her possession was undisturbed at the time of the treaty, though the
British possession in the right of the Mosquito King was then extended
into the territories claimed by New Granada as far as Boca del Toro. The
professed objects of both the treaties are to open communications across
the Isthmus to all nations and to invite their guaranties on the same
terms. Neither of them proposes to guarantee territory to a foreign
nation in which the United States will not have a common interest with
that nation. Neither of them constitutes an alliance 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 chargé 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