Canals or railways shall also be open on like terms to the citizens and
subjects of every other state which is willing to grant thereto such
protection as the United States and Great Britain propose to afford.
The United States, in a short time after the Clayton and Bulwer treaty
was concluded, carried this stipulation in regard to the Tehuantepec
route into effect by their treaty with Mexico of the 30th December,
1853. The eighth article of this treaty, after granting to us the
transit privileges therein mentioned, stipulates that "the Mexican
Government having agreed to protect with its whole power the
prosecution, preservation, and security of the work, the United States
may extend its protection as it shall judge wise, to use it when it may
feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international law."
This is a sweeping grant of power to the United States, which no nation
ought to have conceded, but which, it is believed, has been confined
within safe limits by our treaty with Mexico now before the Senate.
Such was believed to be the established policy of the Government at
the commencement of this Administration, viz, the grant of transits in
our favor and the guaranty of our protection as an equivalent. This
guaranty can never be dangerous under our form of government, because
it can never be carried into execution without the express authority
of Congress. Still, standing on the face of treaties, as it does, it
deters all evil-disposed parties from interfering with these routes.
Under such circumstances the attention of the Executive was early turned
to the Nicaragua route as in many respects the most important and
valuable to the citizens of our country. In concluding a treaty to
secure our rights of transit over this route I experienced many
difficulties, which I need not now enumerate, because they are detailed
in different messages to Congress. Finally a treaty was negotiated
exactly in accordance with the established policy of the Government and
the views of the Executive, and clear from the embarrassments which
might arise under the phraseology of previous treaties. The fourteenth
article of the treaty contains a full, clear, and specific grant of
the right of transit to the United States and their citizens, and is
believed to be perfectly unexceptionable. The fifteenth article, instead
of leaving one equivalent duty of protection, general and unlimited, as
in our treaty with New Granada and in the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, or
instead of that general right assured to the Government in the Mexican
treaty of extending its protection as it shall itself judge wise, when
it may feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international law,
confines the interference conceded within just and specific limits.
Under the sixteenth article of this treaty the Government of the United
States has no right to interpose for the protection of the Nicaragua
route except with the consent or at the request of the Government
of Nicaragua, or of the minister thereof at Washington, or of the
competent, legally appointed local authorities, civil or military; and
when in the opinion of the Government of Nicaragua the necessity ceases
such force shall be immediately withdrawn. Nothing can be more carefully
guarded than this provision. No force can be employed unless upon the
request of the Government of Nicaragua, and it must be immediately
withdrawn whenever in the opinion of that Government the necessity
ceases.
When Congress shall come to adopt the measures necessary to carry this
provision of the treaty into effect they can guard it from any abuses
which may possibly arise.
The general policy contained in these articles, although inaugurated by
the United States, has been fully adopted by the Governments of Great
Britain and France. The plenipotentiaries of both these Governments have
recently negotiated treaties with Nicaragua, which are but transcripts
of the treaty between the United States and Nicaragua now before the
Senate. The treaty with France has been ratified, it is understood, by
both the French and Nicaraguan Governments, and is now in operation.
That with Great Britain has been delayed by other negotiations in
Nicaragua, but it is believed that these are now concluded and that the
ratifications of the British treaty will soon, therefore, be exchanged.
It is presumed that no objection will be made to "the exceptional case"
of the sixteenth article, which is only intended to provide for the
landing of sailors or marines from our vessels which may happen to be
within reach of the point of difficulty, in order to protect the lives
and property of citizens of the United States from unforeseen and
imminent danger.
The same considerations may be suggested with respect to the fifth
article of the treaty with Mexico, which is also pending before the
Senate. This article is an exact copy of the sixteenth article, just
referred to, of the treaty with Nicaragua.
The treaty with Honduras, which is now submitted to the Senate, follows
on this subject the language of the British treaty with that Republic,
and is not, therefore, identical in its terms with the Nicaraguan and
Mexican treaties. The same policy, however, has been adopted in all of
them, and it will not fail, I am persuaded, to receive from the Senate
all that consideration which it so eminently deserves. The importance to
the United States of securing free and safe transit routes across the
American Isthmus can not well be overestimated. These routes are of
great interest, of course, to all commercial nations, but they are
especially so to us from our geographical and political position as
an American State and because they furnish a necessary communication
between our Atlantic and Pacific States and Territories.
The Government of the United States can never permit these routes to be
permanently interrupted, nor can it safely allow them to pass under the
control of other rival nations. While it seeks no exclusive privileges
upon them for itself, it can never consent to be made tributary to their
use to any European power. It is worthy of consideration, however,
whether to some extent it would not necessarily become so if after Great
Britain and France have adopted our policy and made treaties with the
Isthmian Governments in pursuance of it we should ourselves reconsider
it and refuse to pursue it in the treaties of the United States. I might
add that the opening of these transit routes can not fail to extend the
trade and commerce of the United States with the countries through which
they pass; to afford an outlet and a market for our manufactures within
their territories; to encourage American citizens to develop their vast
stores of mining and mineral wealth for our benefit, and to introduce
among them a wholesome American influence calculated to prevent
revolutions and to render their governments stable.