There are other circumstances which led me to Sir, the compacts were totally different. One of suppose that this was a propitious moment for ma- them, the Cuban convention, would not have reking this effort; and it does seem to me, from the ceived, I am sure, a single vote in the Senate, if character of the recent debate, that if it should now the Executive had been ill advised enough to send || finally terminate without any allusion to those it here. The other was confirmed by a majority circumstances, it would, as I stated last Thurs-largely exceeding that which was required by the day, leave upon the public mind, not only an in- Constitution. The Senator from Delaware has correct, but a somewhat painful impression as to said that he concurs in the principles of the letter the real state of affairs in that part of the world, of the 1st of December, and he has shown you and our connection with them; that the country that the policy pursued by him towards Cuba was would be alarmed with the idea that the state of precisely the same as that pursued by the late Adaffairs is more critical in that quarter than it really ministration. If there is the difference which the is. To rectify this impression is the main object Senator from Illinois thinks there is between some of my addressing the Senate at this time. of the doctrines of the Cuban letter and the principles of the treaty, I should feel that it behoved me quite as much to look to my letter, as it does the Senator from Delaware to look to his treaty; and instead of attacking him, I should think it was much wiser for me to look around to find how I might fortify myself. In fact, my friend from Delaware is one of the last men with whom I should wish to engage in a parliamentary warfare, even with the advantage of the alliance of a leader so vigorous and skillful as the Senator from Illinois. I should fear that that alliance would prove an "entangling alliance" to me, which, if not absolutely unconstitutional, it might be very unadvisable one for me to enter into.

32D CONG.....3D SESS.

were seen winding their way through those dark tropical forests, through the branches of which the rays of the sun had never penetrated since creation.

A charter for a canal was soon granted by Nicaragua to a company of American citizens, and if no political difficulties had existed, and if Central America had been occupied by a population like that which poured the waters of Lake Erie into the bed of the Hudson at Albany, I do not know that it would be extravagant to say, that at this very moment three-masted vessels of twenty feet draught would be navigating the waters of Lake Nicaragua, on their way to the Pacific.

But unfortunately political obstacles did exist

obstacles of all kinds. There were dissensions between the neighboring States of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. There was a difference between Nicaragua and the British Government, assuming to be the protector of the Mosquito Indians; and jealousies, it must be said, were entertained-unfounded jealousies, I think-but jealousies were sincerely entertained between the United States and Great Britain-that each of these great maritime Powers was desirous of obtaining some exclusive advantage to itself in reference to the opening of this route of interoceanic communication.

Now, sir, it was a great object, as I understand it, of the treaty negotiated on the part of this Government by my friend from Delaware, to remove these difficulties, particularly so far as the United States and Great Britain were concerned; and to establish the principle that neither of these great Powers wished for any separate and exclusive advantage. That treaty was negotiated precisely on the principles that had governed every movement and every step which had been taken from the first by the United States, in reference to artificial interoceanic communication. think, it was the right principle; that is, that neither party would seek any exclusive advantage; and that the two great Powers would unite, so far as depended upon them, in opening this great pathway to the commerce of the whole world.

As I

It is a point which I think has not received sufficient attention, viz: that if the whole matter was to be peaceably disposed of, it was absolutely necessary that such an understanding should take place between the United States and Great Britain. The United States could not take a grant of exclusive privileges from Nicaragua, because Nicaragua was not in a condition to give such a grant. She claimed an unbroken sovereignty over the whole route. She was satisfied that her claim was good, and perhaps we were satisfied that it was good. Í think myself that it was; but it was not uncontested. There was another great Power that denied the validity of the claim; there was a great Power that set up rival pretensions, and it was necessary that these should be disposed of; and that, as I said, was the great object, or one of the great objects effected by the treaty of the 19th of April, 1850. And I will say this,-I wish to do no more and no less than justice to Great Britain,-although she did set up this claim, and although we think it unfounded, yet in reference to the canal, she set it up only to waive it. She did not make any use of this pretension to obstruct the execution of the charter which Nicaragua had given. She said in effect, that Nicaragua had no right to give such a charter, because she did not own the territory for the whole distance. But she did not use her rival claim to obstruct that charter. On the contrary, it was one of the leading objects of the convention of the 19th of April, 1850, to give the assent of Great Britain to the execution of that charter which was granted to American citizens. She gave her own consent in the form of obtaining the assent of the Mosquito Indians, over whom she claimed a protectorate. It was only a form of giving her own consent. She not only gave her own consent, and that of the Mosquito Indians, but she undertook to use her influence, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain that of Costa Rica; so that whatever we may think of her rights as the protector of the Mosquito Indians, she availed herself of them, not to obstruct, but to aid the work.

