The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-02-09
.THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS.
SECOND SESSION.
TUESDAY, February s, 1858
SENATE

SENATE.
y The CHAIR laid before the Senate a message from
the President of the United States the Subject of
the northeastern fisheries; which was referred to
the COMMITTEES on Commerce and ordered to be
printed
RHMEDIEs TO PATENTEEs.
The bill giving further remedies to patentees
was taken up. and, being put upon its passage.
Mr.. BAYARD addressed the Senate in oppoai-
ton to the bill; and Mr.. MILLER replied.
The bill was then passed-yeas 81, nays Is.
House bill changing the name of the steamer
Forest City" to Bay City" was taken up and
passed.
HOUR OF MEETING.
MIR. GWIN submitted a resolution providing
that after Monday next the hour of meeting of the
Senate shall be eleven a.. M. Laid over.
TEHuANTEPEc-RoAD TO THE PACIFIC
The Senate proceeded to the consideration OF the
resolutions reported by the Commute on Foreign
Relations, affirming the duty of the Government to
maintain and defend the rights of the American
citizens who are assignees of the Garay grant for
MIR. SEWARD said that for nearly three centu-
ries, beginning with the discovery of America
and continuing down to TITS, the great occupation
of the nations of Western Europe was the colonial.
ton and establishment OF empires in America
Possessions most laboriously planted changed
hands repeatedly under the vicissitudes of In
1888 the work of decoonization commenced.
Great Britain, the best able to retain her colonies
surrendered Them Excepting the Russian posses
sons, North America was then divided between
the United States and the Spanish vice royalties OF
Louisiana and Florida. The United States have
exercised fixed constitutional representative
government, resting upon the foundations of gene
raj education, freedom Of the PRESS religious tole
ration, and the popular safeguards of habeas COR
pus, and the trial by jury. The Spanish provinces
were ruled by foreign despotic power, whose sub
)ects knew nothing of the nature and value of re-
preventative legislation, freedom of conscience,
the securities of personal liberty. The Spanish
provinces had all the elements of wealth which the
United States enjoyed with the additional ones oil
tails. Political power in the United States was
vested in purely European races; in the Spanish
provinces in the aboriginal and mixed races Self
government was successful in the United States
Manufactures, commerce, and population rapidly
increased. The Spanish colonies remained sta
tionary. They caught the passion for independ-
ence, without acquiring any of the political ele-
ments necessary to preserve it.
In 1880 Louisiana was ceded to France, 10 be
transferred shortly after to the United States who
thus acquired the entire property of the banks and
the mouth of the Mississippi, and extended their
domain along the Gulf to the Sabine, leaving to
Spain Florida and Mexico only. Florida soon fol
lowed, Texas next, and the late war resulted in
the extension of our domain from the Arkansas
to the Pacific, and our coast to the Rio Grande.
Mexico was left without single important port or
river either. One idea has led the United States
to the Rio Grande and the Pacifc-another ma
honal idea; the encouragement OF republican in
situations mas dgltdtcO ana enIeeDleQ mexico.
The struggle in Mexico has been between central
power and federal republic, each alternating in
ruling the destiny OF that nation. In 1912 Santa
Anna was in power, and he made this grant,
among others, to Don jose de Garay. z,
Mr. 8. then detailed all the circumstances of the
grant, the condition Of the government at the
time. This grant to Garay was, it was now claim
ed, the property of American citizens, and the
sou ions indicate it to be the duty of the govern
ment to assert and maintain that right.
He thought One-third of the Senate and the
present President would yacate their seats in less
than thirty days, and as the views of the President
elect were not known, these resolutions would
rather embarrass the Senate and the new Presi-
dent if passed, as perhaps they would not meet
his approval.
He repeated the various arguments adduced by
the committee to chow that the American assignees
of the grant had clear, absolute title to the right
of opening communication through the isrhmus
OF Tehuantcpec.
He examined the question of the validity of the
grant to Garay, citing the various DEGREES and the
proceedings of the Mexican Congress, and held it
to have been utterly void-no power to make such
grant having at any time ever been vested in the
Executive authority of Mexico The Congress of
Mexico had lawfully abrogated the decree making
this grant, and that abrogation has never been
waived by Mexico.
He urgently opposed the enforcement of this
claim by the Government. He denied that the
Government was under obligation to its citizens to
compel foreign government TO execute contract
of this nature.
He controverted the position assumed in debate
that the United States have the right to demand
this right of communication under the law of ma
tons. If 30, however, why not assert that right
instead of the right under the Garay grant!
He referred to the various negotiations this
subject, and urged the importance of the Govern.
ment dlssovlng all connexion between its national
objects and private specuations, and approach
Mexico on this subject without any reference to the
Garay grant. Mexico, he believed, would accede
to proposition coming in that spirit
Hot hon said. poH he al hoe -,
for urgency and haste-but there ought to be no
urgency, and there is no ground for haste You
want, first and most, a communication between
New Orleans, Washington, and New York, on the
Atlantic, through your own territory, to San Fran
cisco, on the Pacific The safety of your posses.
sions on the Pacific demands that that thoroue b.
fare shall be altogether inland, and not upon the
ocean-altogetber within your own country, and |
not over ocean routes exposed to all nations, and
over foreign territory occupied by an aggrieved |
and, in the event OF any turn of fortune a hostile
people. You want equally for your own communi- |
cation and commerce, and for Asatic communica- |
ton and commerce, road which, while it shall |
have the advantages of the best harbor at either
end, shall have continuous connection without |
the necessity of transhpment transfer at any
points between the, mart of commerce on the At. |
iantic and the mart of commerce on the Pacific. |
and not away like that of Tehuantepec, whose
ports at both ends are yet to be artificialIv
made, and whose route would be combination Of
land and water carriage, involving the necessity
of breaking bulk not less than three times between
the commercial positions on the respective oceans
If you aiming at high commercial eminence.
you must get it BY laying the foundations broadly
in agriculture, mining, and manufactures upon
your own domain, and by the improvement of the
resources which it yields, and your passage across
the Continent must be through that domain and
not through the domain of foreign country
If you expect to become the carriers between
Europe and Asia, or even the carrier in your own
inter oceanic commerce, you must receive, con-
yey and deliver passengers and freight within the
temperate zone, and not within that zone which,
while its heats noxious to animal and vegetable
productions and deleterious to articles Of COM
merce which are at once most abundant and most
essential to the subsistence of man, are also
Allied with pestilence destructive of human life.
You are told by the advocates of these illstarred
resolutions that railroad across your own do.
main is not feasible; and yet there are in your
very presence, and in the hearing of this debate
the men who have traversed more than one prac-
ticable route, and emigrants annually passing
upon them by thousands. You are told ofits great
length, which it is known will not exceed two
thousand miles. What are two thousand miles of |
railroad to be made by the whole people of the 1
United States, when, through the action of States
and citizens alone, twelve thousand miles have |
already been constructed? The railroads of New
York alone, il stretched out in one continuous
chain, would reach distance two-thirds as great
as that which separates the Mississippi from San |
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