CHAPTER XXII.

1848–1849.

CENTRAL AMERICA—THE MONROE DOCTRINE, AND THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY.

To give an account of every public transaction with which Mr. Buchanan was connected as Secretary of State, would be impracticable within the limits of these volumes. But there remains one subject which must not be overlooked—the affairs of Central America, and the position in which they stood before the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

The policy of Mr. Polk’s administration towards the States of Central America and on the subject of the Monroe Doctrine was shaped by Mr. Buchanan very differently from that adopted by the succeeding administration of General Taylor, whose Secretary of State was Mr. Clayton, the American negotiator of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain. In 1845, when the war between the United States and Mexico was impending, there was reason to believe that England was aiming to obtain a footing in the then Mexican province of California, by an extensive system of colonization. Acting under Mr. Buchanan’s advice, President Polk, in his first annual message of December 2, 1845, not only re-asserted the Monroe Doctrine in general terms, but distinctly declared that no future European colony or dominion shall, with the consent of the United States, be planted or established on any part of the North American continent. This declaration was confined to North America, in order to make it emphatically applicable to California. The effect was that the British plan of colonization in California was given up. Two years afterward, when the Mexican war was drawing to a close, after the capture of the City of Mexico in September, 1847, Mr. Buchanan turned the attention of President Polk to the encroachments of the British government in Central America, under the operation of a protectorate over the king and kingdom of the Mosquito Indians. In his annual message of December 7, 1847, the President, after reiterating the Monroe Doctrine, asked for an appropriation to defray the expense of a chargé d’affaires to Guatemala, the most prosperous and important of the Central American states. The appropriation was made, and in April, 1848, the chargé was appointed. But before his departure a state of things occurred in Yucatan, which made it necessary for the President to make a fresh and solemn declaration of his purpose to maintain the Monroe Doctrine at every hazard against Great Britain and all other European powers. This was the war of extermination waged by the Indians against the white population of Yucatan in 1847–48. If not actually incited by the British authorities, the savages were known to be supplied with British muskets. The whites were reduced to such extremities that the authorities of Yucatan offered to transfer the dominion and sovereignty of the peninsula to the United States, as a consideration for defending it against the Indians, at the same time giving notice that if this offer should be declined, they would make the same proposition to England and Spain. By a special message sent to Congress on the 29th of April, 1848, President Polk recommended to Congress the appeal of Yucatan for aid and protection against the Indians, but he declined to recommend the adoption of any measure with a view to acquire the dominion and sovereignty over the peninsula. But it was necessary for him to announce what would be his policy should Great Britain or Spain accept a similar offer. Anticipating that England might take advantage of such an offer to establish over Yucatan such another protectorate as that which she claimed to exercise over the Mosquito coast, the President, at the close of his message, recommended to Congress “to adopt such measures as, in their judgment, may be expedient to prevent Yucatan from becoming a colony of any European power, which, in no event, could be permitted by the United States, and, at the same time, to rescue the white men from extermination or expulsion from their country.”

It then became necessary for Mr. Buchanan to consider how the removal of the British government from their assumed protectorate over the Indians of the Mosquito Coast could be best accomplished. He was convinced that the best thing to be done would be to re-unite the Central States of America in a federation, so that they could aid each other and be in a condition to receive aid from the United States. Accordingly, with the approbation of the President, on the 3d of June, Mr. Buchanan instructed Mr. Hise, the new chargé to Guatemala, as follows:

“When the federation of the centre of America was formed, the Government and people of the United States entertained the highest hopes and felt the warmest desire for its success and prosperity. Its government was that of a federal republic, composed of the five states of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Salvador, and Costa Rica; and its constitution nearly resembled that of the United States. This constitution unfortunately endured but a brief period, and the different states of Central America are now politically independent of each other. The consequence is that each of them is so feeble as to invite aggressions from foreign powers. Whilst it is our intention to maintain our established policy of non-intervention in the concerns of foreign nations, you are instructed, by your counsel and advice should suitable occasions offer, to promote the reunion of the states which formed the federation of Central America. In a federal union among themselves consists their strength. They will thus avoid domestic dissensions, and render themselves respected by the world. These truths you can impress upon them by the most powerful arguments.

A principal object of your mission is to cultivate the most friendly relations with Guatemala. It is now an independent sovereignty, and is by far the most populous and powerful of the states of the former federation. Whilst representing your Government at Guatemala, however, you will enjoy frequent opportunities of cultivating friendly relations between the United States and the other states of Central America, which you will not fail to embrace.

The enemies of free institutions throughout the world have been greatly encouraged by the constantly recurring revolutions and changes in the Spanish-American republics. They are thus furnished with arguments against the capacity of man for self-government. The President and people of the United States have viewed these incessant changes with the most profound regret. Both our principles and our policy make us desire that these republics should become prosperous and powerful. We feel a deep interest in their welfare; but this we know can only be promoted by free and stable governments. The enjoyment of liberty and the maintenance of private rights cannot be secured without permanent order; and this can only spring from the sacred observance of law. So long as successive military chieftains shall possess the ability and the will to subvert subsisting governments by the sword, the inevitable consequences must be a disregard of personal rights, weakness at home, and want of character abroad. In your intercourse with the authorities of Guatemala and other states of Central America, you will not fail to impress upon them our example, where all political controversies are decided at the ballot-box.

