The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-05-29
me Uuitsd States, Central America, and
MexlcO.

The canons of foreign policy which an influential
party is anxious to prescribe TO the Executive Oh the
United States, lend q peculiar interest to every
movement If the cabinet at Washington, which be-
trays tendency To obey or to resist the pressure APP
piled TO it from without. Our latest advices inform
that the President has sent two treaties 70 the
Senate for ratification and both of them indicate
persuasion on the part of Mr.. Pierce that Central
America is the field where the achievements oil his
administration must either disappont or satsIy the
clamorous democracy which it affects to represent.
OF these treaties the first but the least Important,
Is rather an unmeaning instrument, pledsiug tne
United States to perpetual amity with tue n,te re-
public Of San Salvador on the raerr r1a .ae Sc
coId is a stipulation with the temporary Executive OF
Mexico for license to some American cftzens TO
construct railroad across the isthmus OF Iehuan-
epec.
ore of several which have been concluded on behalf
of the United States, with little or no authority by
that turbulent plenipotentiary, MIR. Squier. Appa-
renty the government of President Fillmore regard
ed the negotiations Of this gentleman with the Cen
trail American republic as having been deprived OF
all value by the well known convention agreed to by
Mr. Clayton aud Sir H. Bulwer. Little, therefore,
was heard Of them till Mr. Douglas OF Illinois, In MS
recent speech, proclaimed their vast superiority, in
point OF watchfuness for American interests TO eve
~ previous subsequent engagement to which the
United States have ever acceded. Inc resuscltaton
of OF these treaties by Mr. Pierce derives It's sole
importance from its seeming to follow the lead OF
Senator Douglas defamation, and we observe that
some enthusiastic writers OF the more extreme de-
q promise to set aside what is called an en-
tangling" alliance with European power. But
the policy OF the new government is obviously to
grant much to its partisans as 1t can concede
without compromising itself on the very point upon
which they would urge il to extremities. 1t may be
admitted that logically, the next step to an indie
pendent treaty with San Salvador would be sepa-
rate convention with Nicaragua; nor Is there any
doubt that such engagement as the latter would
be direct violation OF the undertaking with Great
Britain and example of contempt for international
pledges, worthy OF place among the capital III
stances of Punc faith. But, If we have judged Mr.:
Pierce Alright the present sop to " Young America"
is the strongest proof we can have that he Is not
meditating surrender to their clamorous demand
that he should make the Monroe doctrine operate re-
respectively If it had really been intended to
throw the Clayton treaty in the face OF Lord Claren
don, take it that the coup de theatre would not
have been robbed Of the impressive force which 1t
would derive from unexpectedness.
The concession wrung from Mexico on the subject
Of Tehuantepec compromises the public conduct OF
future American governments much more decidedly
than the agreement with San Salvador; and though
President Pierce may not have pinned to 1t any III
terror design it will be beyond his power to mode
rate or modify the results which, in the funess of
time, it must necessarily produce. or the three
routes by which it is proposed to connect the Allan
tic and Pacific, that by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
exhibits by far the iewest intrinsic recommended
TONS The raiway-which is the only mode OF
communication that the character Of the ground ad
mits-will be long, expensive, and difficult OF con-
struction even beyond the ordinary conditions of
inter-oceanc engineering. But, on the other hand,
It's termni will be much closer to the two severed
sections of the United States than those of the rival
routes by Nicaragua and Panama. The traveller
from the Atlantic States, who makes for its eastern
extremity, will avoid the whole of the tedious sea
passage round the peninsula of Yucatan; and it is
calculated that, in the whole journey to San Fran
cisco, he will save nearly two thousand miles, Con-
sidering the vividness with which the advantages
Of speed are appreciated by Americans, there
can scarcely be shadow of doubt that the railway
A. l.
the old States and California, though it should
be costly and inconvenient than the passage by
Panama, and thought should be subject to the draw
back Of coming latest into the field of competition IT,
cacity to that they will draw with taem the fate
of Mexico. The annexation of the entire Mexican
republic is already openly predicted in the United
States; but what will be the feeling OF their citizens
when they are linked together by chain which
passes through Mexican hands The plea of ma
0nal necessity will yoke itself to the call of popular
ambition and even the most reasonable politicians
will fairly ask whether any older community has ever
suffered international duty to stand in the way of
exigencies SO cogent. Ii the only road from Var
mouth to Bristol had lain the space OF country
between the Forth and the Clyde, is it likely that
the junction of the Scottish Lowlands to England
would have been deferred to the accession OF james IL
An unprecedented series Of misfortunes has forced
upon the Mexcans concession which the least
farsighted of them would have set down. under or
binary circumstances the very last to be granted
to the United States. In 1872, General Santa
Anna then President Of Mexico conferred on one
Don Manuel Garay, Mexican citiz61, the priv.
lege of constructing an inter-oeeanic fa1w,across
the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Certain conditions
were prescribed but none OF them were fulfilled
and the grant would have become void If Garay,
during one of the crises of anarchy through which
prolongation OF his term from the pro tempore Dicta
tor, Mariana Saas. Still nothing was done, and
the war with the United States seemed to have vr-
tually destroyed the projectors schemes, when he
~ IF ru1.ta
to an American Spectator in New York. On the
conclusion of peace company, consisting entirely
Of citizens of the United States was formed to con-
struct the railway the terms Of Garay's conces-
sion but it received prompt notice from the
Mexican government that it would not be per-
mitted to proceed. Whatever. wrote the Mexican
Minister, might have been the intention Of his coun
Try as to an undertaking to be executed by Mexican
hands, she was precluded, by every consideration of
political expedencey, from sanctionng the surrender
Of the most important public work In her territory
to subjects of foreign power 1t was doubtful. he
urged whether Don Manuel Garay was entitled TO
ALLEVIATE his privileges at ALL but II was certain that
he could not make them over to citizens OF another
country. The reasons Of the prohibition were no.
thing, however, to the SPECTATORS, who appealed
forthwith to the government OF the United States
for protection to their private interests protract
ed correspondence followed, which was sufficiently
angry in terms but singularly wide Of the real ar
guments by which the conduct OF each party was
swayed. The Foreign Secretary at Washington, who
proessed simply to ask for redress of private in
Justice. must have felt that he was the mere mou
piece Of a cupidity which saw its advantage and
was determined not to let It slip; and the
Mexican Minister, while quibbling on the con-
ditions of the grant to Don Manuel Garay,
must have chafed bitterly all the while at the
diplomatic etiquette which forbade his saying openly
that the urgency Of the United States was nothing
less than the opening act Of public and undisguised
conspiracy. It is probable that, had her affairs pro
ceeded more prosperously, Mexico would have pro-
tracted the negotiation to an indefinite length; but
within the past month, the temporary government,
in the la stage of administrative decrepitude-and
not sorry, perhaps, to bequeath an embarrassing
legacy to the coming dictatorship of Santa Anna
he's agreed on the draft of convention, guarantee
ing the control of the projected enterprise TO the
Anna, however unbounded his personal ambition,
and however unpropitious his star, has certainly a
keen sense of national honor. II remains TO be seen
how far he will retrieve the of his unfortunate
patronage Of parsonage 80 slippery Is Don Manuel