interesting to the United States, Nicaragua is at once jealous of foreign intervention to render it available, and incompetent to open and maintain it herself. But Nicaragua, like the other Spanish-American states, has far better excuses for its shortcomings than it generally has credit for. That state became precociously mature, and it adopted our model of government with little of that preliminary popular education and discipline which seem necessary to enable any people to administer, maintain, and preserve free republican institutions. The policy pursued by foreign nations towards Nicaragua has not been liberal or generous. Great Britain, in her wars with Spain, early secured a position in the state very detrimental to its independence, and used it to maintain the Indians in a condition of defiance against the creole population, while it did nothing, at least nothing effectually, to civilize the tribes whom it had taken under its protection. Unwilling to lend the aid nec. essary to the improvement of the country, Great Britain used its protectorate there to counteract domestic efforts and intervention from this Government to make that improvement which was necessary for the interest of Nicaragua herself, and hardly less necessary for all the western nations. Our own Government has been scarcely less capricious, at one time seeming to court the most intimate alliance, at another treating the new Republic with neglect and indifference, and at another indirectly, if not directly, consenting to the conquest and desolation of the country by our own citizens for the purpose of re-establishing the institution of slavery, which it had wisely rejected. It may be doubtful whether Nicaragua has not until this day been a loser instead of a gainer by her propinquity to, and intercourse with, the United States. "Happily this condition of things has ceased at last. Great Britain has discovered that her Mosquito protectorate was as useless to herself as it was injurious to Nicaragua, and has abandoned it. The United States no longer think that they want slavery re-established in that state, nor do they desire anything at the hands of its Government but that it may so conduct its affairs as to permit and favor the opening of an interoceanic navigation, which shall be profitable to Nicaragua and equally open to the United States and to all other maritime nations. "You go to Nicaragua in this fortunate conjuncture of circumstances. There is yet another comfort attending your mission. Claims of American citizens upon the Government of Nicaragua have long been a source of diplomatic irritation. A convention which provides for the settlement of these claims has been already negotiated. It wants only the consent of the Senate of the United States to an amendment proposed by Nicaragua, which, it is believed, would not materially change the effect of the convention, and such consent may, therefore, be expected to be given at the approaching special session of Congress. "Your instructions, therefore, will be few and very simple. Assure the Republic of Nicaragua that the President will deal with that Government justly, fairly, and in the most friendly spirit; that he desires S. Mis. 162-VOL. III-2 17 only its welfare and prosperity. Cultivate friendly dispositions there toward the United States. See that no partiality arises in behalf of any other foreign state to our prejudice, and favor, in every way you can, the improvement of the transit route, seeking only such facilities for our commerce as Nicaragua can afford profitably to herself, and yield, at the same time, to other commercial nations." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Dickinson, June 5, 1861. MSS. Inst., Am. "This Government does not mean to insist that citizens of the United States have an absolute right to display the national flag over their buildings and ships in Nicaragua, and on steamers navigating merely inland waters of that country. But the undersigned is now informed that the American Transit Company has heretofore, with the full consent and approval of the Government of Nicaragua, habitually kept the flag of the United States flying over such buildings and vessels as the buildings and waters aforenamed. It seems to the undersigned that if for any reason the Government of Nicaragua had thought it desirable that this indulgence should cease, comity would require in that case that this should have been made known to the Government of the United States or at least its representative residing in Nicaragua, to the end that the now offending flag might be voluntarily withdrawn. "The forcible and violent removal of the flag, at so many points, without any previous notice, seems to imply a readiness to offend the just sensibilities of this country, and indeed the allegation is distinctly made that the flag was removed in each case with marked indignity and in a specially insulting manner." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Molina, Sept. 28, 1863. MSS. Notes, Cent. Am. For a full history of the negotiations between the United States and Great As to negotiations for transit with Nicaragua in 1884, see Mr. Frelinghuysen, For a history of action of Government of the United States on the subject of a ship canal through Nicaragua, see Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Hall, July 19, 1884, Feb. 12, 1884, Apr. 3, 1884, Feb. 10, 1885. MSS. Inst., Cent. Am. In relation to Nicaragua the following list of Congressional documents, taken from the Department register, may be referred to: Claims of United States citizens against. President's message, Dec. 9, 1878. Resolution appointing committee to examine claims, Feb. 4, 1879. Senate Rep. Claims of Woolsey Teller and Eliza Livingston. Report advising the negotiation of a treaty for settlement of similar claims, Feb. 6, 1879. House Rep. 96, 45th Cong., 3d sess. Report in favor of the appointment of a select committee to examine into the claims and take evidence, Jan. 13, 1880. House Rep. 86, 46th Cong., 2d sess. Resolution providing for a committee of five to examine claims, June 30, 1879. Report submitting a bill to carry out any claims convention with that Govern- Report in favor of authorizing the President to negotiate a treaty for the set- Senate Ex. Doc. 15, 46th Cong., 1st sess. President's message, Apr. 18, 1879. As to the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua, the following documents may be noticed: Amendments to proposed charter, Feb. 12, 1881. House Rep. 211, 46th Cong., 3d sess. Favorable report, Apr. 4, 1882. Senate Rep. 368, 47th Cong., 1st sess. Favorable report, with map. July 21, 1882, House Rep. 1698, 47th Cong., 