Now, as to the protectorate which Great Britain claims it is her right and her duty to exercise over the Mosquito Indians, my friend from Delaware has characterized it very well. Using the famous motto of Junius, he has called this Mosquito king

|

Special Session-Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

dom nominis umbra, the shadow of à name. And
it is certainly nothing more. There is in an import-
ant document which lies on your table, a letter
from Mr. Rives to Mr. Clayton, then Secretary of
State, giving a report of a conference which he
had, by direction of the Department of State, with
Lord Palmerston on his way to Paris, in 1849.
Lord Palmerston said to Mr. Rives:

"From a very early period the Mosquito Indians had
been treated by the British Government as a separate and
an independent State-they had what was called a king,
who, by-the-by, he added (says Mr. Rives) in a tone of
pleasantry, was as much a king as you or I."

SENATE.

a century and a half, the whole commercial world took sides against Spain. We now are inclined to sympathize with her, we think but meanly of this Mosquito protectorate, and we regard the occupation of those islands and these establishments on the main by Great Britain as acts of injustice and violence. But it was not thought so then. The whole commercial world, exclusive of Spain and her allies, sympathized with England, and no part of the world more than the English colonies, now the United States. I have been amused in reading the old colonial journals to see the effusions of the loyal feeling constantly poured out from these colonies, when the public mind was greatly excited in England upon subjects of this kind. On that memorable occasion, which you recollect from the history of those times, when a certain Captain Jenkins was brought upon the floor of Parliament, and exhibited his mutilated ears, and a fragment which had been torn from one of them, and produced such an ex

After this account which the British Minister for Foreign Affairs gives of the Mosquito kingdom and of the Mosquito king, I think it would be wasting the time of the Senate of the United States for me to bestow many words to prove the inanity of the king and kingdom. Nevertheless, it was really an ancient affair. There was something of history in it. It had a pedigree. It ran back two centuries, and Great Britain maintained, appa-citement, that England, against the opinion of the rently in good faith, that in the course of these two centuries she has contracted certain obligations and duties towards these Mosquito Indians, now reduced to a mere handful, and they in the most wretched condition, which she does not feel herself at liberty to disregard.

Prime Minister, was thrown into a war with Spain,
in the whole compass of the British Empire, there
was perhaps nowhere such fervent, loyal zeal ex-
hibited as in these transatlantic colonies. In the
war which took place, the fleets and armies of
England were recruited in these American colo-
nies. I can tell you, sir, that in the old grave-
yards of New England, you can still read the epi-
taphs of men who brought home the diseases of
the tropics from Porto Bello and Carthagena.
There are men now living, whose great-grand-
fathers laid down their bones upon the Spanish
main. Sir, the name of the home of Washington
upon the banks of the Potomac, here in your
neighborhood, derived its origin from the enthu-
siasm felt by Washington's elder brother for one
of the unfortunate heroes of those wars, who
found upon these pestiferous coasts an enemy
against which human courage and strength were
of no avail:

"You, gallant VERNON, saw
The miserable scene; you pitying saw
To infant weakness shrunk the warrior's arm;
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form,
The lip pale quivering and the beamless eye,
No more in ardor bright; you heard the groans
Of agonizing ships from shore to shore;
Heard nightly plunged beneath the sullen wave
The frequent corse."

