106 



Doc. No. 75. 



plan for the construction of an oceanic communication for the passage of 

 vessels across the continent, from sea to sea; the vast importance which 

 subsequent events have given to the subject does not seem to have then 

 occurred to the existing administration of our government, and I was 

 wholly uninstructed on the subject, and without precedents, forms, or 

 example, to guide me, or at least none within my reach at the time. I 

 had not seen the treaty with New Grenada, which had not been ratified 

 or pubhshed until after my departure on my mission. In the mean time 

 the treaty with Mexico had been ratified, by which the countries of Upper 

 California and New Mexico w^ere ceded to the United States; and whilst 

 at the city of Guatemala, the intelligence first reached me of the discovery 

 of the vast mineral wealth of those territories, and of the rushing torrent 

 of emigration thereto from all parts of the world. I had repeatedly, in 

 my despatches written to the Departm^ent of State, requested instructions 

 to be furnished to me; and. again and again, in my letters to the Secretary 

 of State, I urged the vast importance of this subject, and the necessity of 

 securirig the interests of the United States by prompt action. To these 

 communications to the government I never received a single line or word 

 of reply, and concluded that, as the government of Guatemala was con- 

 stantly in a revolutionary state, the country involved in civil strife, and 

 the paths to the coast infested with banditti, so that there was not any 

 safe transportation of the public mails or of merchandise in the country, 

 all letters, public and private, directed to me, must be either detained at 

 Behze, or intercepted and destroyed on the route to the capital. Under 

 these circumstances, the necessity of the case, as 1 had just reason to be- 

 lieve, being most urgent and pressing, I conceived it to be my duty, in 

 view of the great interests involved, and of the stupendous results that 

 might ensue, to seize the opportunity which off'ered, to secure those in- 

 terests, and to insure those results, by concluding this treaty with the 

 State of Nicaragua, in the absence of instructions or precedents to guide 

 me. If I have erred in treating at all, or if the treaty made is so faulty 

 and defective in its provisions as not to merit the approval of the govern- 

 ment, I at least thought that I was doing right, and that it was my 

 duty to endeavor to seize and make available the chance that then offered 

 (and which might never be offered again) to secure for my country the 

 great ends and objects contemplated by this treaty. 



Although the articles and sections of this treaty are somewhat numer- 

 ous and lengthy, yet upon a careful analysis it will be found that it pro- 

 vides for the three main objects, as hereinbefore stated, to wit: 



1st. It secures for the government of the United States the perpetual 

 right of way, in a manner the most full, ample, and complete, for all her 

 public vessels, or other vessels in its employment, for troops, all muni- 

 tions of war, all public property, mails, and all public officers and agents, 

 civil and military, through any of the territories and dominions of Nicar- 

 agua, by land or water, from sea to sea, either by means of the ports, 

 bays, lakes, rivers, and roads of said State, in their present condition as 

 unimproved, or by, through, and over any such canals, roads, or improved 

 navigable waters as may at any time hereafter be made and constructed 

 within said State by the citizens or government of either or both of the 

 contracting parties, or by the citizens or government of any other nation, 

 or kingdom, or country. This right of way to be free without cost or 

 charge^ perpetual without limitation as to time^ and unrestricted with 



