Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-12-21

the trade. IL was reSarueu DIS Tue IiSul Oh
search presented in different form, and
expressed in different works; and | there
fore felt it to be my duty distinctly to de-
clare, in my annual message to Congress,
that no such concession would be made, and
| that the United States had both the will and
| the ability to enforce their own laws, and
to protect their flag from being used for
| purposes wholly forbidden by those laws,
and obnoxious to the moral censure of the
world. Taking the message as his letter
! of instructions, our then Minister at Paris
felt himself required to assume the same
ground in remonstrance which he felt it
to be his duty TO present to NJ. Guizot, and
through him to the king of the French,
against what has been called the Quintuple
treaty; and his conduct, in this respect, met
with the approval af this Government. In
close conformity with these views, the
eighth article Of the treaty was framed
which provides "that each nation shall
keep afoat in the African seas, a force not
less than eighty guns, to act separately and
apart, under instructions from their rcspec
tive laws and obligations. Prom this ii
will be seen that the ground assumed in
the message has been fully maintained, al
the same time that the stipulations Of the
treaty of Client are to be carried out in
good faith by the two countries, and that all
pretence is removed for interference with
our commerce, for any purpose whatever
by foreign government. While, there
fore the United States have been standing
up for the freedom Of the seas, they have
not thought proper to make that preteXt
for avoiding the fulGlment Of their treaty
stipulations, or a ground for giving coun-
tenance to trade reprobaied by our laws.
A similar arrangement by the other great
powers, could not fail to sweep from the
ocean the slave trade, without the interpo-
lation of any new principle into the mara
time code. We may be permitted to hope
that the example thus set will be followed
by some if not all of them. We thereby
also afford suitable protection to the fair
trader in those seas, thus fulfilling at the
same time the dictates Of sound policy, and
complying with the claims Of justice and
humanity.
1t would have furnished additional cause
for generalization; if the treaty could have
embraced all subjects calculated in future to
lead to a misunderstanding between the
two governments. The territory of the
United States, commonly called the Oregon
} Territory, lying on the Pacific ocean, north
of the AID degree of latitude, to a portion
of which Great Britain lays claim, begins
to attract the attention of our fellow citi-
zens, and the tide Of population which has
reclaimed what was SO lately an unbroken
wilderness, in more contiguous regions, is
preparing to flow over those vast districts
which stretch from the Rocky mountains to
the Pacific ocean. In advance of the ac-
quirement Of individual rights to these lands
sound policy dictates that every effort should
/ be resorted to by the two governments, to
settle their respective claims. 1t became
manifest at an early hour of the late nego-
tiations, that any attempt for the time being
satisfactorily to determine those rights
would lead to protracted discussion, which
might embrace in its failure other more
pressing matters, and the Executive did not
regard it as proper to waive all the advan-
tages of an honorable adjustment Of other
| difficulties of great magnitude and import
ance, because this, not so Immediately
| pressing stood in the way. Although the
difficulty referred to may not for severa!
! years to come involve the peace of the two
countries, yet | shall not delay to urge upon
| Great Britain the importance Of its early
settlement. Nor will other matters of COM
| mercial Importance to the two countries be
overlooked; and have good reason to be-
lieve that it will comport with the policy of
England, as it does with that of the United
States, to seize upon this moment, when
| most of the causes of irritation have passed
away, to cement the peace and unity Of the
two countries by wisely removing all ground
of probable future collision.
With the other powers Of Europe our re-
lations continue on the most amcable foot
| ing. Treaties now existing with them,
should be rigidly observed, and every op-
portunity compatible with the interests of
the United States, should be seized upon to
enlarge the basis of commercial intercourse.
Peace with all the world is the true foun-
daton of our policy, which can only be rem
dered permanent by the practice of equal
and impartial justice to all. Our great de-
sire should be to enter only into that rival
ry which locks to the general good, in the
cultivation of the sciences, the enlargement
of the field for the exercise of the mechan-
ical arts, and the spread of commerce.
that great civilizer-to every land and sea.
Carefully abstaining from interference in
all questions exclusively referring them
selves to the political interests Of Europe,
we may be permitted to hope an equal ex-
empton from the interference of European
Governments, in what relates to the states
of the American continent.
On the Odd of April last, the commits
sioners on the part of the United States,
under the convention with the Mexican
Republic, of the llth of April 1889, made
to the proper department final report in
relation to the proceedings of the commits
sion. From this it appears that the total