sion; and I also take the liberty to call your attention to the opinion of the minority of the aforesaid committee.

Before concluding, I must inform you that I have before me a pamphlet entitled "Information for persons proposing to join the free colored colony to Central America," published and subscribed, as from the pamphlet it appears, by the honorable senator and commissioner, S. C. Pomeroy, in which are to be found the following statements :

"

And as an effort is now to be made by these people to found a settlement and a country of their own, I have consented to aid them in the selection of a locality and overcoming some of the obstacles incident to all pioneer settlements. I intend to start in a vessel from the city of Washington about the 1st of October, and will take, free of charge, five hundred colored persons, more or less, to be composed for the most part of able bodied men, such as mechanics and laborers. We shall settle in Central America, in the province we find to be the most promising, where neither the government nor people are unwilling to receive us." And further below, "We intend to land at Chiriqui, New Granada, and also to visit the numerous islands, and perhaps the countries of Venezuela and Honduras."

Relying on the aforesaid assurances and upon the good faith and integrity of the government of the United States, and as I cannot doubt the authenticity of the aforesaid pamphlet, I have no other alternative left but to attribute it, notwithstanding the high position of Mr. Pomeroy, to a misunderstanding on his part of the nature of his mission and of his instructions, or to an inexplicable hallucination which makes him feign not to understand them and to counteract them by embarking upon an expedition in every way aggressive and illegal, against which your excellency knows a protest has been made from the beginning in various forms, in the name of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador, and New Granada.

It is not doubtful that all the Hispano-American States, maintaining in its just and genuine acceptance the celebrated declaration of President Monroe, in his message of the 3d of December, 1822, will second, on this occasion, the attitude of the States enumerated, and will defend, with that statesman, as a principle which affects the rights and interests of all those of this continent, that the territory of none of them, from the free and independent condition into which they have constituted themselves, must not in any event be considered as unoccupied, nor subject to be colonized by any foreign power whatever; and that every attempt, in a contrary sense, will be viewed as dangerous to the peace, security, and independence of the same States.

I have this very day received positive instructions from the governments which I have the honor to represent, to insist upon this point, and to protest, as I do solemnly protest, in the language of the minister of foreign relations of Costa Rica, against the speculations and pretensions upon the isthmus of Chiriqui of Mr. Ambrose W. Thompson; against every attempt to avail of them to acquire rights which he has not, and cannot cede, in disregard of those of the sovereignty of Costa Rica, to found colonies or any other enterprise whatever; and that the republics which I represent are determined to repel with all their power the establishing upon their territory of independent, semi-independent, colonies, or which can pretend in the least manner to depend upon foreign govern

ments.

And, following the spirit of my instructions, with reference to the undertaking announced by the honorable Senator Pomeroy, I also solemnly protest against it in the name of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, denouncing it as aggressive, illegal, and menacing to their tranquility, integrity, and independence, and dangerous to the peace and good relations which they desire to culti vate with the United States; and in the name of so many and such great interests as it compromits, I conjure your excellency to interpose, in order that the

necessary orders be given to prevent the projected expedition and any other similar ones, and to cause the failure of the plan which I denounce.

I flatter myself that your excellency, who is so jealous of the good name and justification of the United States, compromitted to its sorrow in former times, will not hesitate to obtain and to issue, with the necessary promptness, the orders which I solicit; and it gives me pleasure to acknowledge even now that they will be the natural consequence of the true policy of the present administration, as it has been so ably expounded by your excellency; a policy of equity and benevolence which has never been wanting in the relations with which the undersigned is charged.

excel

With these sentiments I have the honor to renew the assurances of high consideration and distinguished esteem with which I subscribe myself, your lency's very obedient servant.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

LUIS MOLINA.

Secretary of State of the United States, Washington.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Molina.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, September 24, 1862.

SIR: Your note of the 19th instant has been received and submitted to the President.

Congress, at its last session, passed laws which authorized the President to aid the colonization of persons of certain classes of African derivation, with their consent, in some tropical country, first obtaining the consent of the government of such country to receive such settlements and protect them in all the rights of freemen. The execution of these laws was devolved by the President upon the honorable the Secretary of the Interior. That officer is understood to have recognized the honorable Mr. Pomeroy as an agent for persons belonging to the specified classes, to aid and direct them in the choice of their locations and establishing their settlements. The general instructions which were given to him by the Secretary of the Interior expressly inhibited Mr. Pomeroy from attempting to make such location and settlement in any country whatever, without first having obtained the consent of the government of such country to protect the proposed settlement of such persons there with all the rights and privileges of freemen.

