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SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 15, 1826.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :

In compliance with the resolution of the house of the 5th ultimo, requesting me to cause to be laid before the house so much of the corre spondence between the government of the United States and the new states of America, or their ministers, respecting the proposed congress or meeting of diplomatic agents at Panama, and such information respecting the general character of that expected congress as may be in my possession, and as may, in my opinion, be communicated without prejudice to the public interest; and also to inform the house, so far as in my opinion the public interest may allow, in regard to what objects the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress; I now transmit to the house a report from the secretary of state, with the correspondence and information requested by the resolution.

With regard to the objects in which the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress, I deem it proper to premise, that these objects did not form the only, nor even the principal, motive for my acceptance of the invitation. My first and greatest inducement was, to meet, in the spirit of kindness and friendship, an overture made in that spirit by three sister republics of this hemisphere.

The great revolution in human affairs which has brought into existence, nearly at the same time, eight sovereign and independent states, has placed the United States in a situation not less novel, and scarcely less interesting, than that in which they had found themselves by their own transition from a cluster of colonies to a nation of sovereign states. The deliverance of the South American republics from the oppression under which they had been so long afflicted, was hailed with great unanimity by the people of this Union as among the most auspicious events of the age. On the 4th of May, 1822, an act of Congress made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars, "for such missions to the independent nations on the American continent as the president of the United States might deem proper." In exercising the authority recognised by this act, my predecessor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed, successively, ministers plenipotentiary to the republics of Colombia, Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Mexico. Unwilling to raise among the fraternity of freedom questions of precedency and etiquette, which even the European monarchs had of late found it necessary in a great measure to discard, he despatched these ministers to Colombia, Buenos Ayres, and Chili, without exacting from those republics, as by the ancient principles of political primogeniture he might have done, that the compliment of a plenipotentiary mission should have been paid first by them to the United States. The instructions, prepared under his direction, to Mr. Anderson, the first of our minis ters to the southern continent, contain, at much length, the general principles upon which he thought it desirable that our relations, political and commercial, with these, our new neighbors, should be established, for their benefit and ours, and that of the future ages of our posterity.

A copy of so much of these instructions as relates to these general subjects is among the papers now transmitted to the house. Similar instructions were furnished to the ministers appointed to Buenos Ayres, Chili,

and Mexico; and the system of social intercourse, which it was the pur pose of those missions to establish from the first opening of our diplomatic relations with those rising nations, is the most effective exposition of the principles upon which the invitation to the congress at Panama has been accepted by me, as well as of the objects of negotiation at that meeting, in which it was expected that our plenipotentiaries should take part.

The house will perceive that, even at the date of these instructions, the first treaties between some of the southern republics had been concluded, by which they had stipulated among themselves this diplomatic assembly at Panama. And it will be seen with what caution, so far as it might concern the policy of the United States, and at the same time with what frankness and good will toward those nations, he gave countenance to their design of inviting the United States to this high assembly for consultation upon American interests. It was not considered a conclusive reason for declining this invitation, that the proposal for assembling such a congress had not first been made by ourselves. It had sprung from the urgent, immediate, and momentous common interests of the great communities struggling for independence and, as it were, quickening into life. From them the proposition to us appeared respectful and friendly; from us to them it could scarcely have been made, without exposing ourselves to suspicions of purposes of ambition, if not of domination, more suited to rouse resistance and excite distrust, than to conciliate favor and friendship. The first and paramount principle upon which it was deemed wise and just to lay the corner-stone of all our future relations with them was disinterestedness; the next was cordial good will to them; the third was a claim of fair and equal reciprocity. Under these impressions, when the invitation was formally and earnestly given, had it even been doubtful, whether any of the objects proposed for consideration and discussion at the congress were such as that immediate and important interests of the United States would be affected by the issue, I should, nevertheless, have determined, so far as it depended on me, to have accepted the invitation, and to have appointed ministers to attend the meeting. The proposal itself implied that the republic by whom it was made believed that important interests of ours, or of theirs, rendered our attendance there desirable. They had given us notice that, in the novelty of their situation, and in the spirit of deference to our experience, they would be pleased to have the benefit of our friendly counsel. To meet the temper with which this proposal was made with a cold repulse, was not thought congenial to that warm interest in their welfare with which the people and government of the Union had hitherto gone hand in hand through the whole progress of the revolution. To insult them by a refusal of their overture, and then invite them to a similar assembly, to be called by ourselves, was an expedient which never presented itself to the mind. I would have sent ministers to the meeting, had it been merely to give them such advice as they might have desired, even with reference to their own interests, not involving ours. I would have sent them, had it been merely to explain and set forth to them our reasons for declining any proposal of specific measures to which they might desire our concurrence, but which we might deem incompatible with our interests or our duties. In the intercourse between nations, temper is a missionary perhaps more powerful than talent. Nothing was ever lost by kind treatment. Nothing can be gained by sullen repulses and aspiring pretensions.

