Federalist No. 64 continues the discussion of the Senate by examining one of its most serious constitutional duties: joining with the President in the making of treaties. John Jay argues that treaties can determine questions of war, peace, commerce, and America’s standing among foreign nations, so the power must be placed in hands capable of exercising it with knowledge, honesty, secrecy, and sound judgment.
This paper matters because Jay explains why the Constitution divides treaty-making authority between the President and the Senate. The President can provide speed, secrecy, and unified direction during negotiations, while the Senate provides experience, deliberation, and a powerful check through the requirement that two-thirds of the senators present must agree.
1. Critics often condemn more than an argument deserves
“seldom confine their censures to such things only… as are worthy of blame.”
Jay begins by accusing the Constitution’s opponents of going too far. Instead of attacking only genuine weaknesses, they condemn even some of the Constitution’s strongest and least objectionable provisions.
2. The President cannot make treaties alone
“BY AND WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE”
That is the constitutional foundation of the entire paper. Treaty-making is neither exclusively presidential nor exclusively legislative. It is a shared power.
3. Treaties require more than a simple Senate majority
“PROVIDED TWO THIRDS OF THE SENATORS PRESENT CONCUR.”
The Constitution deliberately sets a high threshold. A treaty cannot take effect merely because one political faction has a narrow advantage in the Senate.
4. Treaty-making is one of the government’s most important powers
“The power of making treaties is an important one”
Jay does not treat treaties as routine paperwork. They can bind the country internationally and shape national policy for years or generations.
5. Treaties directly affect war, peace, and commerce
“especially as it relates to war, peace, and commerce”
This short phrase captures the stakes. Treaties may affect whether the country fights, trades, forms alliances, settles disputes, or remains at peace.
6. Great power should be surrounded by precautions
“with such precautions, as will afford the highest security”
Jay’s argument is not that leaders should simply be trusted. The constitutional process must be structured to reduce the danger of ignorance, corruption, haste, or abuse.
7. Treaty power should be exercised by qualified people
“men the best qualified for the purpose”
Foreign policy requires knowledge, judgment, experience, and character. Jay argues that the selection of the President and senators was intended to bring such people into office.
8. Party passion can distort popular elections
“the activity of party zeal”
Jay warns that political enthusiasm can sometimes overpower careful judgment. Organized factions may be more active than the broader public and may push unsuitable people into office.
9. Public indifference can also empower factions
“taking the advantage of the supineness… of the unwary”
Jay’s point is blunt: when ordinary citizens are inattentive, highly motivated political groups gain more influence.
10. Voters may be dazzled by appearances
“brilliant appearances of genius and patriotism”
Excellent line. Jay warns that charisma and patriotic performance can be mistaken for genuine ability and virtue.
11. Political brilliance may disappear quickly
“like transient meteors”
This is one of the most memorable images in the paper. A politician may flash brightly, capture attention, and then vanish without leaving anything useful behind.
12. Experience gives the public time to judge character
“men of whom the people have had time to form a judgment”
Jay defends the constitutional age requirements partly because older candidates have longer public records. The people have had more time to determine whether their reputation is deserved.
13. Treaty-makers must understand the nation’s interests
“best understand our national interests”
Foreign policy cannot be conducted wisely by people who understand only one district, one state, or one temporary political issue.
14. National interests include relations among the states
“in relation to the several States”
Jay recognizes that treaties may affect different states differently. National leaders must understand the interests of the Union’s separate parts.
15. National interests also extend beyond America’s borders
“or to foreign nations”
Diplomacy requires knowledge of other countries—their governments, interests, rivalries, strengths, and intentions.
16. Integrity is as important as intelligence
“whose reputation for integrity inspires and merits confidence.”
Jay does not argue that talent alone is enough. A brilliant negotiator without honesty could be more dangerous than a less talented one.
17. National policy requires a consistent system
“the absolute necessity of system”
Jay argues that major national affairs cannot be handled as a collection of disconnected reactions. Foreign policy must follow an organized and continuing plan.
