CONGRESS. (PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



185 



This proviso was needful inasmuch as the com- 

 pact of the three republics was at the outset an 

 association whereby certain representative func- 

 tions were delegated to a tripartite commission 

 rather than a federation possessing centralized 

 powers of government and administration. In 

 this view of their relation and of the relation 

 of the United States to the several republics, a 

 change in the representation of this country in 

 Central America was neither recommended by 

 the Executive nor initiated by Congress; thus 

 leaving one of our envoys accredited as hereto- 

 fore separately to two states of the Greater Re- 

 public, Nicaragua and Salvador, and to a third 

 state, Costa Rica, which was not a party to the 

 compact, while our other envoy was similarly ac- 

 credited to a union state Honduras and a non- 

 union state Guatemala. The result has been 

 that the one has presented credentials only to 

 the President of Costa Rica, the other having 

 been received only by the Government of Guate- 

 mala. 



Subsequently the three associated republics en- 

 tered into negotiations for taking the steps fore- 

 cast in the original compact. A convention of 

 their delegates framed for them a federal consti- 

 tution under the name of the United States of 

 Central America, and provided for a central fed- 

 eral government and legislature. Upon ratifica- 

 tion by the constituent states, the 1st of Novem- 

 ber last was fixed for the new system to go into 

 operation. Within a few weeks thereafter the 

 plan was severely tested by revolutionary move- 

 ments arising, with a consequent demand for 

 unity of action on the part of the military power 

 of the federal states to suppress them. Under 

 this strain the new union seems to have been 

 weakened through the withdrawal of its more 

 important members. This Government was not 

 officially advised of the installation of the federa- 

 tion, and has maintained an attitude of friendly 

 expectancy, while in nowise relinquishing the 

 position held from the outset that the responsi- 

 bilities of the several states toward us remained 

 unaltered by their tentative relations among 

 themselves. 



The Nicaragua Canal Commission, under the 

 chairmanship of Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, 

 appointed July 24, 1897, under the authority of 

 a provision in the sundry civil act of June 4 of 

 that year, has nearly completed its labors, and 

 the results of its exhaustive inquiry into the 

 proper route, the feasibility, and the cost of con- 

 struction of an interoceanic canal by a Nicaraguan 

 route will be laid before you. In the perform- 

 ance of its task the commission received all pos- 

 sible courtesy and assistance from the govern- 

 ments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which thus 

 testified their appreciation of the importance of 

 giving a speedy and practical outcome to the 

 great project that has for so many years en- 

 grossed the attention of the respective countries. 



As the scope of the recent inquiry embraced 

 the whole subject with the aim of making plans 

 and surveys for a canal by the most convenient 

 route, it necessarily included a review of the re- 

 sults of previous surveys and plans, and in par- 

 ticular those adopted by the Maritime Canal Com- 

 pany under its existing concessions from Nica- 

 ragua and Costa Rica, so that to this extent those 

 grants necessarily hold as essential a part in the 

 deliberations and conclusions of the canal com- 

 mission as they have held and must needs hold 

 in the discussion of the matter by the Congress. 

 Under these circumstances, and in view of over- 

 tures made to the governments of Nicaragua and 

 Costa Rica by other parties for a new canal con- 



cession predicated on the assumed approaching 

 lapse of the contracts of the Maritime Canal Com- 

 pany with those states, 1 have not hesitated to 

 express my conviction that considerations of ex- 

 pediency and international policy as between the 

 several governments interested in the construc- 

 tion arid control of an interoceanic canal by this 

 route require the maintenance of the Hiatus quo 

 until the canal commission shall have reported 

 and the United States Congress shall have had 

 the opportunity to pass finally upon the whole 

 matter during the present session without preju- 

 dice by reason of any change in the existing 

 conditions. 



Nevertheless, it appears that the Government 

 of Nicaragua, as one of its last sovereign acts 

 before merging its powers in those of the newly 

 formed United States of Central America, has 

 granted an optional concession to another asso- 

 ciation, to become effective on the expiration of 

 the present grant. It does not appear what sur- 

 veys have been made or what route is proposed 

 under this contingent grant, so that an examina- 

 tion of the feasibility of its plans is necessarily 

 not embraced in the report of the canal commis- 

 sion. All these circumstances suggest the urgency 

 of some definite action by the Congress at this 

 session if the labors of the past are to be utilized 

 and the linking of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 

 by a practical water way is to be realized. That 

 the construction of such a maritime highway is 

 now more than ever indispensable to that inti- 

 mate and ready intercommunication between our 

 eastern and western seaboards demanded by the 

 annexation of the Hawaiian Islands and the pro- 

 spective expansion of our influence and commerce 

 in the Pacific, and that our national policy now 

 more imperatively than ever calls for its control 

 by this Government, are propositions which I 

 doubt not the Congress will duly appreciate and 

 wisely act upon. 



A convention providing for the revival of the 

 late United States and Chilian Claims Commis- 

 sion and the consideration of claims which were 

 duly presented to the late commission, but not 

 considered because of the expiration of the time 

 limited for the duration of the commission, was 

 signed May 24, 1897, and has remained unacted 

 upon by the Senate. The term therein fixed for 

 effecting the exchange of ratifications having 

 elapsed, the convention falls unless the time be 

 extended by amendment, which I am endeavor- 

 ing to bring about, with the friendly concurrence 

 of the Chilian Government. 



The United States has not been an indifferent 

 spectator of the extraordinary events transpir- 

 ing in the Chinese Empire, whereby portions of 

 its maritime provinces are passing under the con- 

 trol of various European powers; but the pros- 

 pect that the vast commerce which the energy 

 of our citizens and the necessity of our staple 

 productions for Chinese uses has built up in those 

 regions may not be prejudiced through any ex- 

 clusive treatment by the new occupants has ob- 

 viated the need of our country becoming an actor 

 in the scene. Our position among nations, hav- 

 ing a large Pacific coast and a constantly expand- 

 ing direct trade with the farther Orient, gives us 

 the equitable claim to consideration and friendly 

 treatment in this regard, and it will be my aim 

 to subserve our large interests in that quarter 

 by all means appropriate to the constant policy 

 of our Government. The territories of Kiau- 

 Chau, of Wei-Hai-Wei, and of Port Arthur and 

 Talienwan, leased to Germany, Great Britain, and 

 Russia respectively, for terms of years, will, it is 

 announced, be open to international commerce 



