pen on like terms to the citizens and
subjects of every other state which is willing to grant thereto such
protection as the United States and Great Britain propose to afford.

The United States, in a short time after the Clayton and Bulwer treaty
was concluded, carried this stipulation in regard to the Tehuantepec
route into effect by their treaty with Mexico of the 30th December,
1853. The eighth article of this treaty, after granting to us the
transit privileges therein mentioned, stipulates that "the Mexican
Government having agreed to protect with its whole power the
prosecution, preservation, and security of the work, the United States
may extend its protection as it shall judge wise, to use it when it may
feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international law."

This is a sweeping grant of power to the United States, which no nation
ought to have conceded, but which, it is believed, has been confined
within safe limits by our treaty with Mexico now before the Senate.
Such was believed to be the established policy of the Government at
the commencement of this Administration, viz, the grant of transits in
our favor and the guaranty of our protection as an equivalent. This
guaranty can never be dangerous under our form of government, because
it can never be carried into execution without the express authority
of Congress. Still, standing on the face of treaties, as it does, it
deters all evil-disposed parties from interfering with these routes.

Under such circumstances the attention of the Executive was early turned
to the Nicaragua route as in many respects the most important and
valuable to the citizens of our country. In concluding a treaty to
secure our rights of transit over this route I experienced many
difficulties, which I need not now enumerate, because they are detailed
in different messages to Congress. Finally a treaty was negotiated
exactly in accordance with the established policy of the Government and
the views of the Executive, and clear from the embarrassments which
might arise under the phraseology of previous treaties. The fourteenth
article of the treaty contains a full, clear, and specific grant of
the right of transit to the United States and their citizens, and is
believed to be perfectly unexceptionable. The fifteenth article, instead
of leaving one equivalent duty of protection, general and unlimited, as
in our treaty with New Granada and in the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, o