In the performance of this
duty he is subject to public opinion and his own sense of propriety
for an indiscreet, to his constituents for a dangerous, and to his
constitutional judges for an illegal, exercise of the power, but to no
other censure, foreign or domestic. Were any foreign powers permitted to
scan the communications of the Executive, their complaints, whether real
or affected, would involve the country in continual controversies; for
the right being acknowledged, it would be a duty to exercise it by
demanding a disavowal of every phrase they might deem offensive and an
explanation of every word to which an improper interpretation could be
given. The principle, therefore, has been adopted that no foreign power
has a right to ask for explanations of anything that the President,
in the exercise of his functions, thinks proper to communicate to
Congress, or of any course he may advise them to pursue. This rule is
not applicable to the Government of the United States alone, but, in
common with it, to all those in which the constitutional powers are
distributed into different branches. No such nation desirous of avoiding
foreign influence or foreign interference in its councils; no such
nation possessing a due sense of its dignity and independence, can long
submit to the consequences of this interference.
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