The Treaty Power

Report Outline
The Congress and the Treaty of Peace
Conflicts of Power in Treaty Making
Constitutional Debates on the Treaty Power
Senate Record on Treaty Ratification
Special Focus

The Congress and the Treaty of Peace

Hopes for End of War During Present Congress

President Roosevelt's annual message, delivered before a joint session of the Senate and House, January 7, 1943, contained a passage which the President later described as an expression of his “hope” that the present war would come to a close before the expiration of the 78th Congress.

I do not prophesy when this war will end [the President said]. But I do believe that this year 1943 will give the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo. I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.

In addition to a hope that the war would end, the President's statement implied a hope that a peace settlement, based on principles of the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter, would come into effect before January 3, 1945, when the present Congress expires by constitutional limitation.