The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1856-05-31

the consent Of the Mexican Republic, tho
rlghtlnl owners Of California, and thus invest
ed with augmented special interest in the DO.
litical condition Of Central America. that q
military expedition under the authority Of the
British Government had Ian o at San Juan
del Norte, in the State Of Nicaragua and ta-
ken possession of that port, the necessary ter
minus OF any canal or railway across the 18TH
mus within the territories of Nicaragua,
1t did not diminish the unwelcomeness to
us of this act on the part Of Great Britain to
find that she assumed t. justify it on the
ground of an alleged protectOrship Of a small
and obscure band of uncivilized Indiaes, whose
proper name had even become lost to history,
who did not constitute state capable of ter
rltoria sovereignty either in fact or of right,
and oil political interest in whom Great Brit.
ain had previously renounccd by successive
treaties with Spain when Spain was sovereign
to the country, and subsequently, with inde-
pendent Spanish America
Nevertheless, and injurously affected as the
United States conceived themselves to have
been by this act Of the British Government,
and by its occupation at the same time of in.
sular and continental portions of the State of
Honduras, we remembered the many and pow
erful ties aud mutual interests by which Great
Britain and the United States are associated.
and we proceeded with an earnest good faith,
and with a sincere desire to do whatever might
strengthen the bonds of peace between US, to
negotiate with Great Britain convention to
assure the perfect neutrality of all inter-ocean-
ic communications across the isthmus and, as
the indispensable condition of such neutrality,
the absolute independence of the States of
Central America, and their complete sovereign
ty within the limits of their own territory as
well against Great Britain as against the Uni.
ted States. We supposed we had accomplish
ed that object by the convention Of April 49,
1850, which would never have been signed nor
ratified Oh the part of the United States but
for the conviction that, in virtue of its pro.
visions, neither Great Britain nor the United
States was thereafter to exercise any terrific
rial sovereignty, in fact or in name, in any part
of Central America, however or whatsoever
acquired either before or afterwards. The
essential object of the convcntion-the ncu-
tralizaton of the isthmus would, of course,
become nullity if either Great Britain or the
United States were to continue to hold cxclu-
slyey islands or mainland of the isthmus, and
more especially if, under any claim or protect
orshipo of Indians, either government were to
remain forever sovereign in fact Of the Attain
tic shores of the three States Of Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, and Honduras,
l have already communicated to the two
Houses of Congress full information of the
protracted and hitherto fruitless efforts which
the United States have made to arrange this
international question with Great Britain 1t
is referred to on the present occasion only be-
cause of its intimate connection with the spe-
cia object now to be brought to the attention
of Congress
The unsettled political condition of some of
the Spanish American Republics has never
ceased to be regarded by this Government
with solicitude and regret OH their own ac-
count, while it has been the source of contin-
ual embarrassment in our public and private
relations with them In The midst of the yio-
lent revolutions and the wars by which they
are continually agitated their public authori-
ties are unable to afford due protection to for
cigncrs and to foreign interests within their
territory, or even to defend their own soil
against individual aggressOrs. foreign or do
mestic, the burden of the Inconvenience and
losses of which, therefore, deyolves, in no in
considerable degree upon the foreign States
associated with them in close relations of geo.
graphical vicinity or of commercial intercourse.
Such is, more emphaticaly, the situation of
the United States with respect to the Repub-
lies Of Mexico and of Central America Not
however, the relative remote
ness of the European States from America,
facts of the same order have not failed to ap-
pear conspcuously in their intercourse with
the Spanish Republics Great Brit
ain has repeatedly been constrained to recur
to measures of force for the protection of
British interests in those countries France
found it necessary to attack the castle of San
Juan de Uloa, and even to debark troops ut
Vera Cruz, in order to obtain redress of wrongs
done to Frenchmen in Mexico.
What is memorable in this respect in the
conduct and policy of the United States is,
that while it would be as easy for us to annex
and absorb new territories from America us it
is for European States to do this in Asia or
Africa, and while, if done by us, it might be
justified as well on the alleged ground OF the
advantage which would accrue thcretrom to
the territories annexed and absorbed, yet we
have abstaned from doing it, in obedience to
considerations of right not less than of policy,
and that while the courageous and self-relunt