18. Constant turnover works against long-term policy
“members constantly coming and going in quick succession”
This is one of Jay’s strongest arguments against placing treaty-making in a large, rapidly changing popular assembly. Constant turnover can destroy continuity.
19. Great national goals require sustained attention
“steadily contemplated in all their relations and circumstances”
Treaties often involve complicated questions that cannot be understood or resolved in a single debate. They require patient study and long-term thinking.
20. Talent without accurate information is not enough
“not only talents, but also exact information”
A gifted statesman can still make disastrous decisions if working with incomplete or false information. Diplomacy demands both ability and reliable intelligence.
21. Senators need time to learn national affairs
“continue in place a sufficient time”
Jay treats the Senate’s six-year terms as a practical advantage. Senators need enough time in office to understand foreign relations and the country’s larger interests.
22. Experience should accumulate instead of constantly disappearing
“their accumulating experience”
Institutional memory matters. Every election should not force the government to rebuild its knowledge of diplomacy from nothing.
23. Staggered Senate terms preserve continuity
“a considerable residue of the old ones in place”
Because only part of the Senate changes at one time, experienced members remain. That helps preserve knowledge, order, and consistency.
24. Foreign policy and domestic law must work together
“both our treaties and our laws should correspond”
Treaties cannot be separated completely from legislation. Trade agreements, navigation rules, tariffs, and other policies must fit together coherently.
25. The Senate connects treaty-making and lawmaking
“concurrence of the Senate necessary both to treaties and to laws.”
Jay sees this overlap as an advantage. The Senate’s participation in both areas helps keep foreign commitments and domestic legislation aligned.
26. Diplomacy sometimes demands secrecy
“perfect SECRECY”
Jay makes no apology for the fact that some negotiations cannot be conducted in full public view. Sources, proposals, and preliminary discussions may need protection.
27. Diplomacy also demands speed
“immediate DESPATCH”
Events can change quickly. A government that cannot act at the right moment may lose an opportunity that never returns.
28. Intelligence sources may refuse to speak publicly
“relieved from apprehensions of discovery.”
People possessing useful information may cooperate only if their identities and communications remain confidential.
29. Sources may trust one President more than a large assembly
“would rely on the secrecy of the President”
The more people who receive sensitive information, the greater the danger of disclosure. Jay argues that the President can manage intelligence more securely than a large legislative body.
30. Political opportunities rise and fall like tides
“there are tides in them”
Jay compares public and international affairs to changing tides. The right opportunity may appear suddenly and disappear just as fast.
31. Some moments in foreign affairs cannot wait
“days, nay, even when hours, are precious.”
This is one of the strongest lines in Federalist No. 64. Diplomacy may demand immediate judgment rather than months of public debate.
32. A single event can transform an international situation
“The loss of a battle, the death of a prince”
Wars, deaths, resignations, revolutions, and changes of government can instantly alter the balance of power.
33. Diplomacy has moments that must be seized
“there are moments to be seized as they pass”
Jay’s point is practical. A government must be capable of recognizing an opportunity and acting before circumstances change.
34. America had already suffered from delay and disclosure
“suffered from the want of secrecy and despatch”
Jay is not speaking only in theory. Under the Confederation, the United States had experienced the weakness of a government unable to conduct foreign affairs efficiently.
35. The Constitution combines different strengths
“talents, information, integrity, and deliberate investigations”
The Senate contributes deliberation, experience, and scrutiny. The treaty process is designed to benefit from those qualities before the nation becomes bound.
36. The President contributes secrecy and speed
“secrecy and despatch on the other.”
That is the other half of the constitutional design. The President can negotiate and manage sensitive information, but the Senate must consent to the final result.
37. Treaties do not have to be made by the entire legislature
“they should be made only by men invested with legislative authority.”
Jay is describing an objection, not endorsing it. Some opponents argued that because treaties have legal force, they should be made entirely by the legislature.
38. Binding government acts come from all three branches
“All constitutional acts of power… have as much legal validity”
Court judgments and executive commissions can bind citizens even though they are not statutes passed by the legislature.