Sir, it was owing to nothing but the yearnings of a fond maternal heart that our beloved Washington himself, for whom a warrant as midshipman in the royal navy had been obtained, did not, a few years later, enlist himself in those disastrous wars, with an equal prospect of sacrificing his life in the support of the system of which this wretched Mosquito protectorate was a part.

This Mosquito kingdom in its origin and progress is really a little more important than it might otherwise be thought. It played a very important part in the history of the world. It was a prominent incident in the Spanish colonial system, which for a century and a half gave a character to the politics of the whole civilized world. America having been discovered by the great navigator who sailed under Spanish auspices, Spain possessed herself of the largest and the noblest part of the continent. From California to Cape Horn, with the exception of Brazil, everything fell into her hands. It was not merely the largest and fairest part, but it was the part which contained within itself those tropical treasures, and especially those treasures of silver and gold which have in all times overmastered the imaginations of men. Why, sir, I believe such was the state of things in the seventeenth century, that the whole exportable product of what is now known as the United States, did not exceed one half a million of dollars annually, and that, I need not tell you, was perhaps no more than half the amount contained in one of the treasure ships which were regularly dispatched from Vera Cruz to Cadiz. Spain locked up all this treasure beneath the bolts and bars of her colonial monopoly. She did no more with respect to her colonies than England with respect to hers. It was the ancient colonial system; but the productions of the Spanish colonies were so much more important than those of England, that the whole commercial world sought its revenge by endeavoring to force a contraband trade with the Spanish colonies. This trade was carried on by the wholesale and retail, by private individuals and by armed squadrons, by adventurers in whom the trader, the buccaneer, and the pirate were so much mixed up, that it was hard to say which character prevailed. After Jamaica was conquered, in the time of Cromwell, that island became the basis of these operations. Spain of course sought to defend herself, and she not only instituted a line of guarda costas all along her shores to drive off every vessel that was seen hov-minus, the port of San Juan, fell within the limits ering in those waters, as if a pestilence lurked in her sails-for such was the detestable character of this ancient colonial system-but she also undertook to institute a right of search of any merchant vessel which should show itself within a considerable distance of the Spanish coast. Of course this led to infinite collisions. Wars were constantly breaking out; in these wars islands were seized, and establishments were formed upon the main. Roatan and the other Bay Islands were captured by Admiral Vernon in the first half of the last century. When the war ceased, these islands would be surrendered, and the establishments given up, or pretended to be given up. But the peace would prove to be hollow truce, the same system of forcing a contraband trade would recommence, the same right of search would be instituted, war would break out again, and then the same circle of operations be repeated.

It is but fair to say that in this long struggle of

This was the origin, this the character of this Mosquito claim, carried on in defiance of the power of Spain, as long as the power of Spain existed, and after the Spanish colonies threw off the yoke, carried on in defiance, or with the acquiescence of the coterminous States. Such I understand to have been its origin, such its history, reduced at the present day to very small dimensions, the state of affairs having wholly changed, and the English Government having no longer any interest or any motive in adhering to the protectorate. Such she assures us is the case.

Now, in reference to this canal, its southern ter

of the territory which was claimed to be (claimed to be is all I say) under this protectorate. This claim was of course denied by Nicaragua. She had temporarily possessed herself of the port after a long dispute with the British; but in January, 1848, the Nicaraguans were promptly expelled by an English force, and the first thing that was done by the British authority-and I must say, in my opinion, in very bad taste-was to change the ancient euphonious name of San Juan del Norte or San Juan de Nicaragua (I do not care which) into the modern, and to my ear very insipid, appellation of Greytown. I hope the first thing that will be done by the independent authorities of San Juan, if they are independent, will be to change it back again. Let us have again that fine, old, and well-sounding Spanish name.

Now, as I said, the convention negotiated by my friend from Delaware, with the approbation of the President, on the 19th of April, 1850, re

32D CONG.....3D SESS.

