ance for any political
object, but for a purely commercial purpose, in which all the navigating
nations of the world have a common interest. Nicaragua, like New
Granada, is a power which will not excite the jealousy of any nation.

As there is nothing narrow, selfish, illiberal, or exclusive in the
views of the United States as set forth in this treaty, as it is
indispensable to the successful completion of the contemplated canal to
secure protection to it from the local authorities and this Government,
and as I have no doubt that the British pretension to the port of San
Juan in right of the Mosquito King is without just foundation in any
public law ever before recognized in any other instance by Americans or
Englishmen as applicable to Indian titles on this continent, I shall
ratify this treaty in case the Senate shall advise that course. Its
principal defect is taken from the treaty with New Granada, the
negotiator having made it liable to be abrogated on notice after twenty
years. Both treaties should have been perpetual or limited only by the
duration of the improvements they were intended to protect. The
instructions to our charge d'affaires, it will be seen, prescribe no
limitation for the continuance of the treaty with Nicaragua. Should the
Senate approve of principle of the treaty, an amendment in this respect
is deemed advisable; and it will be well to invite by another amendment
the protection of other nations, by expressly offering them in the
treaty what is now offered by implication only--the same advantages
which we propose for ourselves on the same conditions upon which we
shall have acquired them. The policy of this treaty is not novel, nor
does it originate from any suggestion either of my immediate predecessor
or myself. On the 3d day of March, 1835, the following resolution,
referred to by the late President in his message to the Senate relative
to the treaty with New Granada, was adopted in executive session by the
Senate without division:

_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be respectfully
requested to consider the expediency of opening negotiations with the
Governments of Central America and New Granada for the purpose of
effectually protecting, by suitable treaty stipulations with them,
such individuals or companies as may undertake to open a communication
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the construction of a ship
canal across the isthmus which connects