The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-03-22

cared policy of his Government, and violating
| the instructions given to him by Mr. Blu
cHANAN, who proposed to afford the advan
tage of communication at a moderate toll t
all nations. This was not the sole fault 0
the treaty. Its monopolising privileges were
bad, but they formed only a small part of it
badness. 1t proposed that the Government O
the United States should construct canal in a
foreign country, and, failing this, that the Pre-
sident or Congress should issue charter OF
act of incorporation for the purpose; both pro-
positions being essentially unconstitutional
Yet further, Mr.. HlsE proposed that the United
States should enter into an alliance, offensive
and defensive, with Nicaragua, to protect her
Sin the possession and exercise of the sovereign
ty and dominion of all the country, coasts,
ports, lakes, rivers, and territories that may
be rightfully under the jurisdiction and within
the just and true limits and boundaries Of
the said State" That would have been
an entangling alliance" indeed, and one
from which war would almost inevitably
have resulted. AS Judge DOUGLAS has taken
pains to applaud this product of Mr.. HIsE's
diplomacy, and to declare his preference
tor 1t over the treaty now in operation, we
| quote from Mr.. CLAYToN's remarks to show
how little judgment has tempered the zeal of
editors and orators who have followed in the
wake Of the Senator from Illinois:
| "Mr. Polk, in his message to the Senate when
| transmitting the treaty which provides for the
| protection of the Panama railroad, that the pro-
&c d. -l-IJl 90
fies that treaty the ground that it is treaty for
commercial purposes merely, and not treaty for
| political alliance, which he admits would have
been fatal to its confirmation. On the very prin-
ciples laid down by Mr.. Polk in that message, it
is impossible that he could ever have assented to
the ratification of Mr.. Hises treaty.
sc have quoted but part of the twelfth article.
The other provisions of that articear not only en-
tangling but entangled. If understand the arti.
Gle at ALL it provides that we shall not support Mica
ragua in her wars of aggression outside of her just
limits; yet the naval and military forces, and the
entire means and resources of both the contracting
parties shall be employed 'to put down all wars
| and bloodshed arising therefrom,' and to sup
press all violations of the peace and interruptions
of the neutrality of the State of Nicaragua; that
| is to say, if Nicaragua should go to war outside
OF her own limits, we bound to fight till we
put down the wars and bloodshed arising from
them; and Nicaragua is to help US to do that; for
| not only our entire means and resources, (that
is, all we have in the world, or can possibly get,)
but all she has or can procure shall be employed
for the common purpose. We are also bound to
suppress all violations of the peace within her
limits, to effect which we must have kept an army
there The twelfth article then proceeds to de-
clare sfor further explanation, it is understood
hiatt }haC fofo
volved in [just] war with any foreign power or
neighboring State within her own borders, to de-
fend the territories rghtfully belonging TO her, or
to recover such territories wrongfully wrested
from her, the United States engage to aid and de-
fend Nicaragua in carrying on such war within
be. own rightful limits Comment upon this
provision of MIR. Hise's treaty would seem to be
an inexcusabe waste of time.
"There other articlesi in this treaty sufficient
ly absurd to condemn it. But if l have not already
shown enough for that purpose, feel that it would
be useless to refer to any others. Is there man in
this Senate who will dare to stand up and say he
would have voted for it? Not one And if the
whole Senate had voted for such treaty it could
never have been ratified, either by President Polk
or by President Taylor If the President had rati.
fed it on our part, we know it never could have
become treaty; for the government of Nicaragua,
when this treaty was presented to it by Senior
Selva, the commissioner who signed it with Mr..
Hise, utterly disapproved it, and refused to rafy
it. Ofthis fact all were fully apprized by the pub.
lshed letter of Mr.. Carcache, the charge d'affaires
accredited to our Government by that of Nicara.
qua, addressed to the Secretary of State on the 3lst
of December, 1S49."
Mr.. CLAYTON shows that one of the main
objections urged by Judge DoUGLAs to the
Squer treaty is equally applicable to that ne
gotiated in Mr.. PoLK's term with New Grana-
da. Mr.. PoLK's treaty threw the Panama
route 'open TO all nations on the same terms.''
The CLAYToN-BULwER treaty makes the
Nicaragua passage free to all nations on the
same TERMS" providing for the neutrality of
the territory of all the Central American States.
liberating them from the dominion of Great
Britain, and, while recognising the title of
Guatemala, entering into no alliance in her
behalf. ...