Special Session-Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

thought it held out the prospect that something
practical would at length be done. I consequent-
ly made the suggestion to the President to which
I have alluded, which was approved by him and
santioned by Congress, that in order to do our
part toward bringing about this arrangement, we
should put our diplomatic relations with those
States upon the most advantageous footing. I
will say, however, that I thought, and still think,
that instead of recognizing the independence of
this new municipal organization, this free city of
San Juan-(and it appears to me it would be like
one of the Hanse towns of Germany)-consider-
ing the antecedents of the question and the his-
tory of the whole affair, it would be better to re-
new to Nicaragua the propositions that we made
to her last April, and give up San Juan to her,
and allow her to establish her sovereignty over the
city. I feel, it is true, that there will be some in-
convenience in that course, if this town is to grow.
For, mind you, sir, it will be an American town.
Mr. Boone writes that out of seventy vessels that
arrived in the six months he was there, sixty, if
I recollect, were American vessels; and if the
canal is to be constructed, as this will be the east-
ern terminus of the great route of interoceanic
communication, it will become in time a great
American city, inhabited, for the most part, by
citizens of the United States; and I do feel that
there will be a considerable inconvenience with this
prospect, in requiring the little independent munici-
pality, which has now asserted its inherent right
to establish its own government there, to go back
under the sovereignty of Nicaragua. Still, under
the circumstances of the case, I should be in favor,
if it rested with me, of giving Nicaragua that op-
tion, and trusting, I have no doubt safely trusting,
to her good sense not to press the inhabitants of
that city. I believe she would give them an inde-
pendent government, and allow them to carry on
their affairs in their own way, by means of mu-
nicipal authorities of their own election.

final adjustment, were these difficulties in Central
America. I will confess to you, Mr. President,
that this communication produced an agreeable
impression on my mind. It reminded me of what
took place eleven or twelve years ago, when I
found myself in London, as the representative of
this Government. You recollect that at that time
we were still involved in the controversies about
the northeastern boundary, the affair of the " Car-
oline," the arrest of McLeod, and the seizure and
detention of American vessels on the coast of Af-
rica. These subjects had been discussed, some of
them for half a century; and with no other effect
than to confirm each party in the conviction that
it had all the right on its own side; and in fact to
bring the two great Powers to the verge of a con-
flict. Such was the condition of affairs at that
time. In this state of things, late one night in
December, as I was meditating upon these matters,
not in the best spirits, and feeling a pretty heavy
sense of responsibility as to my own position, hav-
ing been sent there to discuss all these questions
without a word of instruction from the Govern-
ment upon any one of them, I received a note from
Lord Aberdeen, appointing an interview for the
next day, the object of which turned out to be to
inform me that the Queen's Government, lately
formed under Sir Robert Peel, had come to the
conclusion to make a new, and as it hoped a
successful, attempt to settle all matters in con-
troversy between the two countries; and that for
this purpose, it had determined to send a special
minister to the United States, and had selected
Lord Ashburton for the mission, on the express
ground that, though he would of course look after
the interests of his own country, he was the indi-
vidual, perhaps, in the whole British empire, in a
position to undertake the duty, who would carry
to the United States the kindest feelings and the
most friendly domestic and personal associations.
I confess that that communication, made in that
amicable tone for the express object mentioned,
did, as it were, lift a somewhat heavy load from
my mind. I thought I saw, at no great distance,
the prospect of an adjustment of all these embar-
rassing and dangerous questions; a prospect which
was so happily realized in the course of the sum-
mer by the conclusion of the treaty of Washing-portant who is sent by the United States to Cen-
ton of the 9th of August, 1842.

It may be comparing small things with great, but I must say that it was with a somewhat similar feeling of satisfaction that I found that one of the first acts of Lord Aberdeen's new Government was to make an overture to us for the settlement of this, not so formidable, but still by no means inconsiderable difficulty down in Central America. The purport of the communication was, that the Government of her Britannic Majesty was disposed to agree to almost anything reasonable. It was willing to recognize, it had recognized, the independent government that was set up at San Juan. With respect to the protectorate, it desired nothing more than to be wholly disembarrassed from it, so far as it could without an entire sacrifice of the duties of charity and paternal regard which it owed to the broken-down fragments of the Indian tribes which for two hundred years had been, to a certain extent, under its protection. It wished only to get out of it with honor and credit. That was the purport of the communication. It was willing to go there with the United States, and treat with the municipal authorities of San Juan, and was willing that they should continue to govern the territory, American citizens though they were. It was willing that they should continue in power under the cover of the Mosquito king, or they might assume the absolute sovereignty, and extend just such protection to the Indians as their condition and wants should require.

