Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1856-01-04
Presidents Message,
FtRow C,iisens of The Senate

Ftllow Ctiiseus of The Senate
aud House Of Representatives.
The Constitution Of the United States
provides that Congress shall assemble an
nually on the first Monday of December,
and il has been usual for the President to
make no communication Of public char
acter to the Senate aud House OF Re
personalities until advised Of their readi-
ness to receive it. have deferred to this
usage until the close of the first month
Of the session, bot my convictions OF duty
will not permit me longer to postpone the
discharge of the obligation enioined by
/ the Constitution on the President, to give
/ TO Congress information on the state oil
! the Union, and recommend to their CON
sideration such measures rs he shall
| Judge necessary aud expedient
1t is matter Of congratulalion that the
Republic is TRANQUILITY advancing IN II
career Of prosperity and peace.
! FOREIGN RELATioNs--c ENTRAL AMERICA.
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 Central A..
merica.
By the convention concluded between
the two governments on the 18Th Of April,
1850 both parties convonauled that nelh-
er will ever occupy, furtify, colonzei as
sumo or exercise any dominion over Nj
camgua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast,
or any part Of Central America. II was
the undoubled understanding Of the Unit
ed States, IN making this treaty, that all
the present States Of the former republic
of Central America, and the entire terri
tory Of each, would ihenccionh euloy
complete Independence, and that both con-
tracing parties engaged equally aud to
the same extent, for the present and Tor
the future, that If elher then had any
claim or right IN Central America, such
claim, and all occupation or authority I'M
der 1t, were unreservedly rehuqulshed by
the stpuIatons Of the convention aud
that no dominion was thereafter to be eX-
ercIscd, or assumed, 10 any part Of Cen
iml America, by Great Britain or The u
niled States. This government consented
TO restrictions IN regard to region OF
country wherein we had specific and pc
cular interests, only upon the conviction
that the like restrictions were IN the same
sense obligatory on Great Britain. But
Tor this understanding Of the force aud
effect of the Convention, IL would never
have been concluded by us. So ceur was
tins understanding on The part OF the u
nied States that ~ correspondence con-
temporaneous with the ratification Of The
Convention, 1t was distinctly expressed
that the mutual covenants Of non-oc-
cupation were not Intended 10 apply to the
British establishment at the Belize. This
qualification Is to be ascr0ed to the fact
that, 10 virtue of successive treaties with
previous sovereigns of the country, Great
britain had obtained q concession OF the
right TO cut mahogany or dye woods at
,he Belize. but with positive exclusion Of
ail domain or sovereignty, and thus 1t con-
firms the natural construction and under
stood import Of the treaty, as TO all the
rest OF the region 10 which the supulhuous
applied. It, however, became apparent at
u early day after entering on the DIS
charge Of my present functions, that
Great Britain still continued IN the eXer-
csc or assertion Of large authority IN all
parts OF Central America, commonly call
ed the Mosquito Coast, and covering the
entire length Of the State of Nicaragua
and part of 4 osiu Rlca; that she re-
garded the Belize as her absolute domain,
and was gradually extending It's limits at
the expense OF the State of Honduras,
and that she had formally colOnIzed con-
siderable in-ular group, known as the Bay
Islands, and belonging by right to that
State. All these acts or pretensions of
Great Britain being contrary To the rights
Of the States Of Central America, aud to .
the manifest tenor Of her stipulatons with /
the United states, as understood by this |
government, have been made the subject
Of negotiations through the American VII /
MISTER IN London.
transmit herewith the instructions to
him on the subject and the correspondence
between hun and the British Secretaries
for foreign affairs, by which you will per
celye that the two governments differ
widely, and irrecnncldbly, rs to the con
suuction Of lne Convention and its effect (
on their respective relations To Central a. I
merlca. Great Britain so CONSTITUTES the .
Convention as 10 maintain all her previous /
pretensions over the Mosquito Coast and .
IN different parts OF Central America
These pretensions as to the Mosquito
Coast are founded on the assumption of
political relations between Great Britain
and the remnant of a tribe OF Indians on
that coast, entered into at tune when the
whole country was colonial possession
Of Spain. 1t cannot be successfully CON
troverted, that by the public law OF Eu-
rope and America no possible act Of such
Indians, or their predecessors, could con-
fer on Great Britain any political rights. go
Great Britain does not allege the assen, of f.
Spain, as the origin of her claims on the
Mo-qIlto Coast She has, on the contra
ryi by repeated and successive Treaties re.
nounced and relinquished all pre,ensions /
OF her own, aud recognized the full and .
sovereign rights Of Spain in the most I'M
equlvOcal terms.
yet these pretensons, so without solid /
foundation 10 the beginning, and thus re-
pcaiedly ablured, were at recent period .
revived by Great Britain, against the Cen
trail American States, the legitimate success
sors of all the ancient jurisdiction of
Spain in that region. They were first ap-
pied 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 re-
asserted to this extent, notwithstanding en-.
gagements to the United States. On the
Eastern coast of Nicaragua, and Costa
Rlca, the interference Of Great Britain,
though exerted at one time in the form OF
military occupation of the port of San
Juan del Norte, then in the peaceful pos
session OF the appropriate authorities of
The Central American States, is now pres
ented by her, as the rlghtful exercise of
dominion over the Mosquito tribe Of In.
dams. But the establishment at the Bel.
re, now reaching far beyond It's limits into
the State OF Honduras and that of the
Bay Islands appertalnng of right to the
same state, are as distinctly colonial gov
as those OF Jamaica or Canada.
and therefore contrary to the very letter
as well as the spirit of the Convention
with the United States, as 1t was at the
lime OF the ratification, and now is, under
'tood by this government.
The interpretation which the British
government thus, In assertion and act, per-
lists Ia ascrlbing to the Convention, en-
rely changes its character. While it /
old, lis To all onr ohlIrattons - IN a orao.