PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



647 



tween that youthful and vigorous republic and our 

 own. 



Negotiations are pending with a view to the survey 

 and construction oi a ship-canal across the Isthmus 

 of Darien, under the auspices of the United States. I 

 hope to be able to submit the results of that negotia- 

 tion to the Senate during its present session. 



The very liberal treaty which was entered into last 

 year by the United States and Nicaragua has been 

 ratified by the latter republic. 



Costa Eiea, with the earnestness of a sincerely 

 friendly neighbor, solicits a reciprocity of trade, 

 which I commend to the consideration ot Congress. 



The convention created by treaty between the 

 United States and Venezuela, in July, 1865, for the 

 mutual adjustment of claims, has been held, and its 

 decisions have been received at the Department of 

 State. The heretofore recognized Government of the 

 United States of Venezuela has been subverted. A 

 provisional government having been instituted under 

 circumstances which promise durability, it has. been 

 formally recognized. 



I have been reluctantly obliged to ask explanation 

 and satisfaction for national injuries committed bv the 

 President of Hayti. The political and social condition 

 of the Eepublics of Hayti and St. Domingo is very 

 unsatisfactory and painful. The abolition of slavery, 

 which has been carried into effect throughout the 

 island of St. Domingo and the entire West Indies, 

 except the Spanish islands of Cuba and Porto Eico, 

 has been followed by a profound popular conviction 

 of the rightfulness of republican institutions, and an 

 intense desire to secure them. The attempt, how- 

 ever, to establish republics there encounters many 

 obstacles, most of which may be supposed to result 

 from long-indulged habits of colonial supineness and 

 dependence upon European monarchical powers. 

 While the United States have, on all occasions, pro- 

 fessed a decided unwillingness that any part or this 

 continent or of its adjacent islands shall be made a 

 theatre for a new establishment of monarchical power, 

 too little has been done by us, on the other hand, 

 to attach the communities by which we are sur- 

 rounded to our own country, or to lend even a moral 

 support to the efforts they are so resolutely and so 

 constantly making to secure republican institutions 

 for themselves. It is indeed a question of grave con- 

 sideration whether our recent and present example is 

 not calculated to check the growth and expansion of 

 free principles, and make those communities distrust, 

 if not dread, a government which at will consigns to 

 military domination States that are integral parts of 

 our Federal Union, and, while ready to resist any at- 

 tempts by other nations to extend to this hemisphere 

 the monarchical institutions of Europe, assumes to 

 establish over a large portion of its people a rule more 

 absolute, harsh, and tyrannical than any known to 

 civilized powers. 



The acquisition of Alaska was made with a view of 

 extending national jurisdiction and republican princi- 

 ples in the American hemisphere. Believing that a 

 further step could be taken in the same direction, I 

 last year entered into a treaty with the King of Den- 

 mark for the purchase of the islands of St. Thomas 

 and St. John, on the best terms then attainable, and 

 with the express consent of the people of those 

 islands. This treaty still remains under considera- 

 tion in the Senate. A new convention has been 

 entered into with Denmark, enlarging the time fixed 

 for final ratification of the original treaty. 



Comprehensive national policy would seem to sanc- 

 tion the acquisition and incorporation into our Fed- 

 eral Union of the several adjacent continental and 

 insular communities as speedily as it can be done 

 peacefully, lawfully, and without any violation of 

 national justice, faith, or honor. Foreign possession 

 or control of those communities has hitherto hindered 

 the growth and impaired the influence of the United 

 States. Chronic revolution and anarchy there would 

 be equally injurious. Each one of them, when firmly 



established as an independent republic, or when in- 

 corporated into the United States, would bo a new 

 source of ^ strength and power. Conforming my ad- 

 ministration to these principles, I have on no occasion 

 lent support or toleration to unlawful expeditions set 

 on foot upon the plea of republican propagandism, or 

 of national extension or aggrandizement. The neces- 

 sity, however, of repressing such unlawful move- 

 ments clearly indicates the duty which rests upon us 

 of adapting our legislative action to the new circum- 

 stances of a decline of European monarchical power 

 and influence, and the increase of American republi- 

 can ideas, interests, and sympathies. 



It cannot be long before it will become necessary 

 for this Government to lend some effective aid to the 

 solution of the political and social problems which 

 are continually kept before the world by the two re- 

 publics of the island of St. Domingo, and which arc 

 now disclosing themselves more distinctly than here- 

 tofore in the island of Cuba. The subject is com- 

 mended to your consideration with all the more 

 earnestness because I am satisfied that the time has 

 arrived when even so direct a proceeding as a propo- 

 sition for an annexation of the two republics of the 

 island of St. Domingo would not only receive the 

 consent of the people interested, but would also give 

 satisfaction to all other foreign nations. 



I am aware that upon the question of further ex- 

 tending our possessions it is apprehended by som,e 

 that our political system cannot successfully be ap- 

 plied to an area more extended than our continent ; 

 but the conviction is rapidly gaining ground in the 

 American mind, that with the increased facilities for 

 intercommunication between all portions of the earth, 

 the principles of free government, as embraced in 

 our Constitution, if faithfully maintained and carried 

 out, would prove of sufficient strength and breadth 

 to comprehend within their sphere and influence the 

 civilized nations of the world. 



The attention of the Senate and of Congress is 

 again respectfully invited to the treaty of the estab- 

 lishment of commercial reciprocity with the Hawaiian 

 Kingdom, entered into last year, and already ratified 

 by that government. The attitude of the United 

 States toward these islands is not very different from 

 that in which they stand toward the West Indies. It 

 is known and felt by the Hawaiian Government and 

 people that their government and institutions are 

 feeble and precarious ; that the United States, being 

 so near a neighbor, would be unwilling to see the 

 islands pass under foreign control. Their prosperity 

 is continually disturbed by expectations and alarms 

 of unfriendly political proceedings, as well from the 

 United States as from other foreign powers. A reci- 

 procity treaty, while it could not materially diminish 

 the revenues of the United States, would be a guar- 

 antee of the good-will and forbearance of all nations 

 until the people of the islands shall of themselves, at 

 no distant day, voluntarily apply for admission into 

 the Union. 



The Emperor of Eussia has acceded to the treaty 

 negotiated here in January last, for the security of 

 trade-marks in the interest of manufacturers and 

 commerce. I have invited his attention to the im- 

 portance of establishing, now while it seems easy and 

 practicable, a fair and equal regulation of the vast 

 fisheries belonging to the two nations in the waters 

 of the North Pacific Ocean. 



The two treaties between the United States and 

 Italy for the regulation of consular powers and the 

 extradition of criminals, negotiated and ratified here 

 during the last session of Congress, have been ac- 

 cepted, and confirmed by the Italian Government. A 

 liberal consular convention which has been negotiated 

 with Belgium will be submitted to the Senate. The 

 very important treaties which were negotiated be- 

 tween the United States and North Germany and 

 Bavaria, for the regulation of the rights of naturalized 

 citizens, have been duly ratified and exchanged, and 

 similar treaties have been entered into with the 