1st sess.; Aug. 7, 1883, part 2, minority report. Favorable report, Jan. 31, 1883. Senate Rep, 952, 47th Cong., 2d sess. (3) COSTA RICA. The relations of Costa Rica to the United States are elsewhere distinctively noticed, supra, § 140. As to contested boundary between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and as to their contention as to canal site, see Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Walsh, Apr. 29, 1852, Apr. 30, 1852. MSS. Inst., Am. States. See also Mr. Everett, Sec. of State, to Mr. Kerr, Jan. 5, 1853, ibid., for a full discussion of the same issues. (4) THE MOSQUITO COUNTRY AND BELIZE. § 295. The importance of the question of the present relations of Great Britain and the Mosquito country has been already pointed out. (Supra, § 150f.) It remains now to observe that the United States has at all periods, after the question was agitated, denied the title of Great Britain to a protectorship of the Mosquito coast. This, has been not only resolutely, but with much elaborateness of argument, in instructions by Mr. Clayton, Secretary of State, to Mr. Squier (Cent. Am.), May 1, 1849; to Mr. Bancroft (Great Britain), May 2, 1849, and to Mr. Lawrence (Gr. Brit.), October 20, 1849, December 10, 1849; by Mr. Marcy, Secretary of State, to Mr. Buchanan, July 2, 1853, and to Mr. Dallas, May 24, July 26, 1856; by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, to Mr. Graham, Secretary of the Navy, March 17, 1852, and by Mr. Everett in a report to the President of February 16, 1853. Other documents showing the baselessness of this claim are noticed, supra, § 150f, in the discussion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. That Great Britain has no basis for her claim to the protectorate of the Mos- As to Belize and Ruatan, see Mr. Marcy to Mr. Buchanan, June 12, 1854, Aug. 6, For an elaborate discussion of the whole question see Mr. Clayton, Sec. of State, That the British protectorate over the Mosquito territory is in violation of the "Under the assumed title of protector of the Kingdom of the Mosquitos, a miserable, degraded, and insignificant tribe of Indians, she doubtless intends to acquire an absolute dominion over this vast extent of sea coast. With what little reason she advances this pretension appears from the convention between Great Britain and Spain, signed at London on the 14th day of July, 1786. By its first article, 'His Britannic Majesty's subjects, and the other colonists who have hitherto enjoyed the protection of England, shall evacuate the country of the Mosquitos, as well as the continent in general and the islands adjacent, without exception, situated beyond the line hereafter described as what ought to be the frontier of the extent of the territory granted by His Catholic Majesty to the English for the uses specified in the third article of the present convention, and in addition to the country already granted to them in virtue of the stipulations agreed upon by the commissioners of the two Crowns in 1783."" Mr. Buchanan, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hise, June 3, 1848. MSS. Inst., Am. States. 1 Curtis' Buchanan, 623. "This application has led to an inquiry by the Department into the claim set up by the British Government, nominally in behalf of His Mosquito Majesty, and the conclusion arrived at is that it has no reasonable foundation. Under this conviction, the President can never allow such pretension to stand in the way of any rights or interests which this Government or citizens of the United States now possess, or may hereafter acquire, having relation to the Mosquito shore, and especially to the port and river of San Juan de Nicaragua. He is decided in the opinion that that part of the American continent having been discovered by Spain and occupied by her so far as she deemed compatible with her interests, of right belonged to her; that the alleged independence of the Mosquito Indians, though tolerated by Spain, did not extinguish her right of dominion over the region claimed in their behalf, any more than similar independence of other Indian tribes did or may now impair the sovereignty of other nations, including Great Britain herself, over many 'tracts of the same continent; that the rights of Spain to that region have been repeatedly acknowledged by Great Britain in solemn public treaties with that power; that all those territorial rights in her former American possessions descended to the states which were formed out of those possessions, and must be regarded as still appertaining to them in every case where they may not have been voluntarily relinquished or canceled by conquest followed by adverse possession." Mr. Clayton, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, May 2, 1849. MSS. Inst., Gr. Brit. "It is understood that New Granada sets up a claim to the Mosquito shore, based upon the transfer of the military jurisdiction there to the authorities at Carthagena and Bogotá, pursuant to the royal order of His Catholic Majesty of the 30th November, 1803, and upon the 7th article of the treaty between Colombia and Central America, by which those Republics engaged to respect their limits based upon the uti possidetis of 1810. Great Britain also claims that coast in behalf of the pretended King of the Mosquitos, and Nicaragua claims it as heir to the late confederation of Central America. With the conflicting claims of New Granada and Nicaragua we have no concern, and, indeed, there is reason to believe that they will be amicably adjusted. We entertain no doubt, however, that the title of Spain to the Mosquito shore was just, and that her rights have descended to her late colonies adjacent thereto. The Department has not hesitated to express this opinion in the instructions to Mr. Squier, the chargé d'affaires to Gautemala, and Mr. Bancroft has been instructed to make it known to the British Government also. You may acquaint the minister for foreign affairs of New Granada with our views on this subject, and may assure him that all the moral means in our power will be exerted to resist the adverse pretensions of Great Britain." Mr. Clayton, Sec. of State, to Mr. Foote, July 19, 1849. MSS. Inst., Colombia. "The power in existence at Greytown is claimed to be derived from the Mosquito Indians, who have not been, and will not be, acknowledged as an independent nation by this Government." Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Graham, Mar. 17, 1852. MSS. Dom. Let. "The United States cannot recognize as valid any title set up by the people at San Juan derived from the Mosquito Indians. It concedes to this tribe of Indians only a possessory right-a right to occupy and |