The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-02-04
A PITIFUL DODGE.

A call Of the Senate for information lately
brought to light from the Executive archives
brief correspondence in 1850 between Sir
II. L. Buwer, British Embassador, and Hon.
John NJ. Clayton, then Secretary OF State,
wherein it was agreed that the Nicaragua
Treaty, just before negotiated between them,
did not affect either way the rights of the
British to the Balize territory called by them
British Honduras. IIereupon Mr. Clayton g.
the Wings in power were vehemently assail-
ed by certain Democratic leaders in the
Senate as having betrayed American in
terests, truckled 10 Great Britain,and privately
signed away all that the Nicaragua Treaty
intended to secure and all that secured their
assent to the Treaty.
Thus 20 assailed, Mr.. Clayton submit
ted to the =, C a brief correspondence he
had, in July, 1850, on this very subject, with
Hon. WIN. r. King, then Chairman of the
Senate's Committee of Foreign Affairs,
wherein Mr.. King fully and unequiyocally
affirmed that the Nicaragua Treaty was dis
tnctly understood by the Senate not to af-
feet in any manner the British title or claim
(whatever it may be) to that they call British
Honduras.
The vindication did not stop here. Gov.
Seward followed up Mr.. Clavton's staggering
blow by showing that Gen. Taylor, had, just
before his death, sent Message to the Senate,
officially aPprising them that the Nicaragua
Treaty did not affect nor contemplate the
British claims to the Balize, and that The
National MteHigcncer, when publishing the
Treaty, gave sPmi-official exposition of it,
asserting the same thing. There was more
testimony to the same point--but what need
of it!
Since then, Messrs. Cass, Soule, &C. have
been anxously seeking some escape from the
dilemma in which they had recklessly invov-
ed themselves, by perseyering attempts to in
volve the question in the smoke of false
issues. That the 'Bay Islands, off Honduras,
which Great Britain has recently assumed to
make a Colony OF, are no part of the Ba!ize
territory-thut the rights Of Great Britain at
the Balize are illusory or limited or only
pOssessory and temporary-that her ter
,rjtorial pretensieBs IN that quarter have heen
unwarrantably extendcd--that she has not in
other respects complied with her stipulations
in the Nicaragua Treaty--that she ought ere
this to have withdrawn from the Mosquito
territory, &C., &c.--have all been asserted
and talked about, with the obvious intent Of
breaking the force OF Mr.. Kings letter and
the testimony as to the cotemporaneous ex-
position of the Nicaragua Treaty embodied
in Gov. Stewards Speech.
Gentlemen! it won't do! You have made
=, Ia nm NJ Clov,on
and the Administration of which he formed a
part, and have been singaly discounted. You
have not leg left to stand on. And you will
not be able to draw the Wings into the posi-
tion of apologists for any actual infringement
of the Nicaragua Treaty which Great Britain
has been guilty Of All the complaints you
now nuke are founded on the provisions of
that very Nicaragua Treaty you now proclaim
so worthless, unless it includes the Baize. If
Great Britain has violated the Treaty, hold
her to a strict responsibility! You have
already both branches. and will soon have
the Executive also. Make her justify or
retract her alleged seizure of the Bay Islands,
her failure to abandon her Mosquito protege,
&c, &c, but do not seek to cover your retreat
from the Clayton foray by any sham fight
with her. And do not further reiterate the
fulsehood that Mr.. Clayton has conceded the
British supremacy at the Baze. Whatever
rights Great Britain may have had before the
Nicaragua Treaty she still possesses, and
nothing more. If she had none then, she
has none now; if she had only temporary
right to cut logwood before, she has no more
since. Settle one question at time, and all
will be clear; but don't go lodging under
every log and root, like fish with hook in
his lhroat.-N. Y. Tribune.
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