Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-01-11
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Felloao Cih.eeas Of the Senate
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The Constitution of the United State;
provides that congress shall assemble an
nually on the first Monday of December
and it has been usual for the president tC
make no communications of a public
/ character to the senate and house of rep
resentatives until advised of their readi.
ness to receive If. l have deferred tc
this usage until the close of the frst
month of the session, bat my convictions
of duty will not permit me longer &c
postpone the discharge of the obligation
enjoined by the constitution on the pres
ident, to give TO congress information on
the state of the Union, and recommend
to their consideration such measures as
he shall judge necessary and expedient.
1t is a matter of congratulatieR that
the republic is rapidly advancing in a ca
reer OF prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN ELATIoNs-CENTRAL AMER
ICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to
exist between the United States and all
foreign powers, with some Of them grave
questions are pending, which may require
the consideration of congress. OF such
questions the most important is that
which has arisen out of the negotiations
with Great Britain in reference to Cen
trail America.
BY the convention eouclud-5 between
the two governments on the ! 9Th of April,
1850, both parties coyenanted that nei-
Their will ever occupy, fortify, COLOMBO,
assume or exercise any dominion over
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito
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 en-
tire 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 author
liz under it, were unreserved,,T relin-
pushed by the stipulations of the con-
vention; and that no dominion was there
after to be exercised, or assumed, in any
part OF Central America, by Great Brit
ain or the United States. This govern
ment consented to restrictions 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 understand
ing Of the force and effect Of the con-
vention it would never have been con-
Guided by US. So clear was this under
standing on the part Of the United States,
that in a correspondence Contemporaries
Gus with the ratification of the conyen-
ton, it was distinctly expressed that the
mutual covenants of non-occupation were
not intended to apply to the British es-
Enlistment at the Belize. This quaEf-
cation Is to be ascribed to the fact that.
IN virtue OF successive treaties with pre-
VIoua sovereigns of the country, Great
Britain had obtained concession of the
right to cut mahogany or dye woods at
the Belize, but with positive exclusion of
all domain Or sovereignty, and thus it
confirms the natural construction and I'M
derstood import of the treaty. as to all
the rest of the region to which the stip-
ulatlons applied. It, however, became
apparent at an early day after entering
on the discharge Of my present functions.
that Great Britain still continued in the
exercise or assertion of large authority
in all parts of Central America, com-
monty called the Mosquito Coast. and
covering the entire length of the state of
Nicaragua and part of Costa Rica /; that
she regarded the Belize as her absolute
domain, and was gradually extending its
UNITS at the expense of the state of Hon
duras, and that she had formally colo
nlzed considerable insular group, known
as the Bay Islands, and belonging by
right to that state. All these acts OF. pre-
tensions OF Great Britain being contrary
TO the rights Of the states of Central
America, and TO the manifest tenor of
her stiPulations with the United States
as understood by this government, have
been made the subject of negotiations
through the American Minister in Lon
don.
| transmit herewith the Instructions to
h'm on the subject, and the correspond
ence between him and the British Sec
retaries for foreign affairs, by which Won
VIII perceive that the two governments
dliier widely, and irreconcilably, as to the
construction Of the convention and its ef-