times, indeed, owing to the defect of proof, it has not been in the power of the government to arrest these expeditions; but even when its exertions have not succeeded in preventing their departure, they have been fairly and generally successfully directed to prevent reinforcements of men and materiel from reaching the adventurers who had eluded the vigilance of the officers of the law.

The good faith of the United States in relation to these illegal undertakings has been much misunderstood and misrepresented, both in Central America and elsewhere. A brief recurrence, however, to the true state of the facts would remove many of the erroneous impressions which have prevailed. It would show to every impartial inquirer, what is indeed known to the present rulers of Nicaragua, that the origin of these attempts is due to the intestine difficulties of that country, and to the interference and application of persons of high authority there, supported by the concurrence of a portion of the population.

Under such circumstances the first expedition of this kind left the United States in June, 1855, and it was soon afterwards claimed that the party with which it acted, and whose interests it had promoted, had obtained such possession of the country as to entitle its authorities to be recognised as the actual government of Nicaragua. The government of the United States, however, withheld this recognition, and the expedition ultimately failed of success. And subsequently the American authorities, at a critical period, probably prevented by their intervention the accomplishment of another effort to overthrow the existing government by a military invasion. It is little creditable to the candor of the President of Nicaragua that these circumstances have been entirely overlooked in his earnest desire to cast reproach upon this country.

But there is another consideration not less decisive in forming an estimate of the conduct of the United States under these circumstances. A fresh invasion, says this accusatory manifesto, is preparing under the patronage of the government of the United States for the purpose of definitively taking possession of Central America, &c.

I have already said that time has shown the error of this assertion, and ought to bring with it a due acknowledgment. No such expedition has left this country, nor in fact, so far as I know, was one then contemplated. But a review of this subject presents a yet more powerful justification of the policy of the American government. There has been no period since these projects were first set on foot by the Nicaragua invitation when they would not probably have been successful had the laws of the United States against such military enterprises been repealed or suspended by the legislative authority, or been left unenforced by the Executive authority. The State of Nicaragua owes its political existence, or rather its present rulers owe the power they exercise, to the laws of the United States as executed by this government, and the return for this fidelity is the undignified denunciation which has been given to the world. The most careless. observer of passing events must be convinced that if military expeditions met no opposition in the United States from the public authorities, the spirit of adventure originally called into action by

Nicaragua itself, and fostered by subsequent occurrences, would send to that country without delay bands of enterprising men who would soon attain the control of its affairs and change the whole course of its policy, probably of its destiny.

But the Presidents of these republics deal in specific facts as well as in more general allegations. They charge that "the government of the United States has, according to official reports made to that of Costa Rica by its Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, declared it was utterly powerless to prevent past attempts by the filibusters, or to protect the neutrality of Central America, owing to the insufficiency of the laws of the United States on this head."

This accusation is wholly without foundation. No such declaration was ever made by the government of the United States. It would have been an act at once of fatuity and of falsity. As to the difficulties in the enforcement of these laws, they are not denied, and have given much trouble to the government in the efforts it has made to carry them into effect; but that they are powerless, or have proved so, no one, in or out of the United States, has the right to assert. The representatives of the Central American States may be called on as witnesses that, in all cases where they have given information to the government that military expeditions against that region were about to be undertaken, measures have been immediately adopted to prevent their success, and to arrest and punish the offenders. Sometimes these efforts have failed, owing to causes not within the control of the government, and sometimes they have been successful; but at all times, the knowledge of the disposition of the government to dis charge energetically the duties imposed on it by the laws has operated as a powerful restraint upon these enterprises, and has crippled the means relied upon for their consummation. To these views, connected with this charge of acknowledged imbecility, I have now to add that I have just had an interview with the present minister plenipotentiary of Costa Rica in this city, and have been assured by him that no such declaration was ever received by him from this government, nor communicated to his own. If such a communication was ever made by any one in good faith, it must have been done under some strange misapprehension.

I perceive that you also occupy a place in this grave document, and that your "boasts in public" it is said, as to the course which will be pursued by the United States in the event of the failure of Nicaragua to ratify the recent treaty, have been deemed important enough to be introduced into this catalogue of national complaints. I have no doubt but that whoever has watched you, with a view to listen to and report your conversation, has grossly misreported you. But the Presidents of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have much to learn in the duties of a just and wise administration, if they consider it proper or dignified to collect the remarks of foreign ministers in conversation, and gravely report them to the world as grievances demanding its interposition, or at any rate its condemnation. If you had given any just cause of dissatisfaction to the governments of those republics, as I am satisfied you have not, there was another course open to them, far more befitting the occasion than this, and that was to make a

representation of the circumstances to the government of the United States, in which case an inquiry would have been instituted, and an efficient remedy, if necessary, would have been applied.

As to the statement it has been thought proper to make, that "all the official agents of the United States in Nicaragua have been the accomplices and auxiliaries of the invaders," I know nothing of it except what is mentioned in this paper, and its position there in the absence of all proof, is not sufficient to entitle it to confidence. I repeat the assurance already given with relation to yourself, that, if any of these agents have justly rendered themselves obnoxious to such charges, let the governments considering themselves injured by their conduct, transmit to this department specific charges, embodying these or any other accusations, with evidence in support of them, and the subject shall receive immediate attention, followed by such action as may be justly called for.

