would never have been signed nor ratified on the part of The United States but for the conviction that, in virtue of its provisions, neither Great Britain nor The United States was thereafter to exercise any territorial sovereignty, in fact or in name, in any part of Central America, however or whensoever acquired, either before or afterwards. The essential object of the Convention—the neutralization of the isthmus--would, of course, become a nullity if either Great Britain or The United States were to continue to hold exclusively islands or mainland in the isthmus, and more especially, if, under any claim of protectorship of Indians, either Government were to remain for ever sovereign in fact of the Atlantic shores of the three States of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras.

I have already communicated to the two Houses of Congress full information of the protracted and hitherto fruitless efforts which The United States have made to arrange this international question with Great Britain. It is referred to on the present occasion only because of its intimate connexion with the special object now to be brought to the attention of the Congress.

The unsettled political condition of some of the Spanish-American Republics has never ceased to be regarded by this Government with solicitude and regret on their own account, while it has been the source of continual embarrassment in our public and private relations with them. In the midst of the violent revolutions and the wars by which they are continually agitated, their public authorities are unable to afford due protection to foreigners and to foreign interests within their territory, or even to defend their own soil against individual aggressors, foreign or domestic, the burden of the inconveniences and losses of which, therefore, devolves, in no inconsiderable degree, upon the foreign States associated with them in close relations of geographical vicinity or of commercial intercourse.

Such is, more emphatically, the situation of The United States with respect to the Republics of Mexico and of Central America. Notwithstanding, however, the relative remoteness of the European States from America, facts of the same order have not failed to appear conspicuously in their intercourse with Spanish-American Republics. Great Britain has repeatedly been constrained to recur to measures of force for the protection of British interests in those countries. France found it necessary to attack the castle of San Juan de Uloa, and even to debark troops at Vera Cruz, in order to obtain redress of wrongs done to Frenchmen in Mexico.

What is memorable in this respect in the conduct and policy of The United States is, that while it would be as easy for us to annex and absorb new territories from America as it is for European States to do this in Asia or Africa, and while, if done by us, it might. be justified as well on the alleged ground of the advantage which [1856-57. XLVII.] 3 E

would accrue therefrom to the territories annexed and absorbed, yet we have abstained from doing it, in obedience to the considerations of right no less than of policy; and that while the courageous and self-reliant spirit of our people prompts them to hardy enterprises, and they occasionally yield to the temptation of taking part in the troubles of countries near at hand where they know how potential their influence, moral and material, must be, the American Government has uniformly and steadily resisted all attempts of individuals in The United States to undertake armed aggression against friendly Spanish American Republics.

While the present incumbent of the Executive office has been in discharge of its duties he has never failed to exert all the authority in him vested to repress such enterprises, because they are in violation of the law of the land, which the Constitution requires him to execute faithfully; because they are contrary to the policy of the Government, and because to permit them would be a departure from good faith towards those American Republics in amity with us, which are entitled to, and will never cease to enjoy, in their calamities the cordial sympathy and in their prosperity the efficient good will of the Government and of the people of The United States.

To say that our laws in this respect are sometimes violated or successfully evaded is only to say what is true of all laws in all countries, but not more so in The United States than in any one whatever of the countries of Europe. Suffice it to repeat that the laws of The United States prohibiting all foreign military enlistments or expeditions within our territory have been executed with impartial good faith, and, so far as the nature of things permits, as well in repression of private persons as of the official agents of other Governments, both of Europe and America.

Among the Central American Republics to which modern events have imparted most prominence is that of Nicaragua, by reason of its particular position on the isthmus. Citizens of The United States have established in its territory a regular interoceanic transit route, second only in utility and value to the one previously established in the territory of New Granada. The condition of Nicaragua would, it is believed, have been much more prosperous than it has been but for the occupation of its only Atlantic port by a foreign Power, and of the disturbing authority set up and sustained by the same Power in a portion of its territory, by means of which its domestic sovereignty was impaired, its public lands were withheld from settlement, and it was deprived of all the maritime revenue which it would otherwise collect on imported merchandize at San Juan del Norte.

In these circumstances of the political debility of the Republic

of Nicaragua, and when its inhabitants were exhausted by longcontinued civil war between parties, neither of them strong enough to overcome the other or permanently maintain internal tranquillity, one of the contending factions of the Republic invited the assistance and co-operation of a small body of citizens of The United States from the State of California, whose presence, as it appears, put an end at once to civil war, and restored apparent order throughout the territory of Nicaragua, with a new administration, having at its head a distinguished individual, by birth a citizen of the Republic, D. Patricio Rivas, as its provisional President.