Now, sir, how far this project will succeed de-
pends very much in the first instance upon the
individual sent on the mission. I look upon it as
a very important mission. Small as those States
are, I really think that at this time, it is more im-

tral America, than who is sent to London, to
Paris, or St. Petersburg; and I must say, without
intending to use any language of compliment,
that I place entire confidence in the President of
the United States, that out of the able and distin-
guished men of his own party, he will select the
right man. I have no doubt he will do it, and
I have pleasure in saying so. The only diplo-
matic appointments which have yet been made
by him, that to Switzerland and that to Peru, are
sufficient pledges to my mind that he will have
regard to merit and to qualifications. Those ap-
pointments, in my opinion, do him the highest
honor, as they do the highest honor to his politi-
cal friends upon this floor, who confirmed them
without hesitation and without a division. I have
no doubt that he will be governed by the same
good sense in the appointment to be made for this
mission; and if the right man can be found, and
if he can be induced to go down there to take this
work in hand and bring these protracted contro-
versies to a desirable conclusion, he will cover
himself with honor. I do not see any point in
the range of our foreign relations where so much
good is now to be done. And, sir, allow me to
say one other word on this point. It seems to
me that this is the last chance we have for settling
affairs on a desirable and honorable footing. If
this fails, I do not myself see any hope of taking
up the subject in any other form with a better
prospect of success. If we cannot now settle all
these matters and remove all the difficulties that
obstruct the execution of the canal, as far as de-
pends upon political considerations, I do not see
but that Nicaragua and Costa Rica must be left to
struggle on together with each other, with the cer-

They invited us to go there with them, to join them in treating with the municipal authorities, and if the arrangement could be completed, then to join, not in guaranteeing the independence of this little new republic-for that it was thought would not be deemed by us an advisable step-tainty, but to act in concert with them in extending such friendly countenance to the poor remnants of the Indians as might be requisite to secure them from internal violence, and prevent them from perishing from the face of the earth.

the moral and political certainty that the construction of the canal through their country is indefinitely postponed. Whether that would be for the interest of Nicaragua it is for her to judge.

I have taken up more of the time of the Senate than I had intended, and have now said all that I I must confess that I thought this a very have to say on the main subject. Before I take reasonable and satisfactory communication. I my seat, however, I will add a few words in ref

SENATE.

erence to topics on which I may be expected to say something; I mean the Belize, the Bay Islands, and the recent operations in Honduras, and the opinion entertained by distinguished Senators, that those settlements and operations furnish just ground for accusing England of a breach of the stipulations of the treaty of the 19th of April, 1850. In reference to this, I will candidly say that I do not think England has either violated or intended to violate the faith of that treaty. Why should she? What had she to gain by entering into a treaty stipulation, with no other intention than to break it? She was not obliged to make the treaty. She had no motive in making it, except the motive of faithfully executing its provisions. She owed us nothing in reference to Central America or the canal. We had no claim upon her which required her to enter into the compact with us. What possible inducement of interest or ambition, or any other corrupt motive that could influence a State, can it be supposed England could have had to enter into the treaty for the sole purpose of breaking it? ___Why, sir, there was difficulty enough before. The pretension to the Mosquito protectorate was itself troublesome enough. Why should England voluntarily and gratuitously add to that difficulty'a new difficulty that would immediately present itself, by breaking her solemnly-plighted faith with the United States? I cannot think that she would be so senseless as to do it.