As to the protectorate which is invoked for the "independence and nationality of the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica," it is a subject very easily disposed of, so far as the United States have any concern in the question. The President has no belief that either of the powers thus publicly and improperly appealed to, has ever given the least encouragement to such a proposition, nor had any reason to anticipate it. The French government has voluntarily disclaimed any connexion with M. Belly, and has given assurances that it has no designs upon Central America, but on the contrary has avoided any interference of that kind. A guarantee for the general use and security of a transit route, and also for its neutrality, is a desirable measure which would meet the hearty concurrence of the United States. These views have already been made known to the governments of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and they have been informed "that the President indulges the hope that these routes may yet be considered, by general consent, as neutral highways for the world, not to be disturbed by the operations of war."

These great avenues of intercommunication are vastly interesting to all commercial powers, and all may well join in securing their freedom and use against those dangers to which they are exposed from aggressions or outrages, originating within or without the territories through which they pass.

But the establishment of a political protectorate by any of the powers of Europe, over any of the independent States of this continent, or in other words, the introduction of a scheme or policy which would carry with it a right to interfere in their concerns, is a measure to which the United States have long since avowed their opposition, and which, should the attempt be made, they will resist by all the means in their power.

The reasons for the attitude they have assumed have been fully promulgated, and are every where well known. There is no need. upon this occasion to recapitulate them. They are founded on the political circumstances of the American continent, which has interests of its own, and ought to have a policy of its own, disconnected from many of the questions which are continually presenting themselves in Europe, concerning the balance of power, and other subjects

of controversy, arising out of the condition of its States, and which often find their solution or their postponement in war. It is of paramount importance to the States of this hemisphere that they should have no entangling union with the powers of the old world; a connexion which would almost necessarily make them parties to wars having no interest in them, and which would often involve them in hostilities with the other American States contiguous or remote. The years which have passed by since this principle of separation was first announced by the United States, have served still more to satisfy the people of this country of its wisdom and to fortify their resolution to maintain it, happen what may.

The progress of events has rendered the inter-oceanic routes. across the narrow portions of Central America vastly important to the commercial world, and especially to the United States whose possessions, extending along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, demand the speediest and the easiest modes of communication. While the just rights of sovereignty of the States occupying this region should always be respected, we shall expect that these rights will be exercised in a spirit befitting the occasion, and the wants and circumstances that have arisen. Sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit of eastern isolation, to close these gates of intercourse on the great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these avenues of trade and travel belong to them, and that they choose to shut them, or what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust regulations as would prevent their general use. The United States do not seek either the control or the exclusive use of these routes. They desire that the advantages should be equally common to all nations. Nor do they claim to interfere with the local governments in the determination of the questions connected with the opening of the routes, and with the persons with whom contracts may be made for that purpose. What they do desire, and mean to accomplish, is that the great interests involved in this subject should not be sacrificed to any unworthy motive, but should be guarded from abuse, and that when fair contracts are fairly entered into with American citizens, they should not be wantonly violated.

Other nations will no doubt pursue the same course in relation to their citizens or subjects who may have similar interests.

But besides these general considerations applicable to this subject, there are others which impose additional obligations upon these Isthmian powers, and which bear with equal force upon their relations with other nations. Several of these powers, and Nicaragua especially, have in fact, by their public proceedings, invited the co-operation of the capital and industry and enterprise of the world in order to open these lines of communication. The citizens of the United States have contributed their full share towards the accomplishment of the enterprise, and this government intends to use the means in its power to protect them in the enjoyment of their rights. The good

faith of Nicaragua has been committed, and large sums have been expended looking to its faithful observance.

A paper has recently appeared in the public journals, to which I have already referred, purporting to be a contract between the governments-the presidents rather-of Costa Rica and of Nicaragua, and Mr. Belly, a French citizen, and his associates, constituting a new canal route company, and providing for its operations. Nothing is known here officially of the authenticity of this paper, but it carries with it a strong probability that it is genuine, and presuming it to be so, it furnishes you with an occasion to lay before these governments the views of the United States respecting their own interests, and the interests of their citizens involved in the contracts for opening transit routes. So far as regards the action of Costa Rica, the President adheres to the views laid down in the instructions to our special agent, Mr. Jones, a copy of which has been communicated to those governments, and also furnished to yourself. And the United States, while they interpose no objection to an amicable adjustment by those republics of the question of their boundary line, will recognise no arrangement which interferes with the existing transit interests as insisted on in those instructions.

The United States no more claim for their citizens an exclusive right to form contracts for opening these transit routes than they claim for them the exclusive use of the routes when the work is completed. Their construction is a fair object of competition for the citizens and subjects of all other powers. The work is as open to M. Belly and his associates as to any other enterprising person. There are but two points connected with this matter which have any interest for the United States, or which would justify their intervention. The first is that no contract with M. Belly, or with any one indeed, should interfere with engagements previously existing with American citizens, but that all such engagements should be preserved inviolate; and the second is that the regulations and conditions of the grant should be such as to render the routes free and safe to all nations, but controlled by no one, and upon moderate and reasonable terms. It would be equally impolitic and unjust for these governments, in a desire to make these great undertakings profitable to themselves without furnishing any contribution towards their construction, to levy onerous charges upon the persons and property destined to pass over them, and by this means interpose serious obstacles to their general use. These local governments should look to the vast benefits which these enterprises will bring to the countries through which they pass, and not strive by excessive impositions to make them sources of revenue, and defeat by this ill-judged measure the very object sought to be obtained.

It is not necessary that I should enter into a detailed examination of M. Belly's contract. There are physical and financial obstacles, as well as political ones, in the way of its execution, some of which can hardly be overcome. I shall therefore only advert to one of the provisions, rather with a view to the future proceedings of these governments than from any practical bearing it will have in this case.

But previously to doing so I will bring to your notice one extraor