Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1856-01-09
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

PRESIDENTS NESSAGE.
FELLOW Citizens Of tile Senate and Of tile
House o( Representatives
The Constitution of the United States
provides that Congress shall assemble an
nually on the first Monday Of December,
and it has beeu usual FOR the President TO
make no communication Of a public charac.
ter to the Senate and House Of representa-
tives until advised OF their readiness 10 re-
ceive it. have deferred 10 this usage until
the close of the first month of the session
but my convictions of duty will not per-
nit me longer to postpone tho discharge
Of the obligation enjoined by the constiru-
ton upon the President " to give to the
Congress information Of the State of the
Union, and recommend to their consider
alton such measures as he shall Judge
necessary and expedient."
It1is matter Of congratuIation that the
Republic is TRANQUILITY advancing in ca
reer of prosperity.
FOREIGN RELATIoNS-CENTRAL AMERICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to
exist between the United States aud all
foreign powers, with some of them grave
questions are depending. which may re-
quire the consideration of Congress.
OF such questions, the most important
is that, which has arisen out of the negoti.
ations with Great Britain in reference to
Central America.
By the convention concluded between
the two governments on the 10Th Of
April 1850. both parties coVenanted, that
neither will ever' " occupy, or fortify,
or colorize, or assume or exercise any
dominion over, Nicaragua, Costa Rjca.
the Mosquito coast, or any part Of Cen
tral America"
1t was the undoubted understanding Of
the United States, in ma king this treaty,
that all the present States OF the former
republic uf Central America, and the en-
tire territory of each, would Lhenceforth
enjoy complete independence and that
both contracting parties engaged equally,
and to the same extent, for the present
and for the future that ii either had any
claim Of right in Central America, such
claim, and all occupation or authority un-
der it, were unleservedly relinq ulshcd by
the stipulations Of the convention and
that no dominion was thereafter to be ex-
ercised or assumed in any part OF Central
States.
This government consented to r. trio
tions in regard 10 ~ region Of country,
wherein we had specific and peculiar in
terests, only upon the conviction that the
like Restrictions were in the same sense
obligatory on Great Britain. But for this
understanding of tho force and effect Of the
convention, it would never have been con-
cluded by US.
So clear was this understanding on the
part OF the United States, that, in cores
pondcncc ccontemporancous with the ralii-
cation OF the convention, it was distinctly
expressed, that the mutual covenants of
non. occupation were not intended to apply
to the British establishment at the BaIize.
| This qualification is TO be ascribed to the
fact, that, in virtue Of successive treaties
with previous sovereigns Of the country
Great Britain had obtained Il concession ol
the right to cut mahogany or dycowoods at
the BAiizc but with positive exclusion Of all
domain or sovereignty and thus it con,
firms the nature construction and under
stood import of the treaty as to all the
rest Of the region to which the stpuIatiou>
applied.
1t, however, became apparent, at an
early day after entering upon the dis
charge Of my present functions, that Great
Britain still continued in the exercise OF
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 Rica; that she regarded the
Balze as her absolute domain, and was
gradually extending its limits at the ex,
pense Of the State of Honduras and tha,
she had formally colonized considerable
insular group known as the Bay Islands
and belonging, of right, to that State.
All these acts or pretensions Of Great
Britain, being contrary to the rights of the
States of Central America, and to the
manifest tenor of her stipulations with
the United States, as understood by this
government, have been made the subject
OF negotiation through the American Min
lister in London. l transmit herewith the
instructions to him on the subject, aud the
correspondence between him and the Bri
tish Secretary for Foreign Affairs, by
which you will perceive that the two 60
Ternments differ widely and irreconcile
ably as to the construction of the conven,
ton, and its effect on their respective rela
tlons to Central America.