Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-01-08
p RESIDENT's MESSAGE
Elbow CITIZENS OF THE SENATE
AND House OF REPRESENTATIVES

~ -'ioiiudy III lee, and II has been usual for
the PRESIDENT to make communication of a
pubic character TO the Senate and House OF
representatives, until advised of their readiness
TO receive 1t. L have deferred to this usage unit
the close of the first month of the session. but nv
convictions OF duty will not permit me longer to
postpone the discharge of the obligation enioined
oy the Constitution upon the President TO
give TO Congress information upon the state OF
the l mon, and recommend to Their consideration
such measures as he should Judge necessary
and expedient.
1t Is a matter of congratulation that the Re-
public Is TRANQUILITY advancing in the path OF
prosperity and peace
Foreign Relations Central America
" hist relations OF amity cont ue to exist be-
tween the United States and all foreign powers,
with some OF them grave questions depend
ing, which may require the consideration of Con-
gress.
of such questions, the most important is that
which has arisen out of the negotiations with
Great Britain, concerning the affairs Of Central
America. BY the convention concluded between
the two governments, on the 18th of April, 1850,
the parties covenanted that neither will ever
occupy, or fortify, colonze, or assume any
dominion over Nicaraugua, Costa Rica, the
Musquito Coast, any part of Central America
1t was the undoubted understanding of the o.
States, in making this treaty, that all the pres
ent states of the former republic of Central
America would thereUpon enjoy complete
independence, and that both contracting parties
engaged equally to maintain the same thence
forth for the present and the future, and that if
either of them had any claim of right in Central
America, which occupation or authority it
unreservedly rellnqulshed by the stipulations of
the convention, and that no dominion was there
after to be exercised or assumed in any part of
Central America by Great Britain the United
States.
This government consented to restrictions in
rpCrart n ot Wherein We had
specific and peculiar interests, only upon the
conviction that the like restrictions We're in
the same sense obligatory upon both parties
But for this understanding of the force and eff
feet of the convention 1t would never have been
concluded by us. So clear was the understand
ing the part of the United States, that in
correspondence, contemporancous with the rati-
hcatIon OF the convention, 1t was definitely ex-
pressed that the mutual conditions of occupation
We're not intended to app Y to the British es-
talblshment at Balize- This qualification was
to be obligatory.
BY virtue Of previous treaties with the sove-
reigns of the country, Great Britain had obtained
the concession to cut mahogany or dye woods, at
the Balize, but with positive exclusion all do
main or sovereignty, and thus it confirms the
natural construction and understood import of
the treaty, to all the rest of the region to
which the stipulations apply.
1t, however, became apparent, at an early day,
after entering upon the discharge OF my present
functions. that Great Britain sill continued in
the steady assertion Of her authority In all that
part of Central America commonly called the
Musquito Coast. and covering the entire length
of the Stale of Nicaragua, and part Of Costa
Rico that separated tic Balize rs her absolute
domain, and has gradually extended It's limits
at the expense Of the State of Honduras, and
that she had formerly colonized a considerable
iusular group known as the Bay Islands, belong
ing of right TO that State.
All these acts, or pretenSIons OF Great Britain
being contrary to her manifest stipulatlons with
the United States understood by the govern
ment have been made the subject of negotia-
tions through the American Minister al Lon
don. / transmit herewith instructions to him
on the subla and the correspondence between
him and the British Secretary for Foreign At
fairs by which you viii perceive that the Gov
crnments differ widely and irreconCilably as to
the construction of the Convention and lis eff
fects on their respective relations to Central
America.
Great Britain so construes the convention as
10 maintain unchanged all her previous preten-
tious over the Mosquito coast, and III different
parts of Central America These prctentions as
to the Mosquito coast are grounded on the as
sumption of political relations, with the renrent
of tribe of Indians that coast,entered into at
a tiEle when the whole country colonial
possession Of Spain. 1t cannot be successfully Y
coutroyerted that by the public law of Europe
and America no possible act Of such Indians or
any political rights.
Great Britain urged the assent of Spain as
the origin of her claims over the Mosqueto coast.
Sine has, on the contrary, by repeated and sue
cCSsive treatise. renouuced and relInquIshcd all
pretension of her own, and recognized the full
and sovereign rights of Spain in the most I'M
eQuivocal terms. Yet these pretentlons, with
out solid foundation In the beginning, and thus
repeatedly abiured, were at a recent peTicd re-
ncwed by Great Britain against the Central
AmeGic~n State, the legitimate successor TO all
the ancient jurisdiction of Spain in that region.
They were frs, applied only TO a de1ind part OF
tie coast of Nicaragua, after which that and the
whole oI-its Atlantic coast and to Il parj of Cos
Ia Rica. and they are now rc-asserted TO tins
extent, Notwithstanding the engagement en- the
eastern coast of Nicaragua, and Costa Rlca.
The interference Of Great Britain though eN-
erted al one time in the form of military oc-
cupatior of the portion Of San Juan del Norte
then in the peaceful possession of the approprI-
ate authorities of the Central American States
Is now presented by her the rightful exercise
of n protectorate over the Musqueto tribe OF In
dians. But the establishment at the Ballze now
reaching far bevond its true limits into the State
of Honduras, and that of the Bay Islands, ap'
propriating of the right TO the same state are as
distinctly a colonial government as those OF ia
macia or Canada, therefore contrary to the letter
as well the spirit of the convention TO the
[. :. as Ii at the time % the transformation
and now understood by this government
Tie Interpretation which the British govern
ment thus asserts, and preslsts IN asserting t'
( the convention entirely changes its character
While it holds us TO all our stIpulatlons, 1t re-
lieves Great Britain from those which constraln
ed this government 10 entering into the conVen'
ton 1t is impossible in my judgement for th'
United States to acquiesce in this construction
of the respective relations of the two govern
mcnts To the demands of Central Amerlei
calling upon Great Britain 10 abide by and car
~ into effect the stipulations of the convention
to conform TO its obligations by withdrawn:
from her position on the colonization portions o
the Central American State of Honduras, Nc
aragua and Costa Rica, the British govern
ment has at length replied affirmalIvely tha
the treaty is positively and did not re4Qir
Great Britain TO abandon any possessions held b.
her in Central America
To the questions of Its conclusion, this repl.
substitutes partial issue in the case OF the on
presented bv the United States, the Brltls
government passes on the question OF the rlghl
of Great Britain in Central Amerlca, real or su ?
posed and assumes that she had such rights .
the date of the treaty, and that the rights com
, pretended the rrotectorship of the Musqulto In