And in this connection permit me to recall your attention to the
condition of Arizona. The population of that Territory, numbering, as is
alleged, more than 10,000 souls, are practically without a government,
without laws, and without any regular administration of justice. Murder
and other crimes are committed with impunity. This state of things calls
loudly for redress, and I therefore repeat my recommendation for the
establishment of a Territorial government over Arizona.

The political condition of the narrow isthmus of Central America,
through which transit routes pass between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, presents a subject of deep interest to all commercial nations.
It is over these transits that a large proportion of the trade and
travel between the European and Asiatic continents is destined to pass.
To the United States these routes are of incalculable importance as a
means of communication between their Atlantic and Pacific possessions.
The latter now extend throughout seventeen degrees of latitude on the
Pacific coast, embracing the important State of California and the
flourishing Territories of Oregon and Washington. All commercial nations
therefore have a deep and direct interest that these communications
shall be rendered secure from interruption. If an arm of the sea
connecting the two oceans penetrated through Nicaragua and Costa Rica,
it could not be pretended that these States would have the right to
arrest or retard its navigation to the injury of other nations. The
transit by land over this narrow isthmus occupies nearly the same
position. It is a highway in which they themselves have little interest
when compared with the vast interests of the rest of the world. Whilst
their rights of sovereignty ought to be respected, it is the duty of
other nations to require that this important passage shall not be
interrupted by the civil wars and revolutionary outbreaks which have