The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-01-03
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Felton, Citizens of the Senate
and the H0nse of Renrese,,I


and cfMe House Of Representatives
The Constitution of the United States provides
that Congress shall assemble annually Oh the
first Monday of December, and it has been
usual for the President to make no cornmupica.
ton OF public character to the Senate and
House of Representatives until advised of their
readiness to receive it. i have deferred to this
usage until the close of the first north Of the
session, but my convictions of duty will not
permit me longer to postpone the discharge of
the obligation enjoined by the Constitution
upon the President to give to the Congress
information of the state of the Union, and rec
ommend to their consideration such measures
as he shall judge necessary and expedien."
1t is matter of congratulation that tie Re-
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in career of
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN REIATIONS.-CENTRAL AMERICA
Whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign Pow
ers, with some of them grave questions are
depending, which may require the eonsidera-
ton 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.
BY the convention concluded between the
two Governments on the 10Th of April, 1850,
both parties covenanted, that "ne5ther will
ever " "occupy, or fortify, or colon'ke, or as.
sumo or exercise any dominion over, \ tcayagua,
Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or aSS part of
Central America" -
1t was the undoubted understand xag of the
United States, in making this treat that all
the present States of the former Repul lie of Cen
trail America, and the entire territors of each,
would thenceforth enjoy complete tndepend-
ence; and that both contracting par les enga-
ged equally, and to the same extept, for the
present and for the future; that if G ther then
had any claim of right in Central A M rica, such
claim, and all occupation or authority under it.
we're unreservedly relinquished by the stipula-
tons of the convention and that no dominion
was thereafter 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 country wherein we had
specific and peculiar interests, onl I, upon the
conviction that the like restrictions rere in the
same sense obligatory on Great Bxtain. But
for this understanding of the force>tsnd effect
of the convention, it would never have been
concluded by us.
So clear was this understanding ~ the part
of the United States, that, in correspondence
contemporaneous with the ratification of the
| convention, it was distinctly expr ssel, that
the mutual covenants of non-occuIA tien we're
not intended to apply to the British establish
ment at the Balize. This qualifcat on is to be
ascribed to the fact, that, in virtut' of success
sive treaties with previous sovereisn of the
country, Great Britain had obtained a conces-
sion of the right to cut mahogany cedys-woods
at the Balize, but with positive exclusion of all
domain or sovereignty and thus 1t confirms
the natural construction and unders pod import
of the treaty, to all the rest of tbs region to
which the stipulations applied.
1t, however, became apparent, It an early
day after entering upon the discharge of my
present functions, that Great Britain sill con-
tinued in the exercise or assertion Of large an.
thority in all that part of Central ApSeriea COM
monty called the Mosquito Coast, a:A covering
the entire length of the State of Nicaragua, and
part of Costa Rica that she RI Ssrded the
Balize as her absolute domain, and was gradu-
ally extending its limits at the EXPENSE of the
State of Honduras and that she B,d formally
colonized a considerable insular gfaup, known
as the Bay Islands, and belonging. IF right, to
| that State.
All these acts or pretensions of CT Eat Britain,
being contrary to the rights of tbs States OF
Central America, and to the MANIFEST ienor OF
her stipulations with the United States, as
understood by this Government, havA been made
the subject OF negotiation through til Aperican
Minister in London. transmit wreRith the
instructions to him on the subject, nd the cor.