The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-01-11
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
FellOlp CiLirenS Of Lhs Se,inte and

| - 80 100 "NhNhl WI I'fNCulpti1 Wlh ~
been usual for the President to make no CON
munication of a public character to the Sen
ate aud House OF Representatives until ad
vised of their readiness to receive IT,. hav,
deferred this usage until the close OF tn
first month of the session, but my c0nviction
at duty will not permit me longer to post
pone the discharge of the obligation enjnin
ed By the constitution upon the President 'tt
give to Congress information of the state o
the Union, and recommend to their consid
Grafton such measures ms he shall judge ne
cessary and expedient" t..l' rH. N.
1t is matter of congraiulalion that tn,
Republic is tranquility advancing in caree
Of prosperity and peace.
Whilst relations OF amity continue to ex
| st between the United States and all foreigr
powers, with some of them grave question,
are depending, which may require the consd
Grafton of Congress.
Or snch 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 dnv of April
1850, both parties covenanted, that 'neither
will ever occupy or fortify, or colonize. or as'
sumo, or exercise any dominion over Nicarl.
qua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any
part of Central America" ai"
1t was the undoubted understanding of
the United States in making this treaty, that
all the present States Of the former republic
Of Central America, and the entire territory
of each, would thencetorth enjoy complete
Independence, and that both contracting par.
ties engaged equally, and to the SAME extent,
for the present and for the future, that IL
either then had any claim of right in Central
America, such claim, and all occupation or
authority underit, were unrcservedly relin-
quished by the stipulations of the conven-
tion, and that no dominion was thereafter to
be exercised or assumed in any part Of
Central America, by Great Britain or the Uni
ted States. ., ''sH r
The government consented to restrictions
in regard to 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
elect of the conviction, it would never had
been concluded by us.
So clear was this understanding on the part
Of the United States, that, in correspondence
contemporane0us with the ratification of the
convention, it was distinctly expressed, that
the mutual covenants of non.uccup itiOn
were not intended to apply to the British es-
tablisIment at the Balize. This qualification
is to be ascrbed to the fact, that, in virtue of
successive treaties with previous sovereigns
of the country, Great Britain had obtained
concession of the right TO cut mahogany or
dye-woods ut the Balize but with positive
exclusion of all domain or sovereignty; and
thus it confirms the natural construction and
understood import of the the treaty as to all
the rest Of the region to which the stipula-
tons applied. .
1t, 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 II large
authority in all that part of Central America
commonly called the Mosquito coast, and coy
ering the entire length OF the State OF Mica.
ragua, and part of Costa Rica; that she re-
garded the Balize as her absolute domain,
and was gradually extending her limits at
the expense of the State of Honduras; and
that she had formally colonized II consd-
erable insular groupe known as tile Bay
Islands, aud belonging of right to that
State.
All these act or prctensions of Great Brit
ain being contrary to the rights OF the Stairs
of Central America, and to the manifest tenor
of her stipuations with the United States, rs
by this government, have been
the subject of negotiation through the Amer
lean Minister in London. transmit herewith
to him on the subject, and the
between him aud the British
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, by which you
will perceive that the two governments differ
widely and rreconcicaby as to the construc-
lion,and its effect on their respective relations
in Central America. s
Great Britain so construcs the Convention
rs to maintain all her previous pretensons
over the Mosquito coast, and in the different
PARTS of Cen raj America. These pretcnsons,
rs to the Mosquito coast, are founded on the
OF political relation between
Great Britain and the remnant of u tribe of
Indians on that coast, entered into Mt time
when the whole country was colonial pos.
session OF Spain. II cannot be successfully
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 the assent OF
Spain as the origin OF her claims on the Mos
luito coast. She has on the contrary by re-
Ieated and successive treaties, renounccd aud |
'cinquished all pretenSlons of her own, and
.ecngnized the full and sovereign rights |
II Spain in the most equivocal terms.-
Yet these pretensions, so without solid ioun-
lation in the beginning, and Thus repeatedly |