HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.	101
yon will please to communicate to M. Perrin, the French commissioner, 
upon the appearance of any disposition on his part or on the part of  
any French naval commander in the Pacific Ocean to proceed to hos- 
tilities against the Government of Hawaii for the purpose of enforcing 
the demands which have been made upon it on the part of France.
The Navy Department will receive instructions to place, and to keep, 
the naval armament of the United States in the Pacific Ocean in such 
a state of strength and preparation as shall be requisite for the preser- 
vation of the honor and dignity of the United States and the safety 
of the Government of the Hawaiian Islands. 
I have, etc.,
DANIEL WEBSTER.
[Unnumbered.]
Mr. Webster to Mr. Severance.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, July 14, 1851.
SIR : I have written you a regular official dispatch, setting forth the 
principles of policy which will be pursued by the administration here in 
whatever respects the Government of the Hawaiian Islands.
I now write you a letter of private instructions, made necessary by 
suggestions contained in your communications by Lieut. Johnson.
In the first place, I have to say that the war-making power in this 
Government rests entirely with Congress, and that the President can 
authorize belligerent operations only in the cases expressly provided 
for by the Constitution and the laws. By these no power is given to the 
Executive to oppose an attack by one independent nation on the pos- 
sessions of another. We are bound to regard both France and Hawaii 
as independent states, and equally independent; and though the gen- 
eral policy of the Government might lead it to take part with either in 
a controversy with the other, still, if this interference be an act of 
hostile force, it is not within the constitutional power of the President, 
and still less is it within the power of any subordinate agent of Govern- 
ment, civil or military. If the Serieuse had attacked Honolulu, and 
thereupon the Vandalia had fired upon the Serieuse, this last act would 
have been an act of violence against France not to be justified, and, in 
fact, if not disavowed at Washington it would have been an act of 
war. In these cases, where the power of Congress can not be exer- 
cised beforehand, all must be left to the redress which that body may 
subsequently authorize. This you will constantly bear in mind. But, 
at the same time, it is not necessary that you should enter into these 
explanations with the French commissioner or the French naval com- 
mander.
In my official letter of this date I have spoken of what the United 
States would do in certain contingencies. But in thus speaking of the 
Government of the United States I do not mean the executive power, 
but the Government in its general aggregate, and especially that branch 
of the Government which possesses the war-making power. This dis- 
tinction you will carefully observe, and you will neither direct, request,

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