a compliance with the request of the House.  President Washington, in a message to the House of Representatives of the 30th of March, 1796, declined to comply with a request contained in a resolution of that body, to lay before them “a copy of the instructions to the minister of the United States who negotiated the treaty with the King of Great Britain, together with the correspondence and other documents relative to that treaty, excepting such of the said papers as any existing negotiation may render improper to be disclosed.”  In assigning his reasons for declining to comply with the call he declared that—­

The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution, and their success must often depend on secrecy; and even when brought to a conclusion a full disclosure of all the measures, demands, or eventual concessions which may have been proposed or contemplated would be extremely impolitic; for this might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations, or produce immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief, in relation to other powers.  The necessity of such caution and secrecy was one cogent reason for vesting the power of making treaties in the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, the principle on which that body was formed confining it to a small number of members.  To admit, then, a right in the House of Representatives to demand and to have as a matter of course all the papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power would be to establish a dangerous precedent.

In that case the instructions and documents called for related to a treaty which had been concluded and ratified by the President and Senate, and the negotiations in relation to it had been terminated.  There was an express reservation, too, “excepting” from the call all such papers as related to “any existing negotiations” which it might be improper to disclose.  In that case President Washington deemed it to be a violation of an important principle, the establishment of a “dangerous precedent,” and prejudicial to the public interests to comply with the call of the House.  Without deeming it to be necessary on the present occasion to examine or decide upon the other reasons assigned by him for his refusal to communicate the information requested by the House, the one which is herein recited is in my judgment conclusive in the case under consideration.

Indeed, the objections to complying with the request of the House contained in the resolution before me are much stronger than those which existed in the case of the resolution in 1796.  This resolution calls for the “instructions and orders” to the minister of the United States to Mexico which relate to negotiations which have not been terminated, and which may be resumed.  The information called for respects negotiations which the United States offered to open with Mexico immediately preceding the commencement of the existing war.  The instructions given to the minister of the United States relate