Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-01-10
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

THIRTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.

Feii0,0 Citizens of The Senate
and House of Representatives
The Constitution of the United States provides
that Congress shall assemble annually on the
first Monday of December, and it has been usual
for the President to make NJ communication of |
public character to the Senate and House Of
Representatives until advised of their readiness
to receive it. have deferred to this usage un-
til the close Of the rst month of the session, but
my convictions of duty will not permit me long
or to postpone the discharge Of the obligation
enjoined by the Constitution on the President,
to give to Congress information on the state of
the Union, and recommend to their considera-
tion such measures us he shall Judge necessary
and expedient
1t is a matter of congratulation that the Re-
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in career of
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN RELATIoNs-CENTRAL AMERICA.
Whilst relations Of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign pow
.ers, with some of th ,m grave questions are pend
ing, which MY require tho consideration off
Congress OF suc,i questions the most impor
tant is that which has arisen out of the negota-
tions with Great Britain in reference to Central
America.
BY the convention concluded between the two
governments on the 10Th of April, 1850, both
parties c0venanted that neither will ever occu
py, fortify, colonze, assume or exercise any do
minion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosqui-
to coast, or any part Of Central America. 1t
was the undoubted understanding Of the United
States, in making this treaty, that all the pres
ent States OF the former republic OF Central
America, and the entire territory of each, would
thenceforth enjoy complete independence, 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 or
right in Central America, such claim and all
occupation or authority under it, were unresery-
edly relinquished by the stipulations of the con-
venti0n and that no dominion was thereafter
to be exercised or assumed in any part of Cen
trail America, by Great Britain or the United
States. This government consented to restric
tions 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 ef-
feet Of the Convention, it would never have been
concluded by US. So clear was this unders tand-
ing on the part of the United States, that in a
correspondence contcmpOraneous with the ratf-
cation of the Convention, it was distinctly ex-
pressed that the mutual covenants of non -occu-
patton were not intended to apply to the British
establishment at the Balize. This qualification
is to be ascribed to the fact that, in virtue of
successive treaties with previous sovereigns OF
the country, Great Britain had obtained con-
cession of the right to cut mahogany or dye
woods at the Balize, but with positive exclusion
of all domain or sovereignty, and thus it con-
firms the natural construction and understood
import of the treaty, to all the rest of the re-
gion to which the stipulatons applied. 1t, how
ever, became apparent at an early day after en-
tering on the discharge of my present functions,
that Great Britain still continued in the exer-
else or assertion Of large authority in all parts
OF Central America, commonly called the Mos
quito Coast, and covering the entire length Of the
State OF Nicaragua and a part of Costa Rlca
that she regarded the Balize as her absolute do
main, and was gradually extending its limits q,
the expense of the State of Honduras, and thai
she had formally colonized q considerable insu.
lar group, known as the Bay Islands, and be-
longing by right to that State. ALI these act
or pretensions of Great Britain being contrary tt
the rights of the States of Central America, anG
to the manifest tenor of her stipulations with
the United States, as understood by this govern
ment, have been made the subject of negotia
tions through the American Minister in London
on the subject and the correspondence between
him and the British Secretaries for foreign of
fairs, by which you will perceive that the tw'
governments differ widely, and irreconcilably, a
to the construction Of the Convention and its Of
fects on their respective relations to Centra
America. Great Britain so construes the Con
vention as to maintain all her previous preten
sions over the Mosquito Coast, and in differen
parts OF Central America. These pretenslons a
to the Mosquito Coast are founded on the as
sumption of political relation between Grea
Britain and the remnant of a tribe of Indians o
that coast, entered into at time when tn
whole country was colonial possession Of Spain
- 1t cannot be successfully controverted, that
the public law Of Europe and America no poss
bic act of such Indians, Or their predecessors
could confer on Great Britain any politics
rights. Great Britain does not alege the asser
OF Spain, as the origin of her claims on the Mol
quito Coast. She has, on the contrary, by rt
peated and successive treaties renounced and re
linquished all pretensions of her own, and recoe
nized the full and sovereign rights of Spain i
the most unequivocal terms
Yet these pretonsi0ns, 80 without solid founc
alton in the beginning, and thus repeatedly al
Jured, were ut ii recent period revived by Gres
Britain, against the Central American State
the Legitimate successors of all the ancient iuris
dictlon OF Spain in that region. They were fir
applied only to defined part of the coast of N
caragua, afterwards to the whole of the Atlanti
coast, and lastly to part of the coast of Cost
klca. and they are now reasserted to this e,
tent, notwithstanding engagements to the Uni
ted States. On the eastern colst of Nicaragua
and Costa RIca, the interference of Great Bri
ain, though exered ut one time in the form {
military occupation of the port of San Juan d,
Nor1e, then IN the peaceful possession of the ar
Propriate authorities of the Central American
otates, Is now presented by her, as the rightfu
exercise OF dominion over the Mosquito tribe q
lnuiahs But the establishment at the Balize
now reaching far beyond its limits into tn
oSa'o Oh honduras, and that of the Bay Islands
"Pper'aihihg ol right to the same State. are n
uiS:'hc'iy colonial governments as those of ia
Inalc@ OF Oanada and therefore contrary to th
very ietter as well us the spirit of the Conyer
eion WIN the United States, rs it was at tn
.ihe VI the ratlhcdtlon, and now is understoo
by this governments.
Inc Interpretation which the British goycrr
menu thus' IN assertion and act, persists ia a,
crioing 10 the Convention, entirely changes i
character. While it holds US to all our oblg
Liohs' ~ IN great measure releases Great Bri
am from those which constituted the consider
tion of this government for entering into Il
covenant 1t is impossible, in my Judgment. f
the United States to acquiesce in such co
struction Of the respective relations of the tv
governments to Central America. To a rene,
90 call by this government to abide by, and ca
ry into effect the stipulations Of the Conyenti
according to its obvious import, by withdrawn
from the possession or colonization of porto
OF the Central American States of Hondurs
Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the British COVER
nent has, at length, replied, observing that t
operation of the treaty is prospective only, a
did not require Great Britain to abandon or &C
tract any possessions held by her in Cent,
America at the date OF its conclusion. The