The true Democrat., 1856-02-05
ConoreS Sioual.
Debate in the Senate Central America
 The Monroe Doctrine.

ing been received and read
 Mr. Clayton. Mir. President, rarely sine
 inc origin of this government has an executiy,
 message been sent to this body treating of to
 rcs of more interest and importance than tha
 which is now upon your table, and which ha
 inst been read. l do not rise, sir, for the pur
 nose of discussing the subjects that are em
 praccd in it; that would be contrary to the an
 cient usage ot the body, and 1 am not disposed to introduce any innovations But sir, it does seem to me that there IS one subject presented prominently m the foreground of that message on which 1t may be proper now to say few worls before submitting the ordinary motion to print the message for the use of the Se- nate.
 The President has informed us, in one of the
 first paragraphs of his message, that the most
 important sub jectin the foreign relations of this country is that which is connected with the treaty of the 18th of April, 1850, in regard to the country called Central America. He tells us, after two years at least of laborious pego. tiations with Great Britain, our minister has entirely failed to bring the British government to affair construction of the treaty-such an interpretation of It as one of the British minis ters, at the head of the foreign office. himself construed 1t, since the exchange of ratifications on the 4th of July, 1850. This, the President says, may seriously involve us, and he appre- hends the consequence may be a rupture of our relations with Great Britain. Concurring, generally, in all that the President has said up. on this subject, from hearing 1t read at the ta- ble, desire to make q few remarks in regard to il, for the purpose of showing our countrymen at the same time that the message goes forth to them-the soundness of the grounds upon which the President has undertaken to conduct the negotiations with the governmental Great Britain, the strength of our own position, and the oppressive injustice of the government of Great Britain against us.
 We have never been a nation anxious to break relations of peace with any European country. However 1t may be charged upon Us. the history of our country will show, from the beginning of this government, that we have long and often borne outrageous injuries from other countries, and have been among the last to re- sort to the ~ltlnn ratio Great Britain, on the other hand whenever she is trespassed upon, is prompt to avenge the wrong. She goes to war and breaks up peaceful relations with other governments and countries upon grounds which we have never assumed. She takes up- on herself to break up the peace of Europe by asserting the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Emplre--an Empire in whose territory she has no claim and no direct interest. She goes to war upon the ground that the balance of power ln Europe Is disturbed by the conduct of the government of Russia She assumes to herself the right to regulate the affairs of the world beyond her own territory. We havene- yer made any such assumption.
 It has long been apparent to us, and it was clear to her at the time when we made the trea- ty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and annexed our possessions on the Pacific coast to this country that there was portion of territory outside the limits of the United States in reference to which our interests were peculiar and in regard to which it was impossible for us, consistently with what was due to ourselves to permit any other great maritime nation to occupy it eXclu- svely, so as to enable them to shut us out of it at their will. Sir, with that keenness of saga city which has distinguished British statesmen -and l am sorry to say, too, with that selfish ness which has often characterized them-the very moment Great Britain discovered that we were about permanently to annex to the United States California and New Mexico, she sent an armed expedition from Jamaica, with two ships of war; entered the river San J uan de N cara- gua took the town of that ancient name, called Greytown, stCrmed the fort of Serrapaqu, and proclaimed her own terms to a people who had gallantly but unsuccessfully fought i'll de- tense of their own territory, and have proved themselves our friends in an emergency, for which we oughtto be grateful.
 Sir, 1t is impossible for any man who desires to seek for truth in Investigating this subject to overlook the fact that Great Britain placed her self across all the passages to California in Gen. tral America, just at the moment when she saw the United States were about to acquire Cali fornia and New Mexico. For what purpose was 1t? l do not resort to mere cOincidents al- ways to furnish arguments; but when one so striking as this psesentssi itself to my mind, 1t at least furnishes q substantial reason for de- handing from such government as that of Great Britain why this country was seized, and then seized by them. If, as Lord Palmerston has undertaken to assert, they had title, as al-
 lies of the Mosquito Indians, there for two hun dred years back, why was 1t that they So- lemniy abandoned all pretensions to any part of the country, and dismantled all their forts in obedience to the treaty of l786 with Spain, and repudiated all connection with the Mosquito h. diaus? They afterwards resumed their disre- putable alliance with those miserable barbarlans, and seized their country by force of arms at the critical moment when 1t became necessary for them to hold it as means of obstruction to us "a fence athwart the only passages we had to our Pacific territories.
 Sir, brief history of the events which have occurred relating to that country will fully vin- dicate the statement contained in the Presidents message, and l hope the Senate will pardon me if pass that subject shortly in review When the old English buccaneers first began to inter- rUpt the Spanish possessions in the lsthmus, Great Britain had no title or pretenslons ot title there. Her first claim to mere tenancy at the Belize, under Span was founded on the pos session of these buccaneers. Their usurpatlons of territory without the shadow of title led to the treaty of Paris, of l763 in which she agreel to demolish all the forthcaton they had erected in every part of the country, on condi- ton that they should be allowed to cut haywood. She afterwards violated that treaty, and went into a war with Spain, and In her declaration of that war of l780, assigned this grievance as ground of the war. The result was that ln llS3, after she had vauly attempted to retain her possession there sine made another treaty with Spain, by which she agreed again to leave the country and to abandon the entire isthmus, except the little territory of Belize, where she was only to have the right to cut dyewood and mahogany. She did not then undertake to claim any dominion at the Belize or in any DOT ton of the isthmus The words used in the treaty were, that all the English on the Spanlsh continent should retire q0sthia Me district of Be- . ha
 In the publication which has been made within the last three years by one of the Brit bh Premiers himself, Lord John Russell of the correspondence of Charles James Fox, the Minister in 1703, it seems that at the very time when the British Cabinet made that treaty, agreeing to leave Central America, and in ex- press terms to retire from continent Espagnol," B the Spanish continent) the Prime Minister wrote to the King that the cabinet had resolved to sign the treaty, reserUjng to enaselves the in tentOn afterwards to violate it. MT. Fox and all the cabinet, except Lord Stormont, made it such mental reservation that the words "con- til1ea Espqgnol' might be understood to mean something different from what every body else understood them at that time to mean, as em- bracing the whole of the sthmus Here IS, in art an powNadument DuDlSled