Then in reference to the affairs of Central America proper, by which I mean what is commonly so considered, leaving out of the account Belize and Honduras, I cannot see but what England has done all she contracted to do. There may have been some difference in the interpretation which the two parties placed upon the stipulation, but she has been continually receding. She has given up this, and she has given up that. She is desirous not only to disembarrass herself of the protectorate, but she has resigned the sovereignty of San Juan, and has proposed the cession of the whole Mosquito country east of Nicaragua. If a suspicion of bad faith, which I do not admit, could rest upon either party; if there were a disposition to cavil upon the occasion, it might be said rather that the United States, in view of the recent transactions at San Juan, had broken their faith, for there we see an independent government establishing itself by a popular movement, and creating a municipality composed of American citizens. We all know that the Government of the United States has had nothing to do in bringing it about. The utmost that we have done and I do not know that we have done that-is to furnish some degree of countenance and recognition towards the new municipal government. But yet the fact is that there is an independent government at San Juan under the name of the Mosquito king, it is true, but composed of American citizens elected by the people. I mention this only to show, that if one were disposed to take exception, there would be reasonable ground for taking it against the United States.

With respect to the settlements at Belize, after all that has been said in the course of the winter on this subject, especially after the speeches of the Senator from Maryland [Mr. PEARCE] and the Senator from New York, [Mr. SEWARD;] after the view taken of the subject by the Committee on Foreign Relations in their able report, and the explanations that have taken place in the course of the recent discussion, I do not think it would be worth while for me to take up the time of the Senate by dwelling upon the question. I believe it is now admitted upon all sides of the Senate Chamber, let the decision of the geographical question be what it may, let the Belize be in Central America or in Mexico, let the origin and foundation of these settlements be what they will,-that they were not in the contemplation of the parties to the treaty at the time it was negotiated, or of the Senate at the time it was approved.

Attention was not at all turned to these settlements. The parties had something else in view. They were thinking of the canal and the means of carrying forward that great work of interoceanic communication.

The same remark may be made in reference to the Bay Islands. They have been for a century and more a part of the dependencies of Belize,

32D CONG.....3D SESS.

and it was not the understanding of the contracting parties that they should be affected one way or the other by the stipulations of the treaty of 19th of April, 1850.

I understand the facts in reference to the recent establishment of the colony to be these: These islands were among those which were seized, given up, and seized again, while the state of things lasted which I described in a former part of my remarks, and finally the English of late years have considered that the title "de facto and de jure," (1 quote the words of a dispatch of Lord Palmerston,) was in them. As to the validity of the claim, 1 have not a word to say. I am only stating the pretensions of England; and I suppose it is admitted that at the time the treaty was negotiated, those dependencies were not, any more than Belize itself, understood by the negotiators to be included in the stipulations of the treaty. Two or three years ago, as I understand, the inhabitants of the islands, not being very numerous, sent a messenger to the superintendent of the Belize, and informed him that they were without any regular government, and that they wished one to be estab lished. He told them, very reasonably, that her Britannic Majesty could not afford to govern them for nothing; and that they must see how much they could raise by voluntary taxation to defray the expenses of the Government. They held a meeting and agreed that they would tax themselves £200 a year. They sent word of the result to the superintendent of the Belize, who told them that for that he thought he could get them a regular government. In consequence of that, the order of last July was issued establishing the colony of the Bay Islands. Such is the account I have received of the origin of this colonial organization, not however, I ought to add, from any official

source.

If these facts are as I have stated, I think it may be said that there is no violation of the stipu lation of the treaty in organizing that colony. At the same time, I must candidly say, that I think it is an ill-advised step. I have no doubt it has been hastily taken on the suggestion of the colonial authorities, and that it has been passed inadvertently through the Foreign Office at London, without a sufficient consideration of the circumstances of the case. I think that the organization, the avowed organization into a colony of islands belonging geograpically-whatever may be the case politically-to Central America, and within sight of the Honduras coast, is, considering the just susceptibility of the American mind on this subject, which is not greater than would exist in England on a similar subject and in a parallel state of affairs, a very ill-advised and indiscreet step. I have no doubt the consent of the Home Government has been surprised into it, by the officious zeal of the colonial authorities, and I entertain a strong expectation that when, through the dispassionate representation of this Government it shall be brought to the consideration of the British minister, it will be retraced. I hope it will. I think it will be as it was in the case of the Sandwich Islands in 1843. You know that at that time the United States first agreed to recognize the independence of those islands. A communication was made by me to that effect to the British Minister for Foreign Affairs in London. He agreed that his Government would recognize their independence, and use its best influence to induce France to do the same. The next news that came was that