39. Lawmaking authority does not include every sovereign act
“every other act of sovereignty”
Giving Congress the power to make laws does not mean Congress must exercise every other important power of government.
40. Treaties cannot be repealed like ordinary statutes
“repealable at pleasure”
Some critics wanted Congress to be able to cancel treaties whenever it wished. Jay argues that this misunderstands what a treaty is.
41. A treaty is an agreement between nations
“a treaty is only another name for a bargain”
This may be the clearest sentence in the paper. A treaty is not a promise one party makes only to itself. It is a mutual agreement.
42. No nation will accept a one-sided obligation
“binding on them ABSOLUTELY, but on us only… as we may think proper”
Jay exposes the absurdity of the objection. No country would enter an agreement that permanently binds it while allowing the United States to walk away whenever convenient.
43. Both parties are required to change a treaty
“the consent of both was essential”
Because both nations consented to the treaty, both must normally consent to alter or cancel it.
44. The Constitution did not invent treaty obligations
“has not in the least extended the obligation of treaties.”
Jay argues that treaties were already binding under accepted principles between nations. The Constitution simply creates a more effective process for making them.
45. Political suspicion can become excessive
“However useful jealousy may be in republics”
Jay accepts that suspicion of power can protect liberty. But he warns that suspicion can become so intense that it distorts judgment.
46. Too much political jealousy clouds perception
“the eyes… become very liable to be deceived”
A healthy distrust of government can turn unhealthy. People may begin seeing treachery in every exercise of lawful authority.
47. Every state has equal representation in the Senate
“all the States are equally represented”
Jay answers fears that treaties might favor certain states by pointing to equal state representation in the Senate.
48. National welfare depends on the welfare of the parts
“the good of the whole can only be promoted”
A national government cannot permanently advance the country by deliberately destroying the interests of the states that compose it.
49. Treaty-makers are also bound by the treaties they approve
“equally bound and affected with the rest of the community”
The President and senators do not stand outside the consequences of their decisions. Their families, property, and communities are subject to the same national agreements.
50. Jay considers mass corruption highly unlikely
“As to corruption, the case is not supposable.”
Jay’s confidence may sound optimistic today, but his structural point is that corrupting the President and two-thirds of the Senate would require a remarkably broad conspiracy.
51. A corrupt treaty would be treated as fraudulent
“like all other fraudulent contracts, be null and void”
Jay argues that a treaty obtained through corruption or fraud would not carry the ordinary legitimacy of a valid international agreement.
52. Responsibility rests on more than criminal punishment
“honor, oaths, reputations, conscience”
Officials are restrained not only by formal penalties but also by personal honor, sworn duty, public reputation, and moral judgment.
53. Patriotism and family interests also restrain officials
“the love of country, and family affections”
Jay believes officials have natural reasons to avoid harming the nation in which they and their families must live.
54. Impeachment remains available for serious misconduct
“the article on the subject of impeachments.”
The treaty power does not place the President or other officials beyond constitutional accountability. Serious abuses may still lead to impeachment and disgrace.
Why Federalist No. 64 Works for Highlights
Federalist No. 64 works especially well as a highlights page because John Jay takes a complicated constitutional process and explains the practical reasoning behind it. His argument is that successful treaty-making requires several qualities that do not naturally exist in one institution:
the President provides secrecy, speed, and unified direction
the Senate provides experience, stability, and deliberate examination
the two-thirds requirement prevents narrow majorities from binding the country too easily
and the shared process makes corruption or reckless action more difficult
The paper also contains several ideas that remain highly relevant. Diplomacy still requires confidential negotiations. International opportunities can still disappear within hours. Treaties still depend on national credibility, and no country will make serious agreements with a nation that reserves the right to ignore its promises whenever domestic politics change.
Jay’s argument is not that public officials will always be wise or honorable. It is that the Constitution places treaty power within a structure designed to combine useful abilities, divide authority, and make betrayal of the public interest harder to accomplish.
Related Links
Federalist No. 64 Full Text
Federalist Papers
John Jay
Federalist No. 63
Federalist No. 65