Kanawha Valley star. [volume] (Charleston, Va. [W. Va.]) 1856-1861, 1859-02-01

~ : 49, n
II Great Britain hereby declare that neither I'LL
one nor the other will ever Oh tain 81 maintafi
i Tor itself any exclusive control over the sail
i ship canal, agreeing that neither will eve
Iereetor maintain any Notifications command.
ing the same Of in the vicinity thereof Of or
leupys o. fortify3 OF colonize. or assume, 81
i exercise any dominion over NicaEagua; Costa
j hlca, the Mosquito coast. or any paft of Cen
tral america. nor will either make use ofany
1 protection which either affords OF may afford
Il Or any alliafice which either has or may have
| to or with any State or people, for the pur-
I pose OF erecting or maintaining any such fpf-
llhcations, or ot occupying. fortifsing, or col,
onizng Nicaragua, Costa RIGA, the Mosquito
coast, or any part of Central America, oil III
assuming or exercising any doniinionoser tlle
same; nos will the United States o. Great
Britain take advantage Of any intimacy, or use
any al llanee, connection or influence that Ell
ther, may possess with any State or Govern
ment Through whose territory The. said canal
may pass, for the purpose Of SECURING Or hold
ing, directly OF indirectly. for the citizens 0r
the subjects Of The one, any rightssor adyan.
itages IN regard to commerce OF navigation
i through said canal, which shalEn be offered
on the same terms to the citizens OF subjects
sof the Other 5pE ffae
Yet, sir, have we not signally failed To
accomplish that object on our part ]. -----
Have we even approximated it ~
Has Great Britain refinq uished a single
| foot of thatcouatry 2. Does she not occu-+
lpy and exercise as much dominion a
ever, over a great part Of its From ths
hour that treaty Was ratified until this
moment she has not fulfilled its plainest
stipulation. She refused to do upon vail
rious presexts. always however continuing
| 10 postpone the matter until nearly Two
years had elapsed, when, as if to shock
4 the common sense of this nation, Lord
Clarendon took the position that the trea4
| ty IN question was not to operate upon
the existing state Of things. but Was only
to take effect III Future. Now, | shall not
consume the time of the House by att
tempting to disproY 1.-THE BUSINESS of the
| English construction That construction,
sit, is almost beneath criticism, FORTS re-
verse is asrapparent upon the face of the
i treaty itself as are the signatures APT
pended to it. Lord Clarendon IS letters
written to holster up his novel construc-
ton Of IT are, with allhis force Of intel
lect, only SO many specimens of 'sophis-
try, casllistry and word logic, which one
would have expected rather To have ema-
mated from The schoollnen OF the middle
ages, than from 8. modern statesrnan -
They were at the time completely exposed
land riddledI byfour ableI Minister at the
Ceuff Of ST. James, now our worthy
| President! Ii was indeed almos, a work
fof supererogation on his part, 30 fair as II
Feoncefned the public mind ofAmeriea !;
for | doubt whether sane man could b
foundfWithin the limits vi this Republic,
whose mind could be 50 perverted as 10
adopt the fmonstrous idea that this treaty
was purely prospective in its Operations,
tn the face Of lis Obvious and palpable
meaning to the contrary. 9ssl
But, sir, 90 England now CONSTITUTES it.
and what ID more 10 the point, she acts
upon this co,fstructioh. The consequence
is. that her Illegal possessions.in Central
America are as extensive ais ever her
Mosquito Indian protectorate as Wig orous
ass ever; and her interference under its
gllise. in the affairs of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica, rather more frequent than
heretofore. Thus, sir, have we failed,
utterly failed. III accomplishing single
purpose had invieW whom We negotiated
this treaty 81 ST s5 fH
This treaty, then, is impotsnt forgood;
hence its abrogation, even without further
action on our part, could not make our
case worse than it is. I'D would not in
crease the rights Of Great Britain ID Gem
trail America, for two reasons !: One is,
that she has ND rights there, even aside
from this treaty hence its abrogation
could revive none True, at avery early
day, but when the whole country con
fessedly belonged to Spain, England did
pretend to set up some kind Of claim 10 q
portion Of Central America, deriving it
from the English pirates but this claim
she abandoned In The treaty of Paris, con-
Guided inJI763. Having subsequently
engaged iii the fiwars with Spain. alothar
treaty was concluded between the parties
lin 1853. byFwhich England bound her
self to leave the whole country, which.
upon various pretexts, she had contriyed
to occupy. and To eonfne herselfto Bahze.
and even there she was not to exercise
eminent domain, but was 10 have emily an
usufruct for the purpose Of cutting Jog
wood and mahogany which had before
this tin1s become articles Of commerce. -
England, however, violated this treaty BY
most petty equivoque !; asserting that
!" contineat Espa9pol." or Spanish con-
tinent, did mol include Central America,
Aud The history ofthat period shows con-
clus yely, not only that all Europe regard
led Is al miserable avasion aHaountinglto
violation Of good faith. but that the En-
glish Government itself actually contenl-
plated. it as such, and 20 designed it from,
the beginning.
But, sir, even this faint shadow Of q title
was lost in f786--s.ill mother treaty hay
ling been entered into st that time be-
tween the parties. by which England gave
up all her pretsnsions, IN the fullest and
most unequiyocal terms and this time,
acting III good faith, abandoned her forli-
fcations, aud aitpossession ofthe coun-
try aud ii was not until, by the treaty d
Guadalupe. Hidalgo, we acquired Galifor-
mia and New Msxico, that England, see
ling the value Of Central America to our
lpeople for transit purposes between oui
Atlantic and Pacific possessions, attempt.
ed I'd renew her old and exploded perten-
Observation-Disclosures which this Govern
lment has never admitted. either directly