
Keywords matched
immigration