I have no doubt that the dissolution of the confederacy of Central America has encouraged Great Britain in her encroachments upon the territories of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, under the mask of protecting the so-called kingdom of the Mosquitos. We learn that under this pretext she has now obtained possession of the harbor of San Juan de Nicaragua—probably the best harbor along the whole coast. Her object in this acquisition is evident from the policy which she has uniformly pursued throughout her past history—of seizing upon every valuable commercial point throughout the world, whenever circumstances have placed this in her power. Her purpose probably is to obtain the control of the route for a railroad and a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by the way of Lake Nicaragua. In a document prepared, as it is understood, by Mr. Macgregor, and printed by order of the British Parliament, which has been furnished to me by Mr. Crampton, her Britannic Majesty’s chargé d’affaires to the United States, Great Britain claims the whole of the sea-coast for the king of the Mosquitos, from Cape Honduras to Escuda de Veragua. By this means she would exclude from the Caribbean Sea the whole of Honduras south of Cape Honduras, and the entire states of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as the New Granadian state of Veragua. Under the assumed title of protector of the kingdom of the Mosquitos—a miserable, degraded and insignificant tribe of Indians—she doubtless intends to acquire an absolute dominion over this vast extent of sea-coast. With what little reason she advances this pretension appears from the convention between Great Britain and Spain, signed at London on the 14th day of July, 1786. By its first article, “His Britannic Majesty’s subjects, and the other colonists who have hitherto enjoyed the protection of England, shall evacuate the country of the Mosquitos, as well as the continent in general and the islands adjacent, without exception, situated beyond the line hereafter described as what ought to be the frontier of the extent of territory granted by his Catholic majesty to the English for the uses specified in the third article of the present convention, and in addition to the country already granted to them in virtue of the stipulations agreed upon by the commissioners of the two crowns in 1783.”

The country granted to them under the treaties of 1783 and 1786 was altogether embraced in the present British provinces of Belize, and was remote from what is now claimed to be the Mosquito kingdom. The uses specified in the third article of the convention were merely, in addition to that of “cutting wood for dyeing,” the grant of the liberty of cutting all other wood, without even excepting mahogany, as well as gathering all the fruits or produce of the earth, purely natural and uncultivated, which may, besides being carried away in their natural state, become an object of utility or of commerce, whether for food or for manufactures; but it is expressly agreed that this stipulation is never to be used as a pretext for establishing in that country any plantation of sugar, coffee, cocoa, or other like articles, or any fabric or manufacture, by means of mills or other machines whatsoever. (This restriction, however, does not regard the use of saw-mills for cutting or otherwise preparing the wood.) Since all the lands in question being indisputably acknowledged to belong of right to the crown of Spain, no settlements of that kind, or the population that would follow, could be allowed. “The English shall be permitted to transport and convey all such wood and other produce of the place in its natural and uncultivated state down the rivers to the sea; but without ever going beyond the limits which are prescribed to them by the stipulations above granted, and without thereby taking an opportunity of ascending the said rivers beyond their bounds into the countries belonging to Spain.”

And yet from this simple permission within certain limits to cut and carry away all the different kinds of wood and “the produce of the earth, uncultivated and purely natural,” accompanied by the most solemn acknowledgment on the part of Great Britain that all the lands in question “belong of right to the crown of Spain,” she has by successive encroachments established the British colony of the Belize.

The Government of the United States has not yet determined what course it will pursue in regard to the encroachments of the British government as protector of the king and kingdom of the Mosquitos; but you are instructed to obtain all the information within your power upon the nature and extent of these encroachments, and communicate it with the least possible delay to this department. We are also desirous to learn the number of the Mosquito tribe, the degree of civilization they have attained, and everything else concerning them.

The independence, as well as the interests of the nations on this continent, require that they should maintain an American system of policy, entirely distinct from that which prevails in Europe. To suffer any interference on the part of the European governments with the domestic concerns of the American republics, and to permit them to establish new colonies upon this continent, would be to jeopard their independence and ruin their interests. These truths ought everywhere throughout this continent to be impressed upon the public mind; but what can the United States do to resist such European interference whilst the Spanish American republics continue to weaken themselves by division and civil war, and deprive themselves of the ability of doing anything for their own protection?

Mr. Hise was prevented by illness and other causes from reaching Guatemala until a late period in Mr. Polk’s administration, and before any despatches were received from him Mr. Polk had ceased to be President. The plan wisely conceived by Mr. Buchanan and adopted by President Polk, for uniting the States of Central America in a new federation, which, by the aid of the United States, could compel the surrender of the British protectorate, was not carried out by their successors, although it descended to them in the best possible shape. In the mean time, the British government, taking advantage of the wretched internal condition of those States, had undertaken to extend the dominions of the puppet king of the Mosquitos far beyond their former pretensions, and in February, 1848, had seized upon the port of San Juan de Nicaragua, expelled the State from it, and thus deprived her and the State of Costa Rica of the only good harbor along the coast. To counteract this encroachment and to enable the Central States, by uniting them, to demand the withdrawal of the protectorate asserted by Great Britain, was the purpose for which Mr. Hise was sent to Guatemala. Instead of taking up and carrying out this policy, the succeeding administration of General Taylor, without consulting the States of Central America, entered into the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, concluded April 19, 1850, the ratifications being exchanged July 4, 1850.

