WASHINGTON, _April 5, 1860_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to
ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and the Republic of Honduras, signed by the
plenipotentiaries of the parties in this city on the 28th day of last
month.
The fourteenth article of this treaty is an exact copy of the
supplemental article of the "treaty of friendship, commerce, and
navigation between Great Britain and the Republic of Honduras," dated
26th day of August, 1856, with the necessary changes in names and dates.
Under this article the Government and people of the United States will
enjoy in the fullest and most satisfactory manner the use of the
"Honduras Interoceanic Railway," in consideration of which the United
States recognizes the rights of sovereignty and property of Honduras
over the line of the road and guarantees its neutrality, and, when "the
road shall have been completed, equally engages, in conjunction with
Honduras, to protect the same from interruption, seizure, or unjust
confiscation, from whatever quarter the attempt may proceed."
This treaty is in accordance with the policy inaugurated by the
Government of the United States, and in an especial manner by the
Senate, in the year 1846, and several treaties have been concluded to
carry it into effect. It is simple, and may be embraced in a few words.
On the one side a grant of free and uninterrupted transit for the
Government and people of the United States over the transit routes
across the Isthmus, and on the other a guaranty of the neutrality and
protection of these routes, not only for the benefit of the Republics
through which they pass, but, in the language of our treaty with New
Granada, in order to secure to themselves the tranquil and constant
enjoyment of these inter-oceanic communications.
The first in the series of these treaties is that with New Granada
of the 12th December, 1846. This treaty was concluded before our
acquisition of California and when our interests on the Pacific Coast
were of far less magnitude than at the present day. For years before
this period, however, the routes across the Isthmus had attracted the
serious attention of this Government.
This treaty, after granting us the right of transit across the Isthmus
of Panama in the most ample terms, binds this Government to guarantee
to New Granada "the perfect neutrality of the before-mentioned Isthmus,
with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea may
not be interrupted or embarrassed in any future time while this treaty
exists."
In one respect it goes further than any of its successors, because it
not only guarantees the neutrality of the route itself, but "the rights
of sovereignty and property" of New Granada over the entire Province of
Panama. It is worthy of remark that when it was sent to the Senate it
was accompanied by a message of President Polk, dated February 10, 1847,
in which the attention of that body was especially called to these
important stipulations of the thirty-fifth article, and in which it was
stated, moreover, that our chargé d'affaires who negotiated the treaty
"acted in this particular upon his own responsibility and without
instructions." Under these circumstances the treaty was approved by the
Senate and the transit policy to which I have referred was deliberately
adopted. A copy of the executive document (confidential), Twenty-ninth
Congress, second session, containing this message of President Polk and
the papers which accompanied it is hereto annexed.
The next in order of time of these treaties of transit and guaranty is
that of the 19th April, 1850, with Great Britain, commonly called the
Clayton and Bulwer treaty. This treaty, in affirmance of the policy of
the New Granada treaty, established a general principle which has ever
since, I believe, guided the proceedings of both Governments. The eighth
article of that treaty contains the following stipulations:
The Government of the United States having not only desired in entering
into this convention to accomplish a particular object, but also to
establish a general principle, they hereby agree to extend their
protection by treaty stipulations to any other practicable
communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which
connects North and South America, and especially to the interoceanic
communications, should the same prove to be practicable, whether by
canal or railway, which are now proposed to be established by the way of
Tehuantepec or Panama.