Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1856-01-12

s,isw-eittseas Of the Senate aud

ietp'toeftteb'e't''
The constitution of the United States pro-
vides that Congress shall assemble annually
on the first Monday of December, and 1T has
been usual for the President to make no COINS
municaton Of public character to the SEN
ate and House of Representatives until a.-
vised of their readiness to receive IT. i have
deferred to this usage until the close of the
first month Of the session, but my convictions
of duty will not permit me longer to post
pone the discharge Of the Obligation enjon-
ed by the constitution upon the President,
ssto give to the Congress information of the
state of the Union, and recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient.'
II is matter Of congratulation that the re-
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in career OF
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN RELATIoNs--GENTRAL AMERICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign
powers, with some of them grave questions
are depending, which may deserve the consid-
Grafton 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. t..
BY the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 10Th of April 1850,
both .partes covenanted, that ssneither Will
ever ssoccupy, or fortify, or colonise, oras-
sumo or exercise any dominion over, Mica
ragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, CT
any part of Central America"
1t was the undonbted 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 thencefor.l enjoy complete NJ
dependence; and that both contracting Par--
ties engaged equally, and to the same extent
for the present and for the future, that II Ell
Their then had any claim Of right IN Central
America, such claim, and all occupation or
authority under it, were unreservedly rein
dushed by the stipulations otthe convention;
and that no dominion was thereafter to be ex-
ercsed or assumed in any part of the Central
America by Great Britain or the United
States.
This government consented to restrictions
in regard to a region OF country, wherein we
had specific and peculiar interests, only upon
the conviction that the like restrictions were
in the same sense obligatory in 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 cores
pondence contcmporaneous with the fatifca-
tion of the convention, it was distinctly eX-
pressed, that the mutual Covenants OF non
occupation were not intended to apply to tho
British establishment at the BalIZe. his
qualification is to be ascrihed to the fact,
that, in virtue of successive treaties with
previous sovereigns Of the country, Great
Britain had obtained q concession of the right
to cut mahogany or dye-woods at the Bai2e,
but with positive exclusion OF all domain or
sovereignty and thus 1t confirms the natural
construction ami understood import of the
treaty as to all the rest of the region to
which the stipulations applied.
Ithowever, 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 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 It's limits at the
expense of the State of Honduras and that
she had formally colonized a considerable in
suar group known as the Bay Islands, and
belonging, of right, to that State. ~
All these acts or pretens,ons Of Great Bril-
tain, being contrary to the ri ghts the States
of Central America, and to the manifest ten
or of her stipulations with the United States,
as understood by this government, have been
made the subject of negotiation through the
American minister iii London. trdnsmithere-
with the instructions to him OF the subject,
and the correspondence between him and the
which you will perceive that the two govern
ments differ widely and irreconcileably us to
the construction OF the conventions, and Its
effect on their respective relations to Central
America.
Great Britain so CONSTITUTES the convention
as to maintain unchanged all her previous
pretensions over the Mosquito coast, and IN
different parts OF Central America. These
pretcnsions as to the Mosquito coast, are
founded on the assumption of political reia-
tions between Great Britain aud the remnant
of q tribe of indians on that coast, entered
into at time when the whole country was u
colonial possession of Spain. 1t cannot DE
successfully controverted that, by the pubic
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 alege the assent of
Spain as the origin of her claims on the Mos
quito coast She has, on the contrary, by
repeated and successive treaties, renounced
and relinqushed all pretensions of her own,
and recognised the full and sovereign rights
of Spain in the most uneqninieal terms
Yet these pretensions, SO with solid tounda-
ton in the beginning, and thus repeatedly
abiured, were, at Il recent period, revived by
Great Britain against the Central American
States, the legitimate successors to all the
ancient jurisdiction of Spain in that region.
They were first applied only toa defined part
OF the coast Of OSearagua, afterwards TO the
whole of its Atlantic coast, and lastly to
part Of the coast OF Costa Riea; and they are
now re-asserted to this extent, notwithstand-
ing engagements to the United States.
On the eastern coast OF Nicaragua and Cos
ia Rica the interference of Great Britain,
though exarted at one time in the form OF
military occupation of the port of San Juan
del orte, then in the peaceful possession oil
the appropriate authorities of the CeHiral
American States, is now presented BY Her as
the rightful exercise of a protectorship over
the Mosquito tribe OF Indians.
But the establishment at the Balize, now
reaching far beyond its treaty limits into the
State of Honduras, and that of the Bay
Islands, appertaining Of right to the same
State, are as distinctly colonial governments
as those OF Jamaica or Canada, and therefore
contrary to the very letter as well as tho
spirit Of the cony ention with the United
States: as it was at the time of rattcaton,
and now is, understood by this government
The Interpretation which the Aritish gov
ernment thus in a seran and act, persists in
ascribng to the convention, entirely changes
its character. While 1t holds us to all our
obligations, it in a great measure releases
Great Britain from those which constituted
the consideration of this government for en-
tering into the convention. 1t is imposslble,in
nv Judgment, for the United States to acqui-
esce in such 4 construction of the respective
relations Of the two governments to Central
America.
To a renewed call by this government upon
Great Britain to abide by, and carry into ef-