Lord George Paulet, who commanded the British squadron in the Pacific, had seized the islands, had struck the Hawaiian flag, and hoisted the flag of England. The first thing done by the British Government was to disavow the rash and unau

Sir, in our views of the glorious future that awaits the Union, we are apt to regard geographical extension as the measure and the index of our country's progress. I do not deny the general correctness of that impression. It is necessary for the

the West Indies, an officer of great moderation,
who is distinguished for his friendly feelings to-
wards the United States, and at whose instance
the British Admiralty have very lately put in the
possession of Commodore Perry, commander of
the squadron sent out by this Government to Ja-formation of the highest type of national character
pan, a large number of charts and hydrographic
works-everything, in short, to facilitate the expe-
dition-has sent a war steamer to Truxillo to tell
the authorities there that they must recall an armed
party which they had sent over the frontier to
break up the settlements of the English wood-cut-
ters on the river Limas. I do not think anything||
serious will grow out of these transactions; and I
can only say, that if there were a disputed bound-
ary between us and Mexico, and Mexico were to
send an armed force to break up a settlement of
Americans, and destroy their establishments, I
think we should tell them in the plainest terms the
English language contains, that the United States
did not understand that way of settling boundary
controversies.

The Senate will infer, from what I have now
said, that I do not apprehend any disturbance of
the peaceful relations between this country and
Great Britain, in consequence of the state of things
in Central America. In the last speech which I
had the honor to make in the House of Repre-
sentatives, now eighteen years ago, I expressed
the opinion that there was no danger of a war
between the United States and France, with whom
our friendly relations were seriously menaced in
consequence of the delay of the French Chambers
to make an appropriation to carry into effect Mr.
Rives's treaty of indemnity. I am not sorry, in
raising my voice for the first time as a member of
the Senate, that it is for the purpose of expressing
similar sentiments in reference to Great Britain.

It is not because either in this case or in that
I am indifferent to the interests or the honor of
my country. Far otherwise, sir; it is because I
do not think they are in danger. I agree with the
distinguished Senator from Illinois (Mr. DOUGLAS]||
that England does not love us. In the relations
of countries which are governed by Constitutions,
by Parliaments, and by Congresses, there is no
room for love or for hate, or for any senti-
mental influence; enlightened regard to the public
interest is the only rule of action. It is only un-
der absolute governments-under a monarch who,
like Louis XIV., can say "I am the State"-that
there is room for love and for hate. Between us
and England, and the rest of the constitutional
Powers of Europe, there is room only for the in-
Aluence of the dictates of an enlightened regard to
the public weal. But this I will say, that I am
persuaded at this time that with all parties in
England a mutually beneficial, peaceful intercourse
with the United States is considered a cardinal
principle of the policy of the Government; and I
think that on our side toward England, and to-
ward Europe, we ought to consider a mutually
beneficial, peaceful intercourse as a cardinal prin-
ciple of our policy.

I cordially sympathize with the distinguished
Senator from Illinois, in the glowing views that he
entertains of the future growth and glory of our
country. I wish I could persuade him that this
glorious future of America is not inconsistent with
an equally auspicious future for the friendly Powers
of Europe. I wish I could persuade him that
that part of the world is not exclusively the region
of tombs and monuments that he so graphically
described, but that in every country in Europe,
more in some than in others, but visibly in all,
there is progress; that liberal ideas are at work;
that popular institutions and influences are steadily
forming themselves; that the melioration of the
laboring classes is going on; that education and
social comforts are making their way there. It is
true, I beg the gentleman to believe me, it is true;
and nothing will promote this favorable state of
things more than the kindly sympathy and a salu-
tary example on the part of this country. And I
will also say that there is no country in Europe
that I have ever visited, whatever temporary causes
With respect to the transactions at Truxillo, we of irritation may have existed with this govern-
have nothing but newspaper information on the ment or that government-there is not a country
subject, and even that informs us that there has of Europe where the name and character of an
been no bombardment, no cannonading of the American citizen is not a direct passport to every
place, as at first reported; but Sir George Sey-good office that a stranger can desire, and nowhere
mour, the commander of the British squadron in
NEW SERIES.-No. 19.

thorized act. It was the same thing with the seizure of Tigre Island by Mr. Chatfield, in 1848; and although the case is different, these islands having for a long time been in the unqualified, though contested, possession of Great Britian, I do think, under all the circumstances of the case, that on a calm and dispassionate representation from this Government, this hasty step will be retraced.

more than in England.

that it should be formed and exhibited upon a grand and extensive scale. It cannot be developed within the bounds of a petty State. Nor do I admit that this idea of geographical extension necessarily carries with it-though it does perhaps by natural association-that of collision with other Powers. But, sir, I think there is no fear, so far as geographical extension is necessary, that we shall in the natural progress of things, have as much of it, and as rapidly as the best interests of the country admit or require. In the mean time, if we wish a real, solid, substantial growth-a growth which will not bring us in collision with foreign Powers-we shall have it in twenty-five years to our heart's content; not by the geographical accession of dead acres; not by the purchase of Cuba, or by the partition of Mexico, but by the simple peaceful increase of our population.

Sir, have you well considered that that mysterious law which was promulgated on the sixth day of the Creation-"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth"-will, in twenty-five years of peace and union-for it is all wrapped up in thataided by the foreign immigration, give us another America of living men as large as that which we now possess? Yes, sir, as far as living men are concerned, besides replacing the millions which will have passed off the stage, it will give us all that the arm of Omnipotence could give us, if it should call up from the depths of the Pacific, and join to the Union another America as populous as ours. If by any stroke of power or policy you could to-morrow extend your jurisdiction from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn, and ake in every State and every Government, and all their population, it would not give to you a greater amount of population, including your own, than you will have at the end of twenty-five years by the simple law of increase, aided by immigration from abroad.

I shall not live to see it. My children probably' will. The Senator from Illinois, in all human probability, will live to see it, and there is, perhaps, no one more likely than he to impress his views of public policy upon the mind of those growing millions, and to receive from them in return all the honors and trusts which a grateful people can. bestow upon those they respect and love. Let me adjure him, then, to follow the generous impulses of his nature, and after giving, like a true patriot, his first affections to his own country, to be willing to comprehend all the other friendly countries of the earth within the scope of a liberal consideration, and above all to cultivate the spirit and arts of peace-of peace.

Sir, it is the opposite spirit of military aggrandizement, the spirit of conquest, that has forged those chains in Europe which the Senator so eloquently deplores. It was this that brought down Asia to the dust in the morning of the world, and has kept her seated in sackcloth and ashes ever since. This blasted Greece; this destroyed Rome. It was not a foreign enemy that laid the ax to the root of Rome's freedom; it was her own proconsuls coming home from the successful wars of Asia, gorged with the gold of conquered provinces. The spirit of military aggrandizement and conquest have done the same for Europe. Will they not do it here if we indulge them? Do not let the Senator think that I suspect he wishes to indulge them; but will they not do it? Will they not give us vast standing armies, overshadowing navies, colossal military establishments, frightful expenditures, contracts, jobs, corruption which it sickens the heart to contemplate? And how can our simple republican institutions, our elective magistracies, our annual or biennial choice of those who are to rule over us, unsupported by hereditary claims or pretorian guards, be carried

on under such influences?

Do not mistake me, however, sir. I counsel no pusillanimous doctrine of non-resistance. Heaven forbid Providence has placed us between the two great world oceans, and we shall always be a maritime Power of the first order. Our commerce already visits every sea, and wherever it floats it