About the time when those instructions were in course of preparation, his excellency Señor Antonio José de Yrisarri, minister plenipotentiary of the republies of Guatemala and Salvador near the United States, gave notice to this department that those two states were averse to receiving any such settlements; and for that reason the instructions of the Secretary of the Interior to Mr. Pomeroy were modified. He was informed that the President accepted Mr. Yrisarri's communication as a definitive declination of the two governments which he represented to receive and protect a colony of the class proposed in their respective countries. Whereupon Mr. Pomeroy was expressly directed not to proceed with such colony to any part of the territories of either of the said republics of Guatemala and Salvador.

In your note, which is now under consideration, you protest, in behalf of the republics of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, against the introduction of any colony of the kind proposed within the territory of either of those republics. You also inform this department that a portion of the region called Chiriqui, which is claimed by Mr. Ambrose W. Thompson, and which he offers as

a site for such a colony, lies unquestionably within the territory of Costa Rica, while another portion lies within the unquestioned territory of New Granada, and still a third part is in dispute between the government of Costa Rica and New Granada; and you extend your protest so as to make it cover not only the unquestioned territory of Costa Rica, but also that portion of Chiriqui which is claimed by Costa Rica.

I have now to inform your excellency that the acts of Congress, under which the colonization in question is proposed to be made, do not warrant the attempt to establish such a colony in any country without the previous consent of the government thereof, and that your protest is accepted by the President as a denial of such consent on the part of the three states you so worthily represent. Mr. Pomeroy will therefore be instructed that he is not to proceed with such a colony, or to land upon any part of the territories of Costa Rica or of Honduras, or any part of the admitted territory of Nicaragua, or even any part of Chiriqui, which is included within the region which, as you represent, has hitherto been, and yet remains, in dispute between the government of New Granada and the government of Costa Rica. I may, perhaps, not improperly add that it is represented by Mr. Thompson to the Secretary of the Interior that the part of Chiriqui which he proposes as a site for a colony lies altogether without the admitted territories of Costa Rica, and also without the lines which are included by the claim of New Granada, and exclusively within the admitted territory of New Granada. In order that no invasion of the region in question may be made, and even no unlawful intrusion within it may be attempted, Mr. Pomeroy has now been further instructed not to land or attempt to establish a colony in New Granada without first having obtained the consent of not only the authorities actually exercising administration within it, but also the consent of the republic of New Granada, which is represented at Washington, and with which diplomatic relations continue to be maintained.

I avail myself of this occasion to offer to you, sir, renewed assurances of my high consideration.

Señor LUIS MOLINA, &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Molina to Mr. Seward.

[Translation.]

LEGATIONS OF COSTA RICA, NICARAGUA, AND HONDURAS,

Washington, September 29, 1862.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR: I bave the honor to place within the knowledge of your excellency that on the night of Saturday last, the 27th instant, there was held in the suburbs of this capital, at a place called the McClellan barracks, a meeting of persons of color, called together by the Hon. Mr. Pomeroy, in order to address them in regard to his proposed colonization, on which occasion and at which place he did in fact make a speech to them, urging them to join in the expedition which he was preparing, and which would leave at the beginning of the approaching October, bound for Central America; and he pictured to the n in brilliant colors the advantages of that country, pointing out to them, on a map prepared for this purpose, the place on Lake Chiriqui at which it is proposed to land and establish the colony.

If it were possible to doubt the event, I should refuse to believe it, having before me the prompt and frank reply which your excellency was pleased to make me under date of the 24th instant, informing me that orders and instructions were given not to carry or to land such a colony, or to attempt its establishment

in any of the five states of Central America, nor in that claimed by Costa Rica, or in the undisputed territory of New Granada, unless the consent not only of the authorities actually exercising jurisdiction in the last-named country was previously obtained, but that of the government of New Granada, represented at this government, and with which diplomatic relations are kept up; but it has been represented to me by three trustworthy persons who witnessed the occurrence and who listened to the speech of the Hon. Mr. Pomeroy.

However great my surprise, I must suppose the fact to be indubitable by supposing that the orders and instructions of your excellency's government may have got astray or been delayed for some cause, and that Mr. Pomeroy proceeded on the occasion referred to without a knowledge of them, or that he was dragged forward by extraneous and unscrupulous influences; and I expect from your excellency's justice that you will be pleased to make the necessary provision to insure the prompt and effectual fulfilment of the orders referred to.

I have had the pleasure of preparing for transmission the important communication of your excellency before mentioned, satisfied that it could not fail to promote in Central America the liberal policy of justice and kindness which it breathes; and I am unwilling that the satisfaction with which it must be received by the governments that I have the honor to represent and its beneficial effects should be rendered nugatory by this incident, as would happen if it came to their knowledge unsatisfactorily explained.

I avail myself of the opportunity to state to your excellency that, whatever may be the declarations of Mr. Thompson, it appears, from a comparison of the maps to which I had the honor of calling the attention of your excellency in my note of the 19th instant, that all the lands to which he lays claim in virtue of grants of the province of Chiriqui, in New Granada, are within limits claimed by Costa Rica; and that, even if they extended into indisputable New Granadian territory, the fact does not appear from those maps, nor are his claims improved thereby, seeing that the competent court in New Granada has declared his alleged titles to be null, and that there is not an inch of ground on the isthmus of Chiriqui which does not belong either to Costa Rica or to New Granada.

I have the honor to reiterate the sentiments of high consideration and distinguished esteem with which I am your excellency's obedient servant.

His Excellency Mr. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c.

LUIS MOLINA.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Molina.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, October 1, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency's communication of the 29th ultimo, in reference to the conduct of the honorable Mr. Pomeroy, relative to the colonization of persons of African derivation in the Central American states, and which was recently made the subject of a protest on your part, in behalf of the three governments which you represent.

While referring you again to my reply of the 24th ultimo, in which full assurances are given you that this government will take no step in the matter contrary to the expressed wishes of the governments of Central America, and incompatible with the well known intentions of this government, I have now

further to inform your excellency that a copy of your note of the 29th ultimo will be transmitted to the honorable the Secretary of the Interior, for the guidance and government of all parties concerned.

I have the honor to renew to your excellency the assurances of my distinguished consideration.

Señor LUIS MOLINA, &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Molina to Mr. Seward.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF NICARAGUA,

Washington, October 9, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit to your excellency the annexed copy of the decree issued by the government of Nicaragua on the 11th of September last, establishing a system of passports and the rules to be observed by the agents of the republic in granting them, with respect to foreigners who have not previously settled therein, who may wish to go to the interior or to reside in its territory.

I avail myself of the opportunity to reiterate the assurances of distinguished consideration with which I am your excellency's very obedient servant.

His Excellency WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State of the United States.

LUIS MOLINA.

[Translation.]

NATIONAL PALACE, Managua, September 11, 1862.

Mr. MINISTER: The president of the republic to its inhabitants: Considering the necessity of putting the republic on its guard against the inconveniencies and dangers which in all time, and especially under present circumstances, may happen to it from emigration from abroad without the precautions which are observed by civilized nations in similar cases, in the use of his extraordinary powers in the department of police decrees:

ART. 1. From and after the last day of November next the commanders of ports and prefects of the frontiers of Nicaragua shall not permit any foreign persons who have not previously settled in the republic to go into the interior, unless they present a passport from the respective ministers or consuls thereof at the ports or places of their departure, in which passport is to be given the name and surname of the person in whose favor it is issued, his profession or trade, the purpose for which they come and their nationality, the signature of the minister or consul and the seal of the republic.

ART. 2. The ministers or consuls of the republic, in issuing these passports, will observe the following rules: 1st. The treaties of Nicaragua with any nations, and reciprocal privileges to the respective subjects or citizens. 2d. That they who solicit the passport are not discharged criminals, and that if they have no money they are not, on the other hand, beggars, or sick or crippled persons, who come to rely on public charity, and that neither are they men without profession or trade, vagabonds, or persons badly provided for. 3d. That neither are they freed negroes or other degraded caste of people, unless they have a