Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-01-01
Presidents Message.
Feltoty-cutIzsRs of the Senate and
of The Horse of RepressntntLre


munication Of public character to the Sem
ate and House Of Representatives until ad-
vised of their readiness to receive il. have
deferred to this usage until the close of the
hrst month Of the session, but my convictions
OF duty will not permit me longer to postpone |
the discharge of the obligation enjoined by |
the consultation upon the President "to give |
u the Congress Information of the state of the |
Union, and recommend to their consideration |
such measures as he shall judge necessary |
and expedient' |
It is matter of congratulation that the Re- |
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in a career of
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN RELATIONS-CENrRAL AMERICA
whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between tho United States and all foreign
powers, with some of them grave questions
are depending, which may require the con-
sideratiOn of Congress.
Ut such questions, the most important is
that which has arisen out of the negotiations
with Great Britain in reference to Central
America.
BY the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 18th of April, 1850,
both parties cOvenanted, that stneither will
ever occupy, or fOrtify, or colonize, or as
sumo or exercise any dominion over, Nicar-
aqua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any
part Of Central America u
1t was the undoubted understanding Of the
United States, in making this treaty, that all
Central America, and the entire territory of
each, would thencefOrth enjoy complete inde-
pendence; 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 in Central Amer
lea such claim, and all occupation or authOri
ty under it, were unreseryedIy ielinquished
by the supUlations of the convention; and
that no dominion was thereafter to be exeT-
clsed or assumed IN any part of Central Amer
lea, by Great Britain or the United States.
This government consented to restrictions
In regard to a region of country, wherein we
had specific and peculiar interests only upon
the conviction that the like restrictions were
IN the sam9 sense obligatory on Great Britain.
But for this understanding of the force and
effect of the convention, 1t would never have
been concluded by us.
SO clear was this understanding on the part
of the United States, that, in correspondence
cOntempOrsneOus with the ratification Of the
convention, 1t was distinctly expressed, that
the mutual covenants of occupation were
not intended to apply to the British establish
ment at the Balize. This qualification is to
be ascribcd to the fact, that, in virtue Of sue
cessive treaties with previous sovereigns of the
country, Great Britain had obtained a con-
ceSslOn Of the right to cut mahogany or dye
woods at the Balize, but with positive exclu-
sion OF all domain or sOveiguty; and thus it
confirms the natural construction and under
the region 70 which the stipulation applied.
IL, however, became apparent, at an early
day alter entering upon the discharge of my
present functions, that Great Britain still con
tlnued in the exercise or assertion Of large
thority in all that part Of Central America
commonly called the Mosquito coast, and COW
ering tho entire length Of the State of Nicara-
qua, and part of Costa Rica; that she re-
garded the Balize as her absolute domain, and
was gradually extending its limits at the ex-
pense ofthe State of Honduras and that she
had formally colOnized considerable insular
group known as the Bay Islands, ind belong
ing, Of right, to that State.
All these acts or pretensiOns Of Great Bri
tain, being contrary to the rights Of the States
Of Central America, and to the manifest tenor
other stipulations with the United States, as
understood by this government, have been
made the subject Of negotiation through the
American Minister at London. I transmit
herewith the Instructions to him on the sub
Jeet, and the correspondence between him and
che British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, by
which you will perceive that the two govern.
ments differ widely and irreconcileabiy as to
the construction of the convention, and its ef
feet on their respective relations to Central
America
Great Britain so construes the convention as
to maintain unchanged all her previous pre-
tensions over the Mosquito coast, and in differ
ent parts Of Central America. The preten-
slOns as to the Mosquito coast are founded on
the assumption of political relation between
Great Britain and the remnant Of tribe of
Indians on that coast, entered into at time
when the whole country was colonial pos
session of Spain. 1t cannot be successfully
controverted, that, by the public law of Eu-
rope and America, no possible act Of sach In
dians their predecessors could confer on
Grsat Britain any political rights
Great Britain does not sllege the assent Of
Spain as the origin Of her claims on the Mos
Sfn &l.o ho- fha brvx
peated and successive treaties, renOunced
and relinquished ali pretensions Of her own,
and recognized the full and sovereign rights
of Spain In the most uneqUivocal terms. Yet
these pTetensiOns, without so solid foundation
in the beginning, and thus repeatedly alb
jured, were, at a recent period, revived by
Great Britain against the Central American
States, the legitimate successors to all the an
cient jurisdiction Of Spain in that region.
They were first applied only to a defined part
of the coast Of Nicaragua, afterwards to the
whole of its Atlantic coast, and lastly to
part Of the coast of Costa Rica; and they are
now rcasserted to this extent, notwithstanding
engagements to the United States.
On the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa
Rca, the interferences of Great Britain,
though exerted at one time in the form of mil
itary occupation Of the port Of San Juan del
Norte then in the peaceful possession of the
appropriate authorities of the Central Ameri-
can States, is now presented by her as the
rightfuI exercise Of protectorship over the
Mosquito tribe Of Indians.
But the establishment at the Baize, now
reaching far beyond its treaty limits into the
State Cf Honduras, and that Of the Bay isl lands,
appertainng Of right to the same State, are
es distinctly colonial governments as those Of
Jamaica or Canada, and therefore contrary to
the very letter we'll as the spirit of the con-
vention with the United States, as it was at
the time Of ratification, and now is, under
stood by this government.
The Interpretation which the British gov
ernment, thus in assertion and act, persists in
ascribing to the convention, entirely changes
its character While it holds US to ali our Oh
legations, il in great measure releases Great
Britain from those which constituted the con-
siderati0n OF this government for entering
into the convention. 1t is impossible in my
judgment, for the United States to acquiesce