Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-01-10
3Doltttltal.
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
cV0r.ciyi-cDs of the Senate and

the first Monday of December, and it has been
usual for the President to make no communi-
cation of public character to the Senate and
House of Representatives until advised of
their readiness to receive it. | 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
information of the state of the Union, and
recommend to their consideration such meas
ures as shall be Judged necessary and ezpedl-
ent."
1t is matter of congratulation that the Re-
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in career of
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN RELATIoNs.-CENTRAL AMERI-
cA-Whilst relations of amity continue to ex-
ist between the United States and all foreign
powers, with some of them grave questions
are depending, which may require the consid-
Grafton of Congress. Of such questions, the
most important is that which has arisen out Of
\ the negotiations with Great Britain In refer
ence to Central America. BY the convention
concluded between the two governments on
the 10Th of April, 1850, both parties covenan-
ted, that "neither will ever occupy, or fortlty,
or colonize, or assume, or exercise any domn-
ion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Nusquito
coast, or any part of Central America
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 thenceforth enjoy complete lDde-
pcndencc, and that both contracting parties en-
gagged equally, and to the same extent for the
present and for the future that if either then
had any claim of right in Central America,
such claim, and all occupation or authority un-
der it, were unreservedly relinquished by the
stipulation of the convention; and that no
dominion was thereafter to be exercised or
assumed in any part of Central America, by
Great Britain or the United States. The
government consented to restrictions in regard
to q region of country, wherein We had speclt-
ic and peculiar interests, only upon the convc-
ton that the like restrictions were IN the same
same sense obligatory on 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 un-
dcrStanding on the part Of the United States,
that in correspondence contemporaneous with
the ratification of the convention, 1t was dis
tnctly expressed, that the mutual covenants
of non occupation were not intended to apply
II -. l. L I'll, 81 +1,n nj
This qualification is to be ascribcd to the fact,
that, in virtue of successive treaties with pre-
yious sovcreigns of the country, Great Britain
had obtained 4 concession Of the right to cut
mahogany or dye-woods at the Ballzc, but
with positive exclusion of all domain or sorer-
eighty and thus it confirms the natural con-
struction and understood import Of the treaty
as to all the rest of the region to which the
stipulations applied. 1t, however, became ap-
parent, at an early day after entering upon the
discharge of my present functions, that Great
Britain still continued in the exercise or as
sertion of large authority in all that portion
of Central America commonly called the Mos
quito coast, and covering the entire length OF
the State of Nicaragua and part Of Costa Rica;
tha. she regarded the BaliZc as her absolute
domain, and was gradually extending its lim-
its at the expense of the State of Honduras ;
and that she had formally colonized considc-
rable iusular group known as the Bay Islands,
and belonging, Of right to that State.
All these acts or prctensions Of Great Brit
ain, being contrary to the rights of the States
g., H., FACT
of her stipulations with the United States, as
understood by this government, have been
made the subject Of negotiation through the
American Minister in London. | transmit
herewith the instructions % him on the sub,
icct, and the correspondence between him and
the British Secretary for Foreign Aifairs, b.
which you will perceive that the two govern
mcnts differ widely and irreconcileably as to
the construction Of the convention, and its ct'
feet on their respective relations to Central y
mcrlca.
Great Britain so cOnStrucs the convention
as to maintain unchanged all her previous pre-
tensions over the Mosquito coast and III diff
fcrcnt parts of Central America These pre-
tensions, as to the Musquito coast, are founded
on the assumption of political relations be-
tween Great Britain and the remnant OF 4
tribe Of Indians on that coast, entered into at
time when the whole country was colonial
possession of Spain. 1t cannot be successful
ly controvcrted, that, by the public law Of Eu-
rope and America, no possible act Of such IN
dams or their predecessors could confer on
Great Britain any political rights.
Great Britain does not allcngc the assent OF
Spain as the origin of her claims on the Mos,
quito coast She has, on the contrary, by re-
pcatcd and successive treaties, renowned and
rclnquishcd all prctcnsions Of her own, and
recognized the full and sovereign rights of
Spain in the most uncquivocal terms. Yet
these prctcnsions, so without solid foundation
in the beginning, and thus repeatedly adjur,
cd, were at a recent period, revived by Great
Britain against the Central American States,
the legitimate successors to all the ancient j,l-
risdctioa Of Spain in that region. Thcy were
first applied only to ad fined part Of the coast
Of Nicaragua, afterwards TO the whole Of its
Atlantic coast, and lastly to a part Of the coa.;
af Costa Rica and they are now re-asscrtcl to
this extent, notwithstanding engagements It