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Doc. No. 75. 



Hise, the charge d'affaires of the United States, and Sefior Selva^ the 

 commissioner of Nicaragua, had (as was pubhcly and universally known) 

 been disapproved by his government." 



We have no precedent in our history to justify such a treaty as that 

 negotiated by Mr. Hise since the guarantees we gave to France of her 

 American possessions. The treaty negotiated with New Grenada, on the 

 12th day of December, 1846, did not guaranty the sovereignty of that 

 State over the whole of her territory, but only over the single province 

 of the isthmus of Panama," immediately adjoining the line of the railroad, 

 the neutrality of which was deemed necessary by the President and Sen- 

 ate to the construction and securily of the work. 



The policy adopted by this governiTient in negotiating with the Central 

 American States, and with all foreign nations in regard to those States, 

 owes its origin to the resolution of the Senate of the United States, unani- 

 mously adopted on the 3d of March, 1835, in the following words: 



Resolved, That the President of the United States be respectfully re- 

 quested to consider the expediency of opening negotiations with the gov- 

 ernments of Central America and New Grenada, for the purpose of elfect- 

 ually protecting, by suitable treaty stipulations with them, such individ- 

 uals or companies as may undertake to open a communication between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the construction of a ship canal across 

 the isthmus which connects North and South America, and of securing 

 forever, by such stipulations, the free and equal right of navigating such 

 canal to all such nations, on the payment of such reasonable tolls as 

 may be established to compensate the capitalists who may engage in such 

 undertaking and complete the work." 



President Jackson approved and adopted the principles of this resolu- 

 tion, and, in pursuance of it, sent Charles Biddle as agent to negotiate 

 with the governments of Central Am.erica and New Grenada. The result 

 is fully set forth in the report of a select committee of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, of the 20th of February, 1849, upon a joint resolution of 

 Congress to authorize the survey of certain routes for a canal or railroad be- 

 tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The policy adopted by the President 

 and Senate, as indicated in the resolution of the 3d of March, 1835, was fully 

 confirmed by President Polk in his Executive message to the Senate of the 

 10th of February, 1847, (in which he cites and relies on that resolu- 

 tion,) and by the Senate, which, in consequence of the recommendation 

 contained in that message, confirmed the treaty with New Grenada in re- 

 gard to a canal or railroad across the isthmus at Panama. The objects of 

 the late President, like those of his predecessors to whom I have referred, 

 were to open communications across the isthmus to all nations, and to 

 invite their guarantees on the same terms ; to propose no guaranty of ter- 

 ritory to a foreign nation in which the United St2l!|^ would not have a 

 common interest with that nation; and to constitute alliances, not for 

 political objects, but for purely commercial purposes, equally interesting 

 to all the navigating nations of the world. 



We are more deeply interested in the construction of a ship canal 

 through the isthmus which divides North and South America than any 

 other nation. Without it, we may not be able to maintain our posses- 

 sions on the Pacific. We shall profit more by the treasures of that ocean, 

 in the event of the construction of inter-oceanic communications through 

 that isthmus, than any other people; and, in view of this, the late President 