It is necessary to make a brief analysis of this treaty, because Mr. Buchanan, when he became minister to England under President Pierce, had to do what he could to unravel the complications to which the ambiguous language of the treaty had given rise. There were two provisions in the first article of the treaty which need separate examination. By the first of them, the contracting parties stipulated that neither of them should ever exercise exclusive control over the ship-canal that was to be constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the way of the river San Juan de Nicaragua, or erect any fortifications commanding it. The treaty then proceeded to declare that neither of the parties shall ever “occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America.” One general objection to this provision was, that so long as it should remain in operation it would preclude the United States from ever annexing to their dominions any state of Central America, even if such state should desire to come into our Union. But the last clause of the first article of the treaty was the one which led to the subsequent controversy. Instead of a simple provision requiring Great Britain absolutely to recede from the Mosquito protectorate, and to restore to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica their respective territories, the treaty declared as follows: “Nor will either [of the parties] make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have, to or with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising any dominion over the same.”

It soon became the British construction of this clause that it recognized the existence of the Mosquito protectorate for all purposes other than those expressly prohibited. Under this construction, Great Britain claimed that she could still direct and influence the Mosquito king in the administration of his government; and down to the time when Mr. Buchanan was sent by President Pierce as minister to England, this claim was still maintained. On the other hand, taking all its provisions together and interpreting them according to the fair meaning of the stipulations as applied to the facts, the treaty was understood in this country to bind the British government not to exercise in any part of Central America any “dominion,” either through the name and authority of the titular king of the Mosquitos, or otherwise; or in other words not to exercise dominion, either directly or indirectly. Manifestly the treaty was destined to be a source of discord between Great Britain and the United States; and when, as will hereafter be seen, it devolved upon the administration of President Pierce to meet the British construction, there was an imperative necessity for Mr. Buchanan’s services as minister to Great Britain, in order that this and other pending questions between the two governments might be adjusted without further hazard of more serious collision.

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NOTE.

On page 459 of this volume, it should have been stated that the charge of “treachery” made by Mr. Clay and the Whigs generally against President Tyler, was chiefly based on the assertions that the first Bank bill (passed August 6th, 1841), was framed by Mr. Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury, and approved by the President and his Cabinet; that it was vetoed on the ground of essential alterations; that the second bill was framed to meet his special objections, was privately submitted to him and approved before its passage, but vetoed afterwards. The central point in the Whig charge is that Mr. Tyler vetoed a bill which he had promised to approve, and which was first submitted to him in order that its terms might be altered, or that the whole might be abandoned, if he could not approve it.

It has not been my intention in this work to express any opinion upon the conduct of President Tyler in relation to the Bank bills. In the Life of Mr. Webster, the reader will find, at pages 69 to 80 of the first volume, his explanations of the whole difficulty. But since page 459 of the present volume was written and stereotyped, I have thought it proper to advert, without comment, to the precise character of the Whig charge against Mr. Tyler, lest it might be said that I have omitted to refer to an important part of the history.

Transcriber’s Note

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. On occasion, the indication of quotations is confused. Where it is not obvious from the context where the quotation marks should have been properly placed, they are left to stand, and noted below.

1.28 arrival in Philade[l]phia>, Added.

17.7 his future prospects as a lawyer and a Added. politician.[”]

80.27 meet us and deny to us this reasonable Added. request.[”]

91.13 within the exclusive jurisdic[dic]tion Removed.

97.5 duties.[”] Such has been the delay of justice Added.

261.34 they reported three resolutio[u/n]s Inverted.

283.1 in the Department of Foreign Affairs[”], Removed.

284.21 granted under the Constitution to the Replaced. Pre[a/s]ident.

289.41 But he is respons[i]ble Added.

302.15 the imputation of any criminal motives.[”] Added.

303.41 Dreadful would be the consequences if we Replaced. poss[s/e]ss

310.44 agreed to, _nem. con._[”] Added.

311.20 _[“]Resolved_ That the aforesaid Added. resolve

321.39 palpa[p/b]le absurdity. Replaced.

346.17 and transmitted th[r]ough Added.

346.26 should be carried th[r]ough> Added.

354.35 from legal responsibi[li]ty for his conduct. Added.

359.38 [“]A citizen of any of the States, _sic_

401.31 Mr. Buchanan. From the gentleman’s _sic_ [explaination],

425.12 described by several gentlem[a/e]n from the Replaced. South

444.1 w[h]ich all must have observed Added.

461.19 for relief under this bill[.] Added.

482.16 had a splendid system of internal Added. improv[e]ments

524.6 met many New Yorkers at [I/T]owanda. Replaced.

601.18 plenipotent[i]aries> on the part of the Added. Mexican Republic