Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1856-01-02
MESSAGE.
Feiiop Citizen Of the Senate an:
oTfhe House ef R,pr,s,u.af,rt,

of a public character To the Senate and Hous,
of Representatives until advised of their readi
ness to receive it. have deferred to this usag.
until the close Of the first month Of the session
but my convictions. of duty will not permit M,
longcrt to postpone the discharge of the oblign
ton enjoined by the constitution upon the Presi.
dent Ito give TO Congress Information of tn,
state Of the Union, and recommend to their con
sideration such measures a. he shall judge ne.
cessary and expedient."
1t lisa matter Of congratalation that the Re.
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in a career of pros
perity and peace.
FOREIGN MISUNDERSTANDING AMERrcA..
Whilst relations IF amify continue 10 exist be.
tween the United States and all foreign powers.
with some of them grave questions are depend.
ing, which may require the consideration Of
Congress.
or such questions. the most important is TINT
which has arisen out oftbe negotiations with
Great Britain in reference to Central Ameri-
By the convention concluded between the two
goys rnments on the 10Th of April. 1850. both
parties covenanted, that neither will ever .'oc-
cupy. or fortify, or colon;ze. or assume, any do
minion over. Nicaragua, Costa Rica. the Mos
quito coast, or any part Of Central America.
II was the undoubted understanding of the
United States in making this treaty. that ell the
present States If the former republic of Central
America. and tho entire territory of each. would
thenceforih enjoy complete independence; and
that both contracting parties engaged equally.
and 10 the same extent, for the present and for
the future. that If either then had any claim Of
right in Central America: such claim. and all oe-
~oupation or authority under it. were unrcserved-
IL relinquished by the stipu'ations of the con
yention; and that no dominion was thereafter to
be exercised or assumed in any part Of Central
America, by Great Britain or the United States.
The government con<ented 10 restrictions in
regard TO a region of country, wherein we had
specific and peculiar interests, only upon the
conviction that the like restrictions were in the
same sense obligatory on Great Britain. But
for this understanding OF the force and effectof
the convention, il would never have been cnnclu.
ded by us.
So clear was this understanding on the part
of the United States, that, in correspondence
contemporaneous with the ratification of the
convention, it was distinctly expressed, that the
mutual covenants Of non occupation were not
intended to apply 20 the British establishment ut
the Balize, This qualification is to bo ascribed
TO the fact, that, in virtue of successive treaties
with previous sovereigns of the country, Great
Britain had obtained a concession of the right 10
cut mahogany or dye-woods at the Balize. but
with positive exclusion of all domain or soyer.
eighty; and thus it confirms the natural constrnc-
ton and understood import of the trcnty as TO all
the rest of the region 10 which the stimulations
applied.
1t, however. became apparent, at an early day
after entering upon the discharge of my present
functions, that Great Britain still continued in
the exercise or assertion Of large authority in all
that part Of Central America commonly called the
Mosquito coast, and covering the entire length
of the State of Nicaragua, and part of Costa Ri.
ca that she regarded the Balize as her absolute
domain. aud was gradually extending its limits
at the expense of the State Of Honduras: and TINT
she bad formally colonized a considerable insulnr
group known as the Bay Islands, and belonging.
of right, to that State.
All these acts or prctensions e Great Britain,
being contrary to the rights of the States of Cen.
trial America, and to the manifest tenor oil her
stipulation- with the United States, as under.
stood by this government, have been made the
subject Of negotiation through the American
Minister in London. | transmit herewith the
instructions TO him on the subject. md the cor
respondence between him and the British Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs, by which you will per.
ceive that the two governments differ widely und
irreconcileably as to the construction of the con.
%yention. and its effect on their respective rela-
tions to Central America.
Great Britain 80 eonstrues the convention as
to maintain unchanged all her previous preten-
sions over the Mosquito coast. and in different
H.'P @'hNho' NP'tO iNf' titttIiNlpbFs
as TO the Mosquito coast, are founded on the as
sumption of political relation between Great Bri-
tain and the remnant of a tribe of Indians on that
coast, entered into at a time when the whole
country was a colonial possession of Spain. 1t
cannot be successfully controverted, that, by the
public law of Europe and America. no possible
act OF such Indians or their predecessors could
confer on Great Britain any political rights.
Great Britain does not allege tho assent of
Snnin aa tho oriDin nf har olaiuna a., tba N.aou;,,
coast. She has, on the contrary. by repeated
and successive treaties, renowned and reiinquish-
ed all pretensions of her own, and recognised the
full and sovereign rights of Spain in the most un
equivocal terms. Yet these pretensions, so with.
out solid foundation in the beginning, and thu,
repeatedly ablured. were, at a recent period, re
yiyed by Great Britain against the Central Amer
lcan states, the legitimate successors to all tn
ancient jurisdiction Of Spain in that reg ion. -
They we're FIRST applied only to defined part O
the coast Of Nicaragua. afterwards to the Who'll
of its Atlantic coast. and lastly TO a part of til
coast of Costa Rica and they are now re. assert
ed to this extent, Notwithstanding engagement
to the United States,
On the eastern coast Of Nicara qua and Cost
RIGA, the interference of Great Britain, thong
exerted at one time in the form of militar, occu
patton of the port of San Juan del Norte. then i
the peacefully possession of the appropriate author
tiles of the Central American States. is now pre-
scented by her as the rightful exercise of u pre-
tectorship over the Mosquito tribe Of Indians.
But the establishment at the Balize, now reach
ing far beyond It's treaty limits into the State {
Honduras, and that of the Bay islands, apper
tanning Of right to the same State. are as distinct
ly colonial governments as those of Jamaica o
Canada, and therefore contrary to the very lette
as we'll as the spirit Of the convention With tn
United States, as it was at the time of ratification
mud now is. undprStaol nv this Envarnma,t
The Interpretation which the British govern
ment thus in assertion and act, persists in ascrit
ing to the convention. entirely changes its cha,
acter. While it holds US to all obligations, it i
a great measure releases Great Britain froi
those, which constituted the consideration of ti