Council Bluffs bugle. [volume] (City of Council Bluffs, Iowa) 1853-1857, 1856-01-29
= Pfeiiaencs 1GsssAse.'
Fellow citizens - the Senate Ind
uc.,ea ~ n As.t1a. u, .Ss,,a.

O0the frst Monday o& Decsmber, and Il Has
: been usual for the President to make no
standardization of public character 10 the
Senate and House OF representatives until
sdsised Of their reA illness to reeve it, have
deferrta to this usage until the clcse of the
drst mouth of the session but my Convictions
Of duty will not permit me longer to postpone
the discharge Of the obligations sajoinsd by
the constitution upon the President Ito give
TO the Congress information OF the state Of
the Union, and recommend to their consider
alton such measures as he shali judge necessa-
ry and expedient.'s
Ii 10 matter OF songratnlasion that the
Republic Is TRANQUILITY advancing in career
Of prosperity aud peace
FoREiGN RELATIONS. AMERICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to ex-
ist between the United States ana all foreign
powers, Wi h some of them grave questions
are depending which may require the consid
sration of Congress.
or such questions, the most important is
thlt, which has arisen out Of tha negotiations
with Grtat Britain in reference 20 Central
America.
By the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 10Th of April, 1850,
both parties convenante,l, that ''neither will
ever 'soccnpy, OF. fortify, or colonize or as
sumo or exercise anv dominion over. Nicars-
qua. Costa Rica. the. Mosqui CO ISL, or any
part Of Central America"
1t was tn undoubted understanding of the
United States, in making this treaty, that all
the prs n States of the former republic of
centeral America and the entire territory of
each, would thenceforth enjoy compete in-
dependence; aud that both contracting par
ties g4geI equally, an | to the same extent,
fur the present and for the future that ifeith-
er then had any claim Of right iu Central
America, such claim, aud all occupation of
authority under il. were anraserve!Iy relin-
pushed by the sslpulati0ns of the conven-
zion; and that no dominion waS thereafter
10 be exercised In any part of Central Amer
lea, by Great Britain or the United States.
This country consente to restrictions with
e,ard to a region of elun,ry, where We had
specific and peculiar interests, only upon the
couyiction that the ike restrictions were in
the same sanse obligatory on Great britain.
But for this understanding Of The force and
effect OF the convention, ii would never have
been concluded by US.
So clear was this understanding on tile
part of the Ia ted State, that, in oorre,po :
dence contemp0ran Gus with the ratification
of the c9ny entisn 1t wa> distinctly espresso !,
that the mutual covenants OF RJn-occ tpation
were no. In.euded To apply 10 the British
sstabljs hmeat at the Bslize. This qualii
eation is u b. asarIb2d to the tact, that, IN
virtue OF successive treaties with previous
Eovereigns OF the country, Great BritIan had
obtained cone esslon OF tn night to cut MA
hegany or dry woods at the Ba,jze, but With
positive exclusion IF all domain or sOyer-
eighty and thus it condTlus this natural con-
s;ructi1u ana understood import o! the trea-
~ as to all the rest IF the region % which
the stipuiations applied.
l., however, 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 IF large
authority In all that plrt Of Central Ameri-
ca commonly ellled the Mos quito coast, an |
GOVERN. the entire length Of the State OF
Nicaragua, and u part OF Costa Rl,a; that
she regarded tn Baize Is her absolute do
main, and was gradually * Fending is limits
at the expense of the State OF Honduras
and that she had formally c0!onized, "a con
siderable insular group known as tae Bay
Islands, and belon5in Of right, t. thll State.
ain being contrary to the lights of the States
of Central America, ana to the manifest ten
or Of her stipuati0nS with the United States,
as understood by this government, have been
mad. the subject Of ne sotiaiioa through the
American Minister in Lonlon. | transmit
herewith the instructions to him on the sub
jet, anl the correspon lence bcrween him
and the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
by which you will perceive that the two
governments diff3r widely and irreconcileabiy
~ to the construction of the convention aud
It's effect on their respective relations to Cen
trail America.
Great Britain s. constru1c the convention,
as to rs ,inttin unchanged all her previous
pretensions over the Mosquito coast, and in
different parts of Central America. These
professions as TO the Mosquito coast, arc
founded on the assuln ,tion # political rela-
tion between Great Britain aud the remnant
of tribe of Indisns on that coast, entered
into at time when the whole country WAS
colonial possession of Spain. IL cannot be
succ .ssfully contr3vcrted, that, b. tho public
law Of Europe aud America, no possible act
OF such Indians OF their predecessors could
confer Oh Great Britain any political righ.s.
Great Britain loes not alere the assent of
Spain as the origin OF her clums on the Nos
quito coast. She has. o. the contrary, by
repeated and successive treaties, renowned
and reiinquished all pretenaions Of her own,
and recognised the full and sovereign rights
az Spain IN the most unequivlcal terms. Yet
these pretensons, so without foundation in
che beginning. and thus repe ltedly ahjurcl,
we're, at . recent period, revived by Great
Britain against the Central Americaa States,
the legitimate successors TO all the ancient
jurisdiction If Spain in that regioR. They
were first applied only to 4 defined part of
the coast of Nicaragua, afterwards to the
Whole of its Atlantic coast, and lastly to a
part of the eoas. Of Costa RieA, and they are
now reasserted to this ex'e7t, notwithSsaud-
ing engagements to he~Untei Statas.
In the eastern coass of Nicaragua and Cos
a. Rica, the interferen Of Great Britain,
though exerted at Que time 10 the form of
n military occuDatlon on the mart If San Juan