The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-01-11

honorable Senator from Alabama, (Mr. King)
who at the time was chairman OF the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and alleged that that gentle
man had told him that he had supposed until that
day that the project of accepting the Queen of Eng
lands qualification of the construction ofthe treaty
had been abandoned, and that the convention stood
without such qualification on it's original provi-
sions.
The honorable Senator from Louisiana Mr.
DowNsl said thathe thought the whole object of
the convention was to get the British out of Gen.
traf America; and that it was only assurances
given by Mr.. Clayton himself that this was the
effect of the convention that he and others, so far
as he knew, voted for il.
The Senator from Ohio quoted from geographi-
cal work a description of Central America, and
affirmed that he and the Senate understood that all
the region thus described included in the con-
yention.
The honorable Senator from California declared
that he was astonished to hear the Senator from
Louisiana say that he surprised at any thing,
however stupid, that might be done by the late
Secretary of State, MIR. Clayton, and that he Mr..
WELLER) had never known Mr.. Clayton TO have
any connection with any public affair in which ne
did not show himself excessively stupid, to say the
least va3 8
MIR. President, shall endeavor to show that
these censures groundess and unintentonally
unjust
First Granting but only for the sake of argu
Inent that the facts stated true, ahall show
that the hansaction is not unprecedented IN diplo
macy. The ninth article of the treaty of Guada-
lupe Hidalgo, as signed by the negctiators, was
struck out by the Senate and another was substi-
tuted in its stead. The Congress of Mexico refused
to ratify it because it had thus been changed, as
they said, in vital part. The Secretary of State,
MIR Buchanan, by direction of the President, Mr..
Polk, without the consent or knowledge of the Sen
ate signed and delivered protocol, declaring
that the suppression and substitution was not un-
derstood by the United States to diminish what had
been stipulated before, and thereupon the treaty
VIVA nd han cred.
do not say here that that transaction was wrong,
or that whether wrong or right it justified Mr..
Clayton. All do say is, that even if Mr.. Claytou's
misconduct had been such as is alleged Is, never
theless, not unprecedented in diplomacy.
Secondly. shall attempt to show that the me-
mories of the complaining Senators are at fault,
and that neither the whole nor the chief object of
the convention was not, as they now suppose they
then understood, to get the British out of Central
America. The preamble declares its object to be
to s.set forth and fix the views and intentions of
the two sections with reference to any means of
communication by ship canal which may be con-
structed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
by way of the river San Juan de Nicaragua and
either or both of the lakes of Nicaragua" This
preamble, together with the quotations from the
convention before made, show that the United
States had very different obj ct from that de
scribed by the Senators unless are TO suppose
that the Uned States had really in view partial,
narrow, and selfish object, while they held out to
the other contracting party, and to the world, that
they had in view different, broad, comprehen-
sive, and benefcent one; which, of course, is not
to be admitted.
Senators at fault again, and that they did not,
when approving the convention, understand it to
include all Central America as they have de
scribed Central America. The region about the
isthmus which divides North and South America
is but thinly settled by Europeans and their de
scendants and therefore. as yet, very imperfectly
known to Europe and in the United States; and
there is an ever-recurring confusion of names, rs
:, ~ 10 ha>> in ,I,nhr
America employed in the convention has double
sense-a geographical sense and political one
and they are widely different
America is divided, geographically, into North
America, South America, and Central Ameri-
ca. Central America, geographically, is that
part of this great continent which lies between
and connects North and South America t. ge-
Their. The name is applied in this view in the
description quoted by the Senator from Ohio
and so geographical Central America does include
not only Honduras and the British coast, with the
five Central American States, but also the depart
ments of Darien and Panama, and Vereuua in
New Granada, and the whole or parts of six of the
States of the United States of Mexico. Other
geographers apply the name still more broadly,
and embrace all the regions extending from lati
tude 7 north to latitude 26 north; and so embrace
not only the isthmus of Tehuantepec, but the CAPT.
tai of Mexico, Coahuila, and TamaUlipas, and
even part of Texas in our own Republic.
On the other hand, the name of Central America
hss political sense, and means five States on the
isthmus, lying between New Grenada on the south
and Mexico on the north; which, under the names
of Costa RIGA, Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala
and Honduras, confederated themselves when they
became independent of Spain, and established a
republic, called the Federal Republic of Central
America. In the commissions of that region that
union has been displaced; but the name acquired
by it still hangs around those States, and they
and they alone are the States described politically
in books Biographies, and otherwise as the States
of Central America. Now, did the convention use
the name Of Central America in its geograph cal
sense, did they it in it's political sense?
Certainly in its political For, if they used
it in its geographical sense, then it may as well be
insisted that the convention embraces all between
seven and twenty six degrees of north latitude,
as that it embraces all between seven and
twenty two degrees of north latitude; and this
would be to make it embrace part of the
United States, which would be absurd. The geo.
graphical Central America, whether broad or
narrow, embraces the regions which contain
the three celebrated passages from ocean to ocean,
viz, Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec; and
if that be the view in which the name Central
America is used in the convention, then the stipu.
latfons are already made between the two nations
for the construction and maintenance of canals
or railway passages across all those routes But |
the convention, on the contrary, confines its care
to the Nicaragua route, and pospones to future |
day the making of stipulatons in regard to the two
other routes OF Panama and Tehuantepec.
The use of the term tsCentral American States, ,,
in the 9th article is equivalent to and illustrates
the meaning of the term Central America in the |
ritory which is to be made neutral, names two |
States of the Central American States in the vici
nifty of the canal-Nicaragua and Costa Rica-and
then adds or any part of Central America; thus
clearly impl ying thatit political Central Anne
RIGA that was intended 1t was, then, not geogra.
phical. but political Central Arnerica that was in
cluded in tie convention, and the Senators must
have understood it when they approved it. unless
We suppose them to have been indifferently in
formed that their opinions of value, which
is not to be supposed for moment. rrf
/ shall endeavor to convince those honorable
Senator's that their memories still further al
fault and that ichen they approved the convention
they did not under stand it TO include British Hondu-
the Belize and its dependencies achic are the
same agrtg IS 80 10 ~ -F-aes 4.5}s-.s
5 Like ssCenlral America the name Honduras
has also geographical sense and political sense.
Geographical Honduras ia all Honduras from the |
borders of Salvador to the Caribbean sea, and in
cludes Spanish Honduras and British Honduras. |
just the name Virginia long stood orthe whole
Atlantic border from Carolina to Canada But
political Honduras is the ancient province or in
tendancy of Spanish Honduras, it was when it
separated from Spain and became the State of
Honduras and entered the federairepublic of Cen.
trail America, and it came out of the federal re-
public on its dissolution, and as it has remained
hitherto, and is now, the State of Honduras. And
that State, in every book of geography, and on
every map, in every atlas, is DIVIDED and sepa-
atedf y,1o 10 ev,d