Doc. No. 75. 



Realijo, on the Pacific ocean. A company of American citizens entered 

 into such a contract with the State of Nicaragua. Viewing the canal as 

 a matter of great importance to the people of the United States, the late 

 President resolved to adopt the pohcy of protecting the work, and bind- 

 ing by treaty the government of Nicaragua, through whose territory it 

 would pass, also to protect it. The instructions to E. George Squier, 

 appointed by him charge d'affaires to Guatemala, on the 2d day of April, 

 1849, are herewith submitted, as fully indicating the views which gov- 

 erned the late President in directing a treaty to be made with Nicaragua. 

 He considered the interference of the British government on this conti- 

 nent in seizing the port of San Juan, which commands the route believed 

 to be the most ehgible for the canal across the isthmus, and occupying it, 

 at the very moment when it was known, as he supposed, to Great Britain, 

 that we were engaged in the negotiation for the purchase of California, as 

 an unfortunate coincidence, and one calculated to lead to the inference 

 that she entertained designs by no means in harmony with the interests 

 of the United States; but he confidently expected that the amicable 

 convention lately entered into and ratified by the two countries, would be 

 sufficient to disp(?l every doubt as to the friendly intentions of Great 

 Britain. 



With regard to the special convention negotiated by Mr. Hise with the 

 State of Nicaragua, it is proper to remark that, inasmuch as he had been 

 positively instructed to make no treaty — not even a treaty of commerce — 

 with Nicaragua, Costa Rica, or Honduras, it was not imagined that he 

 would act in opposition to his instructions; and in September last the 

 Executive was for the first time informed that he had negotiated two 

 treaties with the State of Nicaragua — the one a treaty of commerce, the 

 other a treaty for the proposed ship canal — both of which he brought with 

 him on his return home. He also negotiated a treaty of commerce with 

 Honduras; and in each it is recited that he had full powers for the purpose. 

 He had no such powers; and the whole proceeding, on his part, with 

 reference to those States, was not only unauthorized by instructions, but 

 in opposition to those he had received from President Polk, and after the 

 date of his own letter of recall and the appointment of his successor. But 

 1 have no evidence that Mr. Hise, whose letter of recall (a copy of which 

 is herewith sent) bears date the 2d day of May, 1849, had received that 

 letter on the 21st of June, when he negotiated the treaty with Nicaragua. 

 The difficulty of communicating with him was so great that 1 have reason 

 to believe he had not received it. He did not acknowledge it. 



The twelfth article of the treaty negotiated by Mr. Hise in effect guar- 

 anties the independence of the State of Nicaragua, and her sovereignty 

 over her alleged limits, from the Caribbean sea to the Pacific Ocean, 

 pledging the naval and military poAver of the United States to support it. 

 This treaty authorizes the chartering of a corporation by this government 

 to cut a canal outside of the limits of the United States, and gives to us 

 the exclusive right to fortify and command it. The late President did 

 not approve it, nor did he submit it to the Senate for ratification — not 

 merely because of the facts already mentioned, but because, on the 31st 

 of December last, Seiior Eduardo Carcache, on being accredited to this 

 government as charge d'affaires from the State of Nicaragua, in a note to 

 the Secretary of State (a translation of which is herewith transmitted) 

 declared that the special convention concluded at Guatemala, by Mr. 



