The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House oi
Representatives :
Again the blessings of health and abundant bar-
vests claim our profoundest gratitude to Almighty
God.

T e condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably
satisfactory.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER STATES,

Mexico continues to be a theatre of civil war:
While our political relations with that country have
undergone no change, we have at the same time
strictly maintained neutrality between the belli-
gerents.

At the request of the States of Costa Rica and
Nicaragua, a competent engineer has been authorised
to make a survey of the River San Juan. It is a
source of much satisfaction that the difficulties
which for a moment excited some political appro•
hensions and c tined a clueing of the inter-
oceanic transit route have been amicably ad-
justed, and that there is a good prospint
that the route will soon be reopened with an in-
crease of capacity and adaptation. We could not ex-
aggerate either the commercial or political impart"
anew of that great improvement. It would be doe
itig injustice to an important South American State
not to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and
cordiality with which the 'Malted States of Colom-
bia have entered into intimate relations with this
Government. A Claims Convention has been cell*
stituted to complete the unfinished work of the one
which closed its session in 1861.
The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having
gone into effect with the universal acquiescence of
the people, the Government under it has been re'
cognised, and diplomatic intercourse with it has
been opened in a cordial and friendly spirit.
The long-deferred Ayes Island claim has been
satisfactorily paid and discharged. Mutual Par
ments have been made of the claims awarded by the
late joint commission for the settlement of claims
between the United States and Peru.
An earnest and cordial friendship continues to
exist between the two countries, and such eff.,rts as
were in my power have been used to remove
misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war
between Peru and Spain. Oar relations are of the
most friendly nature with the Argentine Re-
public, Bolivar, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salva-
dor, and Hayti. Daring the past year no differences
of any kind have arisen with any of these Repub-
lics; and, on the other hand, their sympathies with
the United States are constantly expressed with
cordiality and earnestness,
The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo
of the brig Macedonia in 1821 has been paid in full
by the Government of Chili.
Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San
Domingo, apparently without prospect of an early
close.

Official correspondence has been freely open"'
with Liberia, and it gives us a pleasing view of
social and political progress in that Republic. It
may be expected to derive new vigour from Awe'
rican influence, improved by the rapid disappear,*
ante of slavery in the United States.
I solicit your authority to furnish to the Republic
a gunboat at a moderate cost, to be reimbursed to
the United States by instalments. Such a vessel is
needed for the safety of that State against the native
Afiican races, and in Liberian hands it would be

more effective in arresting the African slave trade
than a squadron in our own hands. The possession
of the least organised naval force would stimulate a
generous ambition in the Republic, and the confi`
dence which we should manifest by furnishing it
would win forbearance and favour toward the colony
from all civilised nations.

The proposed overland telegraph between America
and Europe, by the way of Behring's straits and
Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Congress
at the last session, has been undertaken, under very
favourable circumstances, by an association of
American citizens, with the cordial goodwill and
support as well of this Government as of those of
Great Britain and Russia.

Assurances have been received from most of the
South American States of their high appreciation
of the enterprise, and their readiness to co-operate
in constructing lines tributary to that worlthen`
circling communicitions.