Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-01-03
pREs1pENT.s MEssAGE.
ss.lo,,.eitizens Of t6s Ssa.te

The Constitution Of the United States provides
that Congress shah assemble annually on the
first Monday Of December and it has been usual
for the President to make no communication a
public character to the Senate and House of Rep
resentatiyes until advised of their readiness to
receive it / have deferred to this usuage until
the close of the first month of the session, but
my convictions of duty will not permit me long
erltO postpone the discharge Of the obligation
eploined by the Constitution upon the President
$50 give Congress information of the state OF. the
Union and recommend to their consideration
sttc.l measures as ne shall judge necessary and
expedient."
1t isaImatter of congratulatiOn that the Re
public is TRANQUILITY advancing in acareer ofpros-
perity and peace
- FOREIGN RELAT1oSs-cESTR4AI AMERICA.
Whilst relations of amity continue to exist
between the United States and all foreign pow
ers, with some of them grave questions are de-
pending, which may require the consideration oil
Congress.
On such questions, The most important is that
which has arisen out Of the negotiations with
GreatIBritaini in referenceto Central America. By
the Convention concluded between the two Gov
ments on the 18th of April, 1850, both parties
e0yenanted, that neither will ever occupy, or
fortify, or eolonize, OF assume, or exercise any
dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mos
quito coast, OF any part of Central America" z
II 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 entire territory Of each, would
thenceforth enjoy complete independence; and
that both contracting parties engaged equally,
and TO the same extent, Tor the present ana tne
future that if either then had any claim OF right
in Central America, such claim, and all occupa-
ton or authority under it, were unreservedly re-
h., tho utinuatinns of the Convention.
and that no dominion was thereafter 70 be exer-
cised or assumed IN any part ot. central America,
by Great Britain or the United States
This government 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 treat brltaln: buI
for this understanding of the force and effect of
the convention, it would never have been con-
Guided by u.s.
So clear was this understanding on the part
of the United States, that, in correspo con-
temporaneous with the ratification of the con-
veution, It was distinctly expressed, that the
mutual covenants of non.occupation were not
intended 10 apply to the British establishment
at the Balize. This qualification IS to be ascrl-
bed to the fact that, in virtue of the successive
treaties With previous sovereigns of the coun-
try, Great Britain had obtained concession OF
Balize, but with positive exclusion of all domain
or sovereignty; and thrs Il contirms the natural
construction and U19erstoo import of the treaty
90 Ia ali the resto tho reeioA to which the stip-
,1lo+;ons ,nnliS3
Il now sI,barcnt. at an early dav
,f,er eyf., ron d DISCHARGE of-my present
F,Tof' - M ,r,st Britain still continued in
~ 81 assertion of large authority in all
MAJ .a-f 4 Central America commonly called
A. a coast and covering the entire
Ior5iiE .4 ifs' STATE Of Nicaragua and a part of
80 n.... ~ sI,o. reo,rfefI the Ralize ne her
stsoT.,, l,,.,s sud 1g,s gradually extending
;ts I;ro; q 4, m sAsnensaof the State of Hondu.
sla had formally cOIonized 4 con-
s;[lssaI "A slFAnn known az the BAY ISL
.,s- anil'i 5ressEi.ss6f right to that State
an i, - mansions of Great Britain
ile riEhts Of the States of Cen.
80 sn,s..,5 Nond ID IA manifest tenor of her
st;nI3Iotions Nm The If,iled States as Under
otdoJ hy tb;s oN-srs,tent have been made the
subject Of nesotisfion through the American
Minister, at london. I transmit herewith the
Instructions To him ON the subject and the cor.
. ,.ss,ondonca betvvean him and the British Sec
retsry for FOREIGN Affairs, by which You will
nerceive that the two governments differ widely
md ;rrecorcilablv ms ia the construction of the
ronyention and It's effect on their respective re-
lotinns IN Central America.
Great Britain so constructs the convention as
tomaintain UNCHANGED all her previous preten-
sions over the MOSQUITO coast and IN different
nartsof Central America. Those pretensions.
IS 10 tne Mosquito coast are founded on the as
sumption of political relation between Great
Britain-antl the remnant of a tribe Of Indians on
that coast, entered into at time when the
whole country was acolonialp possession of Spain.
Itcannot be successfully controverted, that, by
the public law of Europe and America, no pos
sible act of such Indians or their predecessors
could confer on Great Britain any political rights
Great Britain does not aIege the assent of
Spain as the origin other claims on the Musquito
coast. She has, on the contrary, by repeated
and successive treaties, renowned and. relin-
pushed all pretensions of her own, and recogni-
zed the full and sovereign RICHES ofSpain in the
most eqrlivOcal terms. Yet these pretentions, so
without solid foundation in the beginning, and
thus repeatedly abiured, were, at recent peri
cd. revived by Great Britain against the Gem
t-aI 4,,,nr;cor Ctotes tho Ieoitimnte Successors