Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-01-05
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Read Monday, December 81, 1856.
'eUosc- Citiocns If Tie Senate and

Of the House If Representatives:
The constitution of the United States pro-
vides that Congress shall annually assemble on
the first Monday of December, and it has been
usual for the President to make no communi-
cation of a 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 dnty will
not permit ne longer to postpone the discharge
of the obligation enjoined by the Constitution,
"to give to the Congress information of the
state of the Union, and to recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall deem
necessary and expedient."
1t is matter of congratulation that the repub-
lie is TRANQUILITY advancing in u career of pros
perity and peace.
FOREIGN RELATIoSS-CEETRAL AMERICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign pow
ers, with some of them grave questions are de-
pending, which may require the consideration
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.
Bv the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 10Th of April, 1850,
both parties covenantcd that 81 neither will ever
occupy, or f%ortify, or COLOMBO, or assume or ex-
erciSc any dominion ever Nicaragua, Costa Ri
ca, the Misquito Coast, or any part of Central
America"
1t was the undOubtcd understanding of the
United States, in making this treaty, that all
the present states of the former republic Of
Central America, and the eutire territory of
each. would thenceforth enjoy complete indie
pendence ; 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 America,
such claim, and all occupation and authority
under it, were unrescrvedly relinquished by the
stipulationS Of the convention and that no
dominion was thereafter to be exercised or as
sumed in any part of Central America by eth
er Great Britain or the United States.
This government consented to restrictions in
regard to q region of country where we had
specific and peculiar interests, only upon the
conviction that the like restrictions were in the
same sense obligatory upon Great Britain. But
for this understanding of the force and effect
of the convention, it would never have been
concluded by US.
SO clear was this understanding on the part
of the United States, that, in correspondence
contcmporuncouS with the ratification of the
convention, it was distinctly expressed that the
mutual covenants of n~on-occupation were not
intended to apply to the British establishment
at the Balize. This qualification is to be as
cribed to the fact that in virtue of successive
treaties with previous SovereignS of the coun-
try Great Britain had obtained a concession of
the right to cut mahogany or dye woods at the
Balize, but with positive exclusion of all soye-
reignty or domain and thus it confirms the
natural construction and understood import of
the treaty as to all the rest Of the region to
which the stipulation 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 i'll
all part of Central America commonly called
the Mosquito Coast, and covering the entire
length of the state Of Nicaragua and a part OF
Costa Rica /; that she regarded the Balize rs
her absolute domain, and was gradually extern
ding It's limits. at the expense of the state OF
Honduras; and that she had formally ~coloniz-
ed a considerable insular group known as the
Bay Islands, and belonging, Of right, to that
State. "
Al these acts or preten$ions of Great Brit.