It is the established policy of The United States to recognize all Governments without question of their source, or their organization, or of the means by which the governing persons attain their power, provided there be a Government de facto accepted by the people of the country, and with reserve only of time as to the recognition of revolutionary Governments arising out of the subdivision of parent States with which we are in relations of amity. We do not go behind the fact of a foreign Government exercising actual power to investigate questions of legitimacy; we do not inquire into the causes which may have led to a change of Government. To us it is indifferent whether a successful revolution has been aided by foreign intervention or not; whether insurrection has overthrown existing Governments and another has been established in its place according to pre-existing forms, or in a manner adopted for the occasion by those whom we may find in the actual possession of power. All these matters we leave to the people and public authorities of the particular country to determine; and their determination, whether it be by positive action, or by ascertained acquiescence, it is to us a sufficient warrantry of the legitimacy of the new Government.

During the 67 years which have elapsed since the establishment of the existing Government of The United States, in all which time this Union has maintained undisturbed domestic tranquillity, we have had occasion to recognise Governments de facto, founded either by domestic revolution or by military invasion from abroad, in many of the Governments of Europe.

It is the more imperatively necessary to apply this rule to the Spanish-American Republics in consideration of the frequent and not seldom anomalous changes of organization or administration which they undergo, and the revolutionary nature of most of these changes, of which the recent series of revolutions in the Mexican Republic is an example, where five successive revolutionary Governments have made their appearance in the course of a few months, and been recognized successively each as the political power of that country by The United States.

When, therefore, some time since, a new Minister from the Republic of Nicaragua presented himself, bearing the Commission of President Rivas, he must and would have been received as such, unless he was found on inquiry subject to personal exception, but for the absence of satisfactory information upon the question whether President Rivas was in fact the head of an established Government of the Republic of Nicaragua, doubt as to which arose not only from the circumstance of his avowed association with armed emigrants recently from The United States, but that the proposed Minister himself was of that class of persons, and not otherwise or previously a citizen of Nicaragua.

Another Minister from the Republic of Nicaragua has now presented himself, and has been received as such, satisfactory evidence appearing that he represents the Government de facto, and, so far as such exists, the Government de jure of that Republic.

That reception, while in accordance with the established policy of The United States, was likewise called for by the most imperative special exigencies, which require that this Government shall enter at once into diplomatic relations with that of Nicaragua. In the first place, a difference has occurred between the Government of President Rivas and the Nicaragua Transit Company, which involves the necessity of inquiring into rights of citizens of The United States, who allege that they have been aggrieved by the acts of the former, and claim protection and redress at the hands of their Government. In the second place, the interoceanic communication by the way of Nicaragua is effectually interrupted, and the persons and property of unoffending private citizens of The United States in that country require the attention of their Government. Neither of these objects can receive due consideration without resumption of diplomatic intercourse with the Government of Nicaragua.

Further than this, the documents communicated show that, while the interoceanic transit by the way of Nicaragua is cut off, disturbances at Panama have occurred to obstruct, temporarily at least, that by the way of New Granada, involving the sacrifice of the lives and property of citizens of The United States. A special commissioner has been despatched to Panama to investigate the facts of this occurrence, with a view particularly to the redress of parties aggrieved. But measures of another class will be demanded for the future security of interoceanic communication by this as by the other routes of the isthmus.

It would be difficult to suggest a single object of interest, external or internal, more important to The United States than the maintenance of the communication, by land and sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific States and territories of the Union. It is a material element of the national integrity and sovereignty.

I have adopted such precautionary measures and have taken such action for the purpose of affording security to the several transit routes of Central America, and to the persons and property of citizens of The United States connected with or using the same as are within my constitutional power and as existing circumstances have seemed to demand. Should these measures prove inadequate to the object, that fact will be communicated to Congress, with such recommendations as the exigency of the case may indicate. Washington, May 15, 1856. FRANKLIN PIERCE.

PROCLAMATION of the President of The United States, relative to the Boundary Line between the United States and Mexico.-Washington, June 2, 1856.

WHEREAS, pursuant to the Ist Article of the Treaty between The United States and the Mexican Republic, of the 30th day of December, 1853,* the true limits between the territories of the Contracting Parties were declared to be as follows:

'Retaining the same dividing line between the two Californias as already defined and established, according to the Vth Article of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,† the limits between the two Republics shall be as follows:

"Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the Vth Article of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, as defined in the said Article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47′ north latitude crosses the same; thence due west 100 miles; thence south to the said parallel of 31° 20' north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31° 20' to the 111th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado river 20 English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between The United States and Mexico: "

And whereas the said dividing line has been surveyed, marked out, and established, by the respective commissioners of the Contracting Parties, pursuant to the same Article of the said Treaty:

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Franklin Pierce, President of The United States of America, do hereby declare to all whom it may concern, that the line aforesaid shall be held and considered as the boundary between The United States and the Mexican Republic, • Vol. XLII. Page 724. + February 2, 1848. Vol. XXXVII. Page 567.