The true Democrat., 1856-01-15
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
FeHo,0- Citizens of tue Senate and

vldes that Congress shall assemble annually on the first Monday of December, and it has been usual for the President to make no communca- ton ot public character to the Senate and House of Representatives until advised of their readiness to receive it. 1 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 postpone the discharge of the obligation enjoined by the constitution upon the President to give to the Congress inforu,a- ton of the state of the Union, and recommend to thelr consideration such measures as he shall Judge necessary and expedient'
 It's matter of reorganization that the re- public Is tranquiily advancing in career of prosperity and peace.
 FOREIGN RELATIoNs-cENTRAL AMERICA.
 Whist relations of amity continue to exist between the United States and all foreign DOW CTS, With some ot them grave questions are de- pendlnS which may require the consideration of Congress-
 Of snch questions, the most important is that which has arisen out of the negotiations with Great Britain in reference to Central Ame- rlca.
 By the convention concluded between the two governments on the 18th of April 1850, both parties covenanted, that "nether will ever" occupy, or tortify, or colonize or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Cos ta Rlca, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Gen. tra America''
 It was the undoubted understanding of the United States in making this treaty, that all present states ot the former republic of Central America, and the entire territory of each, would thencetofth 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 of right Tn Central America, such claim, and all occupation or authority under 1t, were u,re- servedly relinquished by the stipulations of the conventlon; and that no dominion was there after to be assumed ill any part of Central Ame- rlca, by Great Britain or the United States
 The government consented to restrictions in regard to region of country, wherein we had speclfc and peculiar interests only upon the conviction that the like restrictions were in the same sense obligatory on Great Britain. But for thls understanding of the force and effect of the convention, It would never have been con- cluded by us
 So clear was this understanding on the part of the United States, that, in correspondence contemporaneOus with the ratification of the convention, It was distinctly expressed, that the mutual covenants of non-occupation were not Intended to apply to the British establishment at the Baltic. This qualification is to be ascrb- ed to the fact, that in virtue of successive trea- ties With previous sovereigns of the country, Great Britain had obtained a concession of the right to cut mahogany or dye-woods at the Ballze, but with positive exclusion of all do- main or sovereignty; and thus 1t confirms the natural construction and understood import of the treaty as to all the rest of the region to which the stipulatons applied
 It, however, became apparent, at an early day after entering upon the discharge of my present functions that Great Britain still con- tlnued m the exercise or assertion of large au- thorlty to fill that part of Central America com monly called the Mosquito coast, and covering the entire length of the State of Nicaragua and part ot Costa Itlca; that she regarded the BalIZe as her absolute domain, and was gradually eX- tended It's limits at the expense of the State of Honduras; and that she had formally coloniZed considerable lnsular group known as the Bay Islands, and belonging, of right, to that State.
 All these acts or pretensons of Great Britain, being contrary to the rights of the States of Central America, and to the manifest tcLor of her stpulatIonS with the United States, as un- derStood by this government, have been made the subject of negotiation through the Ameri- can Minister in London 1 transmit herewith the instructions to him on the subject. and the correspondence between him anI the British secretary for foreign affairs by which you will perceive that the two governments differ widely and irrecoucabv, as to the construction of the convention and it's effect on their respective relations to Central Ame- rlca.
 GreAt Britain so construes the convection as to maintain unchanged all her previous pretcu- sions over the Mosquito coast, and ill different parts of Central America. These preteusious. as to the Mosquito coast, are founded on the assumption Of political relations between Great Britain and the remnant of tribe of Indians on that coast entere,i into at time when the whole country was a colonial possession of Spain. It cannot be successfully controv verted. that, by the public law of Europe and Ameri- rlca no possible act of such Indians or their pre- decessors could confer on Great Britain any po- htlcal rghts
 Great Britain does not alege the assent of Spaln as the origin of her claims on the Mosuui. to coast. She has, on the contrary, by repeated and successive treaties, renounced ana relin- pushed all pretensions of her own, and recog- nlzed the full and sovereign ri ghts of Spain in the most unequivoca terms. Yet these pretcn- slons, so without solid foundation in the begin- ming, and thus repeatedly ahiured were, at a recent period, revived by Great Britain against the Central American States the legitimate successors to all the ancient jurisdiction of Spain Ill that region. They were first applied only to a defined part of the coast of Nicaragua, af- forwards to tho whole ofits A Atlantc coast. and lastly to part of the coast of Costa Rica: and they are now re-asserted to this extent notwithstanding engagements to the United States.
 On the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rca, the lntertereRce ol Great Britain, though eXerted at one time in the form of military oc- cupatlon of the port of San Juan del Norte then III the peaceful possession of the appro- priate authorities of the Central 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 fur beyond its treaty limits into the State of Honduras and that of the Bay Islands appertalning of right to the same State, are as distinctly colonial governments as those of Ja- malca or Canada, and therefore contrary to the very letter as well as the spirit of the conven- ton with the United States, as it was at the time of ratification, and now is, understood by this government.
 The interpretation which the British govern ment thus in assertion and act, persists in as. crlbing to the convention, entirely changes its character. While itholds us to all obligations, 1t in great measure releases Great Britain from those, which constituted the consideration of thls government for entering into convention. It Is impossible, in my judgment, for the United States to acquiesce in such cons truction of the respective relations of the two governments to Central America.
 To renewed call by this government upon Great Britain, to abide by and carry into effect the stipulations of the convention according to its obvious import, by withdrawing from the possession or colonization of portions of tie Central American States of Honduras Nicara- qua, and Costa Rica, the British government has at length replied, affirming that the opera ton of the treaty is prospective only, and did not require Great Britain to abandon or contract any possessions held by her at the date of its