Daniel Webster Quotes

No power but Congress can declare war, but what is the value of this constitutional provision, if the President of his own authority may make such military movements as must bring on war?

When the President decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from congress.

Most US presidents since World War II have led military actions without a declaration of war by Congress, though most, if not all, have properly consulted and sought support from Congress. That is the wise thing to do.

The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.

The authority to declare war rests in Congress, not in an out-of-control president.

The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States…In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces…while that of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all [of] which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.

Under our Constitution the Congress alone has the power to declare war.

The respective powers of the President and Congress of the United States, in the case of war with foreign powers are yet undetermined. Perhaps they can never be defined.

The power to make war is vested in Congress and not in the President. Congress has no constitutional authority to grant such authority to the president.

U.S. Constitution declares rather unambiguously that Congress has the responsibility to “declare war.

I believe that the power to declare war is most important in limiting the powers of the national government in regard to the rights of its citizens, but that it does not require Congress to give its approval before the president uses force abroad. I do not believe that the framers of the Constitution understood the power to declare to mean "authorize" or "commence" war. That does not mean that the separation of powers or checks and balances will not work.

We have gone into a war, an unelected president sending us into a war that the Congress frankly had no right, I believe, to authorize.

Was the Vietnam conflict a war which should have, as a matter of constitutional law, required a declaration of war by Congress?

When President Obama in 2011 used military power against the Qaddafi regime in Libya, he did not even notify Congress. A few in Congress mumbled, but did nothing.

In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not the executive department. ... The trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man.

No president can easily commit our sons and daughters to war.

I believe that the power to declare war is most important in limiting the powers of the national government in regard to the rights of its citizens, but that it does not require Congress to give its approval before the president uses force abroad.

Declarations of war have never been a constitutional requirement for military action abroad. The United States has used force abroad more than 130 times, but has only declared war five times - the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II.

Our firm view is that the president has no legal authority, none whatsoever, to commit American troops to war in the Persian Gulf or anywhere else without congressional authorization.

I question the Constitutional authority of the President to conscript unwilling Americans and send them abroad without a declaration of war by the Congress.

The way I read the Constitution,. the Congress is paid a salary to determine whether we should go to war ... Therefore, I don't think Congress is earning its money.

If a President may thus with impunity violate one of the provisions of the Constitution, he may violate all of them. If he may override the Constitution in defiance of the Senate on this one occasion to appoint some unfit favorite to office, he may override it upon every occasion. He may make and consummate treaties without your consent. He may create new offices and order money paid out of the Treasury without your appropriation. He may declare war and plunge the United States into bloody conflict without your action and against your will.... The issue is joined. It is democracy against dictatorship. It is the Constitution of the United States against the whim of Calvin Coolidge.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

Congress shall not make or declare war, or authorize acts of hostility against any foreign nation, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both Houses, except such acts of hostility be in defense of the territories of the United States when actually invaded.

The Founders of this Nation entrusted the lawmaking power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times … the President's power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a law-maker.