Doc. No. 75. 



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ing and impressive, of the disposition of an injured people to resist what 

 they believe to be injuslice and oppression. Will other nations, interested 

 in a free passage to and from the Pacific ocean, by the way of the river 

 San Jnan and lake Nicaragua, tamely allow that interest to be thwarted by 

 such pretensions ? 



As it regards the United States, this question may confidently be 

 answered in the negative. 



Having now sufficiently apprized you. of the vieAvs of this department 

 in regard to the title to the Mosquito coast, I desire 3^ou distinctly to un- 

 derstand how important it is deemed by the President so to conduct all 

 our negotiations on the subject of the Nicaragua passage, as not to in- 

 volve this country in any entangling alliances or any unnecessary con- 

 troversy. We desire no monopoly of the right of way for our commerce, 

 and we cannot submit to it if claimed for that of any other nation. If 

 we held and enjoyed such a monopoly, it would entail upon us more 

 bloody and expensive wars than the struggle for Gibraltar has caused to 

 England and Spain. The same calamities would infallibly be cast upon 

 any other nation claiming to exclude the commerce of the rest of the 

 world. We only ask an equal right of passage for all nations on the 

 same terms — a passage unencumbered by oppressive exactions either 

 from the local government within whose sovereign limits it may be 

 effected, or from the proprietors of the canal when accomplished. For 

 this end we are willing to enter into a treaty stipulation with the govern- 

 ment of Nicaragua, that both governments shall forever protect and de- 

 fend the proprietors who may succeed in cutting the canal and opening 

 the water communication between the two oceans for our commerce. 



ithout such protection, it is not believed that this great enterprise would 

 ever be successful. Nicaragua is a feeble State, and capitalists, prover- 

 bially a timid race, may apprehend from the rapacity of great maritime 

 powers the obstruction and even the seizure of the canal. Similar ap- 

 prehensions on their part, from revolutions in the local government, from 

 the oppression and exactions of temporary chieftains, and from causes not 

 necessary to be explained, may operate to retard a work in regard to which 

 it may be safely predicted that, when successfully accomplished, its 

 benefits to mankind will transcend those of any other similar work 

 known in the history of the world. Ail these apprehensions may and 

 will be removed by the solemn pledge of protection given by the United 

 States, and especially when it is known that our object in giving it is not 

 to acquire for ourselves any exclusive or partial advantage over other na- 

 tions. Nicaragua will be at liberty to enter into the same treaty stipula- 

 tions with au]^ other nation that may claim to erijoy the same benefits, 

 and will agree to be bound by the same guarantee. In desiring that our 

 own countrymen may obtain the charter or grant of the right to make 

 the canal, we do not mean to be misunderstood. Our purpose in aiding 

 American citizens to obtain the grant, is to encourage them in a laudable 

 effort, relying, as their own government does, more on their skill and en- 

 terprise than on that of others. If they themselves prefer to unite with 

 their own the capital of foreigners who may desire to embark in the un- 

 dertaking, this government will not object to that. We should naturally 

 be proud of such an achievement as an American work; but if European 

 aid be necessary to accomplish it, why should we repudiate it, seeing 

 that our object is as honest as it is openly avowed to claim no peculiar 



