The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-02-01
INTERESTING FROM WASHINGTON.
SPEECH OF TINE nom. wlLtiAM Il. sewAau.
mE NATIoHM ToPls Of TaE sar.
Tk Everlasting Contest for ahx Speakersip

=" L'uiinssing C0AteSt WF IN NpeakcFS&P
Nicholson EleeteA ssnstcFfinter.
! &C., DC. Is.
l
VHARTY-FOUar rEf C0NuRHpa,
FIRST SESSION.
Senate.
WAsmasscs, jan 81, 1866.
EIRcr1oN OF PRNY7s
On motion of M. FITZPATRICK, (dssa) OF Ala tas a.
nate proceeded to ballot for printer
FIRST BALLOT.
Nicholson. n............M Beverly TUCKER. q
Gales & Seaton. 2 Scattering .......... 10
Necessary to . choice, ~.
The Senate continued to- vote until Me- Nicholson wss
chosen, on tho
Nicholson. ..........29 Scattering Is
AuckoI .......~,........
SPEECH OF Mr. SEWARD THE CENTRAL AxmsesS QUESTION
Mr. SEWARD, (siack rep.,) ofNew York. t1sn address-
ed the Senate on Central American Affairs, acfolIows.
Mr. PRzsDET-l desre to concentrate the Attentsa e
tho Senate and of tie country upon the Central
question; therefors pass the controyersy sbous
Mr. Champions vieas.ion of neutrality laws a. d
She more general top,c OF th Monroe doctrine both e
which subjects hays been elaborAey discasseA By NE
Senator from Michigan.
The President Of the United States has caused our 90
TO be fully and ably presented and Great Britain has
plcitly refused to comply with demands 1t belongs
now to Congress to determine the which the eo
try shall pursue. 1t is necessary Therefore to revisv
our position II 1t right. we cannot recede without
dishanor, never to be incurred. 1t is wrong we oaa
not recede too If shau recedc we may In
voive Our country In no common war-an evil to bs
avoided II possible, consstently with duty l shall,
therefore take net to say, consciously any
that might tend to inAane own country or to exss
perate Great Britain
1t NO question of persons Of parties, Is II even
domestic question. Therefore, shall refrain now a.
did whom spake to it before from bringing any persoasa
or partisan or domestic subject into the debate mak
ter who shalt invite OF who shall provoke TO such Q
coarse.
Speaking geographically, Central America Is stuAtsl
on the shmus which unitss the two continents of Nort
America and South America, and extends from tho south
border Of Mexico to the orhern boundary New
Granada and 1t spreads from that part Of the Ataus
ocean which ia called the Caribbean Se to the q
the Pacific Speaking politically Central Amsros
lie constituted by the independent States of Guasns
San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Plea
These States exclude the Bazs British Honduras ana
include tho Mosquito Coast. Central America was Dis
covered by Columbus in the service Of SPAIN and a0
cording to the Law Of that age became part Of the DO
minon OF that Kingdom the Pope having by pre- vous
concordat awarded to Portugal eli the regions she shouN
discover In going eastward from the Azores and to H
al she should discover In going that pon
without knowing that the two parties pursuing the o
portion Of the ishmus conquered and ceOnsed and
occupied BY Spain in 1926, and became, after uAe,
or or poSncs Threw " Of sns
a.thortty and became an independent federal repus
rca- 1885, the ve States which have already named
and which constituted the repobc dissolved their poii
tical union and each assumed absolute indepsndsacs
They have an aggregate population of about mioa
one TIVE fth whites four weths mixed and the residAe
Indians
Ihe acquisition Of California by the United States In
lS46 the disclosure Of is immense mineral wealth, and
the consequent political organization and social develops
mept of that state preciptated upon them the
world the solution Of gr problem Ct comunoa
tion the lthmus between the oceans which
had been studied without practical result three hundred
and fifty years Such passage while 1t would oe beue
hcial to- all Lations, indispensable to tue United
States, because Cali practically inaccessible
and defence.
The United States had sympathized with all the Spanish
American States in their ons, and had extended
to them favorable commercial treaties. In 1928 the
President Mr. Monroe after grave consideration, had
announced TO the world, postuiste, that.
forth considered subjects future colonization 81
But the United States had nevertheless always D.
cned although often urgently invei and invoked 70
interfere in the political affairs OF those States.
Three prominent for oceanic passages we're
discussed one by the way of Tehuantepei in Mexico,
be s s % s,
the way of ChaRres in New Granada The citizens and
the goysrnmen; the United States applied thema.ves
TO obtain the opening OF all these passages On the 14th
of March 1849 the State Of Nicaragua entered into
tract with citizens OF the United States granting them al
to ocean, through the River Juan the Ni0a
rsgua On the 21s OF Juue 1s49 Ncaragua tendered 10
ngushing advantages connected with that undertak-
ing on condition that they should the sow
regnty OF that state On the 10th Of September lsAo,
the contract between Nicaragua and American cizens
was revised and renewed, and treaty offered
BY that State to the United States by which it pre-
posed that the passage should be open equal terms,
to all States and nations who should ener into the
cessary stipuAtons for its safety and Tho
United States hesiated and rerained from accepting
either treaty. The subject embarrassed by pre-
and intervention of Great Britain in Central Ams
ca While spain retained her domino on on these CONT
nents and the adjacent islands, she jesouy EXCLUDED
foreign powers from commerce with her colonies.
contraband trade consequently grew up bstween the.
government connved at that Illicit commerce Wars
At the close ofthese in 1884, Great Bdain
sas sas e. .
Yucatan and also possession or occupancy On
Of the Caribbean Sea. The extent and the uAss
OF both these possessions were vehemen Ay dis
puted by the Central American States. On.
the 10th of September l847 the British agent
to the S3es of Nicaragua and Honduras the
ton of his government to sustain the Bthsh Protecto
rate on the Mosquito Coast from CApo Honduras to ana
including the lower part of the River San Juan. (kx.
Doc 7b p. A, Vol X, LIST sess 3lst Cong On the Sth
dalurs Hdso t.hisS rauserred caorpa 70 the Unit
ed States was signed two Brtish ships entered SAp
JUAN and expelled the State Of Nicaragas thereEeom
and four days afterwards the force used in
taxing the port CT Serapaqui the lower branch or part
Of the Rive. San Juan Nicaragua succumbed, but pro-
tested the 9th of March, lS4S. On the 10th Of os
tober 1849 British manot war captured Tgre Island,
of the Pacific coast, but belonging 70 Nicaragua A.
the same tiIas Great Brtsin had sometimes disputed
with Honduras for the Island OF Ruatan which Was ca
psble by bong fortified at small expense, Of command
ing every possible passage between the two ocsana,
through Central America, Costa Rico, csput,uG With
Nicaragua the boundary of the Juan understood
to favor Great Britain Honduras, Csutaa and NcarA
qua invoked the ala OF the Uniisd sta es in resisting her
sggrsssions
It WAS snder these crcpSssancea HAT the treaty OF
$780, called sometimes tho Clay ton and Bwer treaty
the Central American treaty, waA negotiated and con-
cluded.
Practically the negotiation began In an inorvew held
London the oath of September 184o between LORD
Panerston, Prime Minister Of Great britain and Mr..
Rves American Minister to France, then his way ts
the French Court.
Mr.. Rves stated that