Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-01-03
WeekIy gtate Sentinel.
The Presidents Message.
Feiioso eif-ens Of the Senate
- IL. H.

ton OF q UuullC NuAlt(lcI 10 tic OtUdtt ait
House Of Representatives, until advised Of thei
readiness to receive IL. have deferred to thi
usage until the close Of the first month Of TIA
session, but my convictions Of duty will not per
mit me longer to postpone the discharge of tn
obligation eni0ined by the constitution upol
the President 'to give to the Congress infOrma
ton Of the state OF the Union. and comme
70 their consideration such measures as he shall
Judge necessary and expedient."
II IS a matter of eOngratulation that the Re
public IS tranquility advancing in a career o
prosperity and peace.
FOREIGN REIATIONs.-CKNTRA AMERICA.
Whilst relations Of amitv continue TO exisI
between the United States and all foreign DOW.
ers, with some of them grave questions are de
pending which may require the consideration
Of Congress-
OF such questions, the most importantis thai
which has arisen out Of the negOtiatio IS with
Great Britain in reference to Central America.
BY the convention concluded between the
two governments on the 18th Of April, 1850
both parties eovenanted. that neither will
ever occupy, OF fortify, or colonize, or assume
or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa
A~ea. the Mesquite coast, or any part of Cen
trail America"
It was the undOubted understanding Of the
United States, in making this treaty, that all
the present States of the former republic of Cen
trail America, and the entire territory of each,
would benceforth enjoy complete independence:
andtha4 both contracting parties Engaged equal
~ aud 10 the same extent, for the present and for
the future; that if either then had any claim of
right in Central America. such claim and all &C.
eupatiOn or authority under 1t, were unreseryed-
ly TelIEquished by the stipulations Of the con-
%vention; and that no dominion was hereafter to
lie exercised or assumed IN any part of Cen
trail America, by Great Britain or the United
States.
This government consented to restrictions in
regard 10 the reign Of the country, wherein we
had specific and peculiar interests, only upon
the conviction thai the like restrictions were in
the same sense obligatory on Great Britain. But
for thisu understanding of the force and effect Of
the convention, 1t would never have been con-
cluded by Us.
So clear was the understanding on the part of
the United States, that in correspondence con-
tempOraneOus with the ratification Of the con-
v~enIiOn, it was distinctly expressed, that the
mutual covenants Of On-Occupation were inten-
dcd to apply to the British establishment at the
Balize. This qualification is to be ascribed to
the fact, that, IN virtue of successive treaties
with previous sOvereigns of the country, Great
Britain had obtained a concession Of the right
TO cut mahogany or dye-wOOds at the Balize, but
with positive exclusion of all domain or soyer-
eighty; and thus it confirms the natural con-
struetiOn and understood import of the treaty as
10 all the rest Of the region to which the stipu-
lations applied.
1t, however, became apparent, at an early day
after entering upon the discharge of my present
functions, that Great Britain still continued in
the exercise or assertion of large authority in
all that part of Central America commonly
called the Mosquito coast, and covering The en-
tire length of the State of Nicaragua, and a part
Of Costa Rica; that she regarded the Balize as
her absolute domain, and was gradually extern
ding its limits at the expense Of the State of
Honduras; and that she had formally colonized
a considerable insular group known as the Bay
Islands, and belonging. Of right, to that State.
All these acts or pretensions of Great Britain,
being contrary to the rights of the State of Gen.
trail America, and 10 the manifest tenor Of her
stiPulatiOns with the United States, as under
stOad by this government, have been made the
subject Of negotiation through the American
Minister in London. / transmit herewith the
Instructions to him on the subject, and the cor
respOndence between him and the British Sec
rotary for Foreign Affairs, by which you will
perceive that the two governments differ widely
and irreconcileably as to the construction Of the
convention, and its effect on their respective re-
latiOns to Central America.
Great Britain so CONSTITUTES the convention, as
to. maintain unchanged all her previous preten-
sIOns over the Mosquito coast, and in different
parts Of Central America, These pretensions,
as to the Mesquite coast, are founded on the as
sumption of political relations between Great
Britain and the remnant Of a tribe of Indians on
AAAAA 49, NAah'ACA INV - - NAAat NV WIZ
whole country was a colonial possession Of
Spain. IL cannot be successfully controverted,
that, BY the public law Of Europe and America,
no possible act Of such Indians or their prede-
eessors could confer on Great Britain any politi-
cal rights.
Great Britain does not allege the assent of
Spain as the origin of her claims on the Musqui-
10 coast. She has, on the contrary, by repeated
and successive treaties, renOunced and relin-
Quished all pTetensions of her own, and recog-
nized the full and sovereign rights Of Spain in
the most unequivocal terms. Yet these preten-
sions, so without solid foundation in the begin
ming, and thus repeatedly ablured, were, at a
recent period, revived by Great Britain against
the Central American States, the legitimate sue
cessOrs to all the ancient jurisdiction Of Spain
in that region. They were first applied only to
defined part Of the coast Of Nicaragua, after
wards to the whole Of its Atlantic coast, and
lastly, to a part of the coast of Costa Rica; and
they are now reasserted to this extent. notwi.h-
standing engagements to the United States.
On the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, the interference of Great Britain, though
exerted ut one time ia the form of military occu-
patton of the port Of San Juan del Norte, then
in the peaceful possession Of the appropriate
authorities Of the Central American States, is
now presented by her as the rightful exercise of
a protectorship over the Mosquito tribe Of In
dams.
But the establishment at the Balize, now
reaching beyond its treaty limits into the State
of Honduras, and that of the Bay Islands. APP
pertaining Of right to the same State, are as dis
tinctly colonial governments as those of Jamai-
ca OF Canada. and therefore contrary TO the
very letter as the spirit of the convention with
the United States, as it was at the time Of ra-
tifcatiOn, and now is understood by this govern.
ment.
The Interpretation which the British govern.
ment, thus in assertion and act, persists in as
cribing TO the convention, entirely changes its
character. While it holds us to all our obliga-
tiOns, it in a great measure releases Great Brit
ain from those. which constituted the conside-
ration of this Government for entering into the
convention. 1t is impossible. in my Judgment,
for the United States to acquiesce in such a con-
struction OF the respective relations Of the two
Governments to Central America.
To a renewed call by this government upon
Great Britain, to abide by, and carry into ef-
feet, the stipulations of the convention accor-
ding to its obvious import, by Withdrawing
from the possession or colonization Of portions
of the Central American States of Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Costa RIGA, the British Gov
eminent has at length replied, affirming that
the operation of the treaty is prospective only
and did not require Great Britain to abandon
or contract any possessions held by her in
Central America at the date of its conclu-
sion.
The reply substitutes a partial issue, in the
place of the general one presented by the
United States. The British Government
passes over the question Of the rights Of Great
Britain, real or supposed, in Central America,
aud assumes that she had such rights at the
date Of the treaty, and that these rights CON-
pretended the protectorship Of the Mosquito
Indians the extended jurisdiction and limits
of the Balize, and the colony of the Bay Is
lands, and thereupon proceeds by implication
to infer that, if the stipulations Of the treaty
be merely future in effect. Great Britain may
still continue to hold the contested portions
of Central America. The United States can
not admit either the inference or the prem
Uses. We steadily deny, that, at the date Of
the treaty, Great Britain had any possession
there. other than the limited and peculiar
establishment at the Balize, and maintain
that, if sac had any, they were surrendered
by TIE conyention.
M - -..-4-s-- A. L.