een realized.

Having observed that the authority of the President to convene such a
congress has been questioned, I beg leave to state that the Constitution
confers upon the President the power, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, to make treaties, and that this provision confers the
power to take all requisite measures to initiate them, and to this end
the President may freely confer with one or several commissioners or
delegates from other nations.. The congress contemplated by the
invitation could only effect any valuable results by its conclusions
eventually taking the form of a treaty of peace between the States
represented; and, besides, the invitation to the States of North and
South America is merely a preliminary act, of which constitutionality
or the want of it can hardly be affirmed.

It has been suggested that while the international congress would have
no power to affect the rights of nationalities there represented, still
Congress might be unwilling to subject the existing treaty rights of
the United States on the Isthmus and elsewhere on the continent to be
clouded and rendered uncertain by the expression of the opinions of
a congress composed largely of interested parties.

I am glad to have it in my power to refer to the Congress of the
United States, as I now do, the propriety of convening the suggested
international congress, that I may thus be informed of its views, which
it will be my pleasure to carry out.

Inquiry having been made by some of the Republics invited whether it is
intended that this international congress shall convene, it is important
that Congress should at as early a day as is convenient inform me by
resolution or otherwise of its opinion in the premises. My action will
be in harmony with such expression.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, November 29, 1881_.

SIR:[10] The attitude of the United States with respect to the question
of general peace on the American continent is well known through its
persistent efforts for years past to avert the evils of warfare, or,
these efforts failing, to bring positive conflicts to an end through
pacific counsels or the advocacy of impartial arbitration. This attitude
has been consistently maintained, and always with such fairness as to
leave no room for imputing to our Government any motive except the
humane and disinterested one of saving the kindred States of the
American continent from the burd