The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-01-04

CIT 9ailg 5onrnal,
The Presidents Message.
Fellor,eitissrs Of liz Senate


vides that Congress shall ASSEMBLE annually
Oh the first Monday of December, and it has
been usual for the President to make no COM
of public character to the Senate
and House of Representatives until advised OF
their readiness TO receive it. / have deferred
to this usage until the close of the first month
of the session, but my convictions of duty
will not permit me longer to postpone the dis
charge of the obligation enjoined by the con-
stitution upon the President ITO give to the
Congress information of the state of the Union,
and recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and ex-
pedient'
1t is matter of congratulaticn that the Re-
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in career of
prosperity and peace. s<..l....
FOREIGN RELATIoNs.--CENTRAL AnfRIeA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign
powers, with some of them grave questions
are depending, which may require the conside-
ration of Congress.
OF such questions, the most important is
that which has arisen out of the negotiations
with Great Britain in reference to Central
America. .2 .
By the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 18th of April, 1850
both parties covenanted, that "neither will
ever occupy, or fortfy, or coloniZe, or assume,
or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast or any part of
Central America" y
1t was the undoubted understanding III the
United States, in making this treaty. that all
the present States of the former republic of
Central America, and the entire territory of
leach would henceforth enjoy complete indie
Ipendence; and that both contracting parties
engaged equally, and to the same extent. for
the present and for the future; that if either
then had any claim of right in Central Anne
rica such claim, and all occupation or authori-
/ ty under it, were unreservedly relinquished
by the stipulations of the convention; and that
no dominion was hereafter to be exercised or
assumed in any part of Central America, by
Great Britain or the United States
| This government consented to restrictions
in regard to region of the 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 effect of the convention, it would
never have been concladed by US!
SO clear was this understanding on the part
tof the United States, that in correspondence
cohtemporaneous with the ratification of the
convention, it was distinctly expressed that
the mutual covenants of non-occupatien were
not intended to apply to the British establish
lment at the Balize. This qualification is to
be ascribed to the fact, that, in virtue OF sue
cessive treaties with previous soyereigns ol
the country, Great Britain had obtained con-
Icession of the right to cut mahogany or dye
woods at the Balize; but with positive exclu-
Fsion of all domain or sovereignty; and thus il
lconfirms the natural construction and under
stood import of the treaty as to all the rest o.
the region to which the stipulations applied.
b Eft, however became apparent, at an early
| day after entering upon the discharge of my
present functions, that Great Britain still con
tinued in the exercise or assertion of large au-
thority IN all that part ofCentral America com
Imonly called the Mosquito coast, and covering
the entire length of the State Of Nicaragua
and part Of Costa Rica; that she regarded the
| Balize as her absolute domain, and was gradu-
ally extending its limits at the expense of the
State of Honduras; and that she had formally
Icolonized considerable insular group known
as the Bay islands, belonging, of right, to thai
i State. .1s - s.-ua5ol s,i3z5-c2s-l..
! All these acts or pretensions of Great Brit
Iain being contrary to the rights of the States
I of Central America, and to the manifest tenor
lof her stipulations with the United States, as
understood by this government, have beer
lmade the subject of negotiation through ths
American Minister in London. | transmit
herewith the instructions to him on the sub
zIiect. and the correspondence between him an6
Il the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, By
which YOU will perceive that the two govern
ments differ widely and rreconcileably as to tn
construction of the convention, and its effect Oh
their respective relations to Central Amer
lea. ssf.a e.tt as97tsss s1azf 5stss-ss Ts4
Great Britain so constrnes the convention
las to maintain unchanged all her previous pre-
tensions over the Mosquito coast and in differ
lent parts of Central America. These preten
Isions, as to the Mosquito, coast are foundet
lon the assumption of political relations betweel
Great Britain and the remnant of a tribe of In
Idians on that coast, entered into at tim
when the whole country was colonial poss
lession of Spain. 1t cannot be successfully con
. troverted, that, by the public law of Europ
e land America, no possible act of such Indian
lor their predecessors could confer on Grea
: Britain any political rights. ta bsHa -5
: Great Britain does not allege the assent {
= dSpain as the origin of her claims on the Mos
-lquito coast. She has, on the contrary. by re
+ lpeated s.2d successive treaties, renounced ant
IrellnQQiSneQ ali preIeHSioiiS VI nci o".i ~AA'
Irecognisad the full and sovereign rights Q
: lSpain in the most unequivocal terms. Ye
these pretensions so without solid foundation j
Z the beginning, and thus repeatedly abjured
were at a recent period revived by Great Brit
: ain against the Central American States, tn
!, lepit;mate successors to all the ancient juris
6 diction of Spain in that region. They wer
first applied only to defined part of the coas
: of Nicaragua, afterwards to the whole of ii
Atlantic coast, and lastly to "a part oftne coas
of Costa Rica; and they are now reasserted I