by whatever amount of expenditures can be saved by military contributions collected in Mexico,” and that “the most rigorous measures for the augmentation of these contributions have been directed, and a very considerable sum is expected from that source.”  The Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report of that year, in making his estimate of the amount of loan which would probably be required, reduced the sum in consideration of the amount which would probably be derived from these contributions, and Congress authorized the loan upon this reduced estimate.

In the message of the 10th of February, 1848, to the Senate, it was stated that—­

No principle is better established than that a nation at war has the right of shifting the burden off itself and imposing it on the enemy by exacting military contributions.  The mode of making such exactions must be left to the discretion of the conqueror, but it should be exercised in a manner conformable to the rules of civilized warfare.

The right to levy these contributions is essential to the successful prosecution of war in an enemy’s country, and the practice of nations has been in accordance with this principle.  It is as clearly necessary as the right to fight battles, and its exercise is often essential to the subsistence of the army.

Entertaining no doubt that the military right to exclude commerce altogether from the ports of the enemy in our military occupation included the minor right of admitting it under prescribed conditions, it became an important question at the date of the order whether there should be a discrimination between vessels and cargoes belonging to citizens of the United States and vessels and cargoes belonging to neutral nations.

In the message to the House of Representatives of the 24th of July, 1848, it was stated that—­

It is from the same source of authority that we derive the unquestioned right, after the war has been declared by Congress, to blockade the ports and coasts of the enemy, to capture his towns, cities, and provinces, and to levy contributions upon him for the support of our Army.  Of the same character with these is the right to subject to our temporary military government the conquered territories of our enemy.  They are all belligerent rights, and their exercise is as essential to the successful prosecution of a foreign war as the right to fight battles.

By the Constitution the power to “declare war” is vested in Congress, and by the same instrument it is provided that “the President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States” and that “he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”