But objects of the highest importance not only to the future welfare of

the whole human race, but bearing directly upon the special interests of this Union, will engage the deliberations of the congress of Panama, whether we are represented there or not. Others, if we are represented, may be offered by our plenipotentiaries for consideration, having in view both these great results-our own interests, and the improvement of the condition of man upon earth. It may be that, in the lapse of many centuries, no other opportunity so favorable will be presented to the government of the United States, to subserve the benevolent purposes of Divine Providence; to dispense the promised blessings of the Redeemer of mankind; to promote the prevalence, in future ages, of peace on earth and good will to man; as will now be placed in their power by participating in the deliberations of this congress.

Among the topics enumerated in official papers, published by the republic of Colombia, and adverted to in the correspondence now communicated to the house, as intended to be presented for discussion at Panama, there is scarcely one in which the result of the meeting will not deeply affect the interests of the United States. Even those in which the belligerent states alone will take an active part, will have a powerful effect upon the state of our relations with the American, and probably with the principal European states. Were it merely that we might be correctly and speedily informed of the proceedings of the congress, and of the progress and issue of their negotiations, I should hold it advisable that we should have an accredited agency with them, placed in such confidential relations with the other members as would insure the authenticity, and the safe and early transmission of its reports. Of the same enumerated topics, are the preparation of a manifesto, setting forth to the world the justice of their cause, and the relations they desire to hold with other Christian powers, and to form a convention of navigation and commerce applicable both to the confederated states and to their allies.

It will be within the recollection of the house, that, immediately after the close of the war of our independence, a measure closely analogous to this congress of Panama was adopted by the Congress of our confederation, and for purposes of precisely the same character. Three commissioners, with plenipotentiary powers, were appointed to negotiate treaties of amity, navigation, and commerce, with all the principal powers of Europe. They met and resided for about one year for that purpose at Paris; and the only result of their negotiations at that time, was the first treaty between the United States and Prussia-memorable in the diplomatic annals of the world, and precious as a monument of the principles, in relation to commerce and maritime warfare, with which our country entered upon her career as a member of the great family of independent nations. This treaty, prepared in conformity with the instructions of the American plenipotentiaries, consecrated three fundamental principles of the foreign intercourse, which the Congress of that period were desirous of establishing. First, equal reciprocity, and the mutual stipulation of the privileges of the most favored nation in the commercial exchanges of peace; secondly, the abolition of private war upon the ocean; and thirdly, restrictions favorable to neutral commerce upon belligerent practices, with regard to contraband of war and blockades. A painful, it may be said a calamitous experience, of more than forty years, has demonstrated the deep importance of these same principles to the peace and prosperity of this nation, and to the welfare of all maritime states, and has illustrated the profound wisdom with which they were assumed as cardinal points of the policy of the Union.

At that time, in the infancy of their political existence, under the influence of those principles of liberty and of right, so congenial to the cause in which they have just fought and triumphed, they were able but to obtain the sanction of one great and philosophical, though absolute sovereign, in Europe, to their liberal and enlightened principles. They could obtain no more Since that, a political hurricane has gone over three fourths of the civilized portions of the earth, the desolation of which, it may with confidence be expected, is passing away, leaving at least the American atmosphere purified and refreshed. And now, at this propitious moment, the newborn nations of this hemisphere, assembling by their representatives at the isthmus between its two continents, to settle the principles of their future international intercourse with other nations and with us, ask, in this great exigency, for our advice upon those very fundamental maxims which we, from our cradle, at first proclaimed, and partially succeeded to introduce into the code of national law.

Without recurring to that total prostration of all neutral and commercial rights which marked the progress of the late European wars, and which finally involved the United States in them, and adverting only to our political relations with these American nations, it is observable that, while, in all other respects, those relations have been uniformly, and without exception, of the most friendly and mutually satisfactory character, the only causes of difference and dissension between us and them which ever have arisen, originated in those never-failing fountains of discord and irritation-discriminations of commercial favor to other nations, licentious privateers, and paper blockades. I can not, without doing injustice to the republics of Buenos Ayres and Colombia, forbear to acknowledge the candid and conciliatory spirit with which they have repeatedly yielded to our friendly representations and remonstrances on these subjects-in repealing discriminative laws which operated to our disadvantage, and in revoking the commissions of their privateers; to which Colombia has added the magnanimity of making reparation for unlawful captures by some of her cruisers, and of assenting, in the midst of war, to treaty stipulations favorable to neutral navigation. But the recurrence of these occasions of complaint has rendered the renewal of the discussions which result in the removal of them necessary, while, in the meantime, injuries are sustained by merchants and other individuals of the United States, which can not be repaired, and the remedy lingers in overtaking the pernicious operation of the mischief. The settlement of general principles, pervading with equal efficacy all the American states, can alone put an end to these evils, and can alone be accomplished at the proposed assembly.

If it be true that the noblest treaty of peace ever mentioned in history, is that by which the Carthagenians were bound to abolish the practice of sacrificing their own children, because it was stipulated in favor of human nature, I can not exaggerate to myself the unfading glory with which these United States will go forth in the memory of future ages, if, by their friendly counsel, by their moral influence, by the power of argument and persuasion alone, they can prevail upon the American nations, at Panama, o stipulate, by general agreement among themselves, and so far as any of them may be concerned, the perpetual abolition of private war upon the ocean. And, if we can not yet flatter ourselves that this may be accomplished, as advances toward it, the establishment of the principle that the friendly flag shall cover the cargo, the curtailment of contraband of war, and the proscription of fictitious paper blockades-engagements which we

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may reasonably hope will not prove impracticable-will, if successfully inculcated, redound proportionably to our honor, and drain the fountain of many a future sanguinary war.

The late president of the United States, in his message to Congress of the second of December, 1823, while announcing the negotiation then pending with Russia, relating to the northwest coast of this continent, observes, that the occasion of the discussions to which that incident had given rise, had been taken for asserting as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States were involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they had assumed and maintained, were thenceforward not to be considered subjects for colonization by any European power. The principle had first been assumed in that negotiation with Russia. It rested upon a course of reasoning equally simple and conclusive. With the exception of the existing European colonies, which it was in nowise intended to disturb, the two continents consisted of several sovereign and independent nations, whose territories covered their whole surface. By this their independent condition, the United States enjoyed the right of commercial intercourse with every part of their possessions. To attempt the establishment of a colony in those possessions, would be to usurp, to the exclusion of others, a commercial intercourse, which was the common possession of all. It could not be done without encroaching upon existing rights of the United States. The government of Russia has never disputed these positions, nor manifested the slightest dissatisfaction at their having been taken. Most of the new American republics have declared their entire assent to them; and they now propose, among the subjects of consultation at Panama, to take into consideration the means of making effectual the assertion of that principle, as well as the means of resisting interference from abroad with the domestic concerns of the American governments.

In alluding to these means, it would obviously be premature at this time to anticipate that which is offered merely as matter for consultation; or to pronounce upon those measures which have been or may be suggested. The purpose of this government is to concur in none which would import hostility to Europe, or justly excite resentment in any of her states. Should it be deemed advisable to contract any conventional engagement on this topic, our views would extend no further than to a mutual pledge of the parties to the compact, to maintain the principle in application to its own territory, and to permit no colonial lodgments or establishment of European jurisdiction upon its own soil; and, with respect to the obtrusive interference from abroad, if its future character may be inferred from that which has been, and, perhaps, still is exercised in more than one of the new states, a joint declaration of its character, and exposure of it to the world, may be probably all that the occasion would require. Whether the United States should or should not be parties to such a declaration, may justly form a part of the deliberation. That there is an evil to be remedied, needs little insight into the secret history of late years to know, and that this remedy may best be concerted at the Panama meeting, deserves at least the experiment of consideration. A concert of measures, having reference to the more effectual abolition of the African slave-trade, and the consideration of the light in which the political condition of the island of Hayti is to be regarded, are also among the subjects mentioned by the minister from the republic of Colombia, as believed to be suitable for deliberation at the congress. The failure of the negotiations

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