THE

United States

DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

December, 1858.

ABROGATION OF THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY-CENTRAL AMERICA, MEXICO, AND CUBA.

FOR

MOR the last eighteen months we have been laboring to produce the same sentiment among those who control the national government as existed, and still prevails, among intelligent citizens throughout the country regarding the interference of foreign powers on the American continent.

While utterly condemning the policy of General Walker and others in Central America and Mexico, the Executive Government and Congress have been strongly urged to bring to an immediate conclusion the negotiations and treaties not strictly in accordance with the most comprehensive construction of the Monroe doctrine. For a long series of years the Government of the United States has been doing little else than talk and write upon this subject; whereas, action alone was required-and such action, too, as would

have placed the matter for ever at rest. That miserable diplomatic abortion known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, was the legitimate offshoot of this interminable disposition on the part of the Government of the United States to discuss, and not act to propose, and not enforce. European diplomacy has exhausted its fertile resources on this subject, over and over again, under a false conception of the real condition of the question among the American people. If, at the commencement of the discussion, they had been assured that the people of the United States would not, under any pretence whatever, allow the least interference or aggression on this continent by foreign powers, and had this assurance been followed by decided and positive action by our Government, the diplomatic books would have long since been closed to this question. The natural enterprising character of the American people would now have taken deep root on this entire continent, and Mexico and Cuba would to-day be numbered among the United States of America. That this is to be the certain destiny of this people, notwithstanding the delay occasioned by diplomacy, no well-informed person entertains the shadow of a doubt. Then, why prolong the controversy further? Why not bring the matter to a final conclusion at once? No public man, of any party, occupying a reasonably fair position before the country, will hazard his reputation by defending the Clayton-Bulwer bargain, recognising as it does a policy adverse to that universally considered sound by our people ;—a policy encouraging, if not absolutely justifying, the pretences of England to a joint interest on the American continent, not already subject to the control of the United States, or under the government of some other well-established authority. The official correspondence relating to this question, recently published, is proof positive that the interests of the United States, in Central America especially, have suffered materially from the continued blundering in the diplomatic efforts of our Government to deal with matters appertaining exclusively to the United States and to the Governments of Central America, through a foreign medium, and by the lights and lessons

of European intrigue and diplomacy. Had the time and talent exhausted in these futile efforts to obtain the consent of England to the consummation of purposes belonging solely to us and our continental neighbors, been employed in the practical application of the doctrine of non-intervention by foreign governments upon this continent, this question would now wear a very different aspect from that in which it presents itself to the world to-day. There is no apology for the manner in which this question of paramount importance to the people of this continent has been managed by the different parties having control of the Government of the United States and the highest jurisdiction in the adjustment of foreign affairs. The consideration of no other question of an inter national character has tended so much to cast suspicion upon, and bring into contempt, the old formal resources of diplomacy as this. Twenty years of experience in this system of negotiation has not accomplished as much in behalf of a just and enlightened cause as might have been secured in a much briefer period under the direction of practical statesmen representing directly the interests only of the people concerned.

Questions of international concern often take the same direction in the hands of practised diplomatists as questions of Law or Equity in the endless circumlocution of the Court of Chancery. They proceed unsettled through successive Administrations, until submerged and lost in the labyrinth and mist of time. In illustration, let us refer to the mode of treating the question under consideration adopted by Messrs. Clayton, Webster, and Marcy, each of whom were recognised as accomplished statesmen and diplomatists, and contrast their action with that of Mr. Wheeler, late Minister to Nicaragua, and of Messrs. Hise and Squier, Chargé-d'Affaires to that country, neither of whom make any claims to be versed in diplomatic science. In reviewing the history of these negotiations, it will be observed, that had the achievements of those representatives of our government been concurred in and enforced by the State Department at Washington, the problem of our progress would have been solved, and the policy

of the United States, relative to the extension of her institutions over the American continent, practically vindicated. Nearly forty years since the importance of a direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through Nicaragua, was pressed upon the attention of Europe and America; and while every succeeding year has established more forcibly the importance of such communication, and to the United States of tenfold greater necessity than to any European power, yet our people are still destitute of this indispensable facility of transit, although they have erected a commanding empire on the borders of the Pacific, the welfare of which materially depends on securing and maintaining for ever the unobstructed right of way through Central America. The first efficient movement made by the United States for securing a transit through Nicaragua was that of Mr. Hise, Chargé-d'Affaires of our government in the year 1849. The arrangement proposed by this gentleman, to which Nicaragua assented, not only contemplated the cession of the right of way, but it also foreshadowed a policy on the part of the United States which would have annihilated all foreign influence in the affairs of the Central American States, leaving them free to enter our Confederacy at any time when the joint interests of both might demand their annexation.

The following quotations from this treaty establish conclusively the fact, that its ratification by the United States would have settled permanently this question to the mutual benefit of the American people and the Central American States :—

"Article 1. It is solemnly agreed between the two high contracting parties that the State of Nicaragua doth grant to and confer upon the United States of America, or to a company of citizens thereof, the exclusive right and privilege to make, construct, and build, within the territory of the said State of Nicaragua, through or by use and means of any of the streams, rivers, bays, harbors, lakes or lands under the jurisdiction, or within the limits of the said State, a canal or canals, a road or roads, either railways or turnpike, or any other kind of roads, for the purpose of opening a con

venient passage and communication, either by land alone or water alone, or by both land and water, and by means, if deemed proper, of locks and dams, or by any other mode of overcoming and removing the obstructions to the navigation of said rivers, harbors, &c., between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, for the transit and passage of steamers, sailing vessels, boats, and vessels of all kinds, as well as vessels of every sort used for the transportation and conveyance of persons and property, and goods, wares, and merchandise of every description.

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"Art. 5. The government of the United States shall have the right to erect such forts and fortifications at the ends and along the lines of said works, and to arm and occupy the same in such manner, and by as many troops as may be needed for the protection and defence thereof, and also for the preservation of the peace and neutrality in the territory of Nicaragua, to whom pertains equal rights as appertaining to her sovereignty.

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"Art. 10. The State of Nicaragua grants and cedes to the United States, or to a company to be formed as herein provided, as the case may be, all the land within two leagues square belonging to the said State and which may be unappropriated at the date of the treaty, at each point of the termination of said works at the seas on each side; that is three miles square on each side of both ends of said works, to serve for the site of two free cities which it is anticipated will hereafter be established at said points, the inhabitants of which free cities shall enjoy the following rights and immunities:

"1. They shall govern themselves by means of their own municipal laws, to be administered by legislative, executive, and judicial officers, chosen and elected by themselves, according to their own regulations.

"2. They shall have the right of trial by jury in their own city courts.

"3. They shall have the most perfect freedom of religious belief and religious worship, public and private.

"4. They shall not be required to pay any tax upon their