isting forms of free government there established, to substitute the monarchical in place of them, and to plant on the newly erected thrones European Princes. In both instances, it is due to our sis. ter Republics, and otherwise proper to add, that the design met with a merited and prompt repulse; but the spirit which dictated it never slumbers, and may be renewed. The plausible motive held out, and which may be repeated, is, that of a recognition of the independence of the new States, with assurances that the adoption of monarchical institutions will conciliate the great powers of Europe. The new Republics being sovereign and independent States, and exhibiting this capacity for self-government at home, being in fact acknowledged by the United States and Great Britain, and having entered into treaties and other national com. pacts with foreign powers, have a clear right to be recognised. From considerations of policy, the act of recognition has been delayed by some of the European States, but it cannot much longer be postponed, and they will shortly find themselves required to make the concession, from a regard to their own interest, if they would not from a sense of justice. But their recognition is not worth buying, and nothing would be more dishonourable than that the Republic should purchase, by mean compliances, the formal acknowledgment of that independence which has been actually won by so much valour, and by so many sacrifices. Having stood out against all apprehensions of an attempt of the combined powers of Europe to subdue them, it would be base and pusillanimous now, when they are in the undisturbed enjoyment of the greatest of human blessings, to yield to the secret practices or open menaces of any European power. It is not anticipated that you will have any difficulty in dissuading them from entertaining or deliberating on such propositions. You will, however, take advantage of every fit opportunity to strengthen their political faith, and to inculcate the solemn duty of every nation to reject all foreign dictation in its domestic concerns. You will also, at all proper times, manifest a readiness to satisfy inquiries as to the theory and practical operation of our Federal and State constitutions of government, and to illustrate and explain the manifold blessings which the people of the United States have enjoyed, and are continuing to enjoy, under them. The war which has recently broken out between the republic of La Plata and the Emperor of Brazil, is a cause of the most sincere regret. To that war the United States will be strictly neutral. The parties to it should feel themselves urged no less by all the interests which belong to the recent establish. ment of their independence, than by principles of humanity, to bring it to a speedy close. One of the first measures which has been adopted for its prosecution by the Emperor of the Brazils, is to declare the whole coasts of his enemy, inclu. ding entirely one, and a part of the other shore of the La Plata, and extending as far as Cape Horn, in a state of blockade. That he has not the requisite naval force to render valid, and to maintain, according to the principles of the public law, such a sweeping blockade, is quite evident. Persistance in it must injuriously affect the interest of neutrals in the pursuit of their rightful commerce, if it should involve no other consequences to them. You will avail yourselves of every proper opportunity to re. present to the parties how desirable it is to put an end to the war, and with what satisfaction the United States would see the bless. ings of peace restored. And it will occur to you, whilst remonstrating against any belligerent practices which are not strictly warranted, to draw from the fact of the Brazilian blockade fresh support to the great maritime principles to which you have been instructed to endeavour to obtain the sanction of the American nations. I have the honour to be, gentle. men, your obedient servant, H. CLAY. 27.} DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Appointed Envoys Extraordinary, and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Tacubaya, &c. &c. &c. Gentlemen :-By the appointment of Mr. Poinsett, made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as one of the ministers of the United States to the Congress of the American nations, expected to assemble at Tacubaya, you have become associated in that mission. Mr. Poinsett, it is, therefore, anticipated, will be disposed cordially to co-operate in the performance of those duties which have been enjoined by the instructions heretofore addressed to Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Sergeant, or to either of them, so far as they remain to be executed. And the president relies, with great confidence, on the zeal and ability of both of you, to promote, in this important service, the inte. rests of our country. The instructions addressed to Messrs. Anderson and Sergeant, have been sufficiently explicit as to the nature of the assembly. According to our views, it is to be considered as entirely diplomatic. No one of the represented nations is to be finally bound by any treaty, convention, or compact, to which it does not freely consent according to all the forms of its own particular government. With that indispensable qualification, the mode of conducting the conferences and deliberations of the ministers is left to your sound discretion, keeping in view the observations which have been made in your general instructions. I am induced again to advert to this topic, in consequence of a letter from the Colombian minister, under date of the 20th of November last, (a copy of which is herewith transmitted,) from the tenor of which it might probably be inferred, as his opinion, that a majority of voices in the assembly, on any given proposition, is to be decisive. We have not yet obtained copies of the treaties concluded at Panama, which are mentioned in that note. To these we have a right, and we shall continue to expect them. We have no later information than that contained in Mr. Ser. geant's despatch No. 1, under date of the 19th of January last, and its accompaniments, as to the proble time of the convention of the ministers of the several powers. The course which he adopted of announcing himself to such of them as had arrived at Mexico, is approved. From the answers he received to his note, it appears that eight months, from the 15th of July last, were specified as the period within which the treaties concluded at Panama were to be ratified, and when it was expected the Congress would again meet. That term expired on the 15th instant. It is probable, therefore, that, about this time, the ministers of the various powers will assemble at Tacubaya. But if they should not meet before the first of June next, Mr. Sergeant may, after that day, return to the United States without further detention. event of his return, Mr. Poinsett will consider the duties of the joint mission as devolving on him alone; and should the Congress assemble subsequent to that period, and Mr. Sergeant should avail himself of the permission now given him to leave Mexico, Mr. Poinsett will attend the Congress in behalf of the United States. In the The intelligence which has reached us from many points, as to the ambitious projects and views of Bolivar, has abated very much the strong hopes which were once entertained of the favourable results of the Congress of the American nations. If that intelligence be well founded, (as there is much reason to apprehend,) it is probable that he does not look upon the Congress in the same interesting light that he formerly did. Still the objects which are contemplated by your instructions are so highly important, that the President thinks their accomplishment ought not to be abandoned whilst any hope re mains. Their value does not entirely depend upon the forms of the governments which may con. cur in their establishment, but exist at all times, and under every form of government. You will, in all your conversations and intercourse with the other ministers, endeavour to strengthen them in the faith of free institutions, and to guard them against any ambitious schemes and plans, from whatever quarter they may proceed, tending to subvert liberal systems. Mr. Rochester, having been appointed Chargé d'Affaires to Guatemala, Mr. John Speed Smith, of Kentucky, formerly a member of the House of Representatives, is appointed secretary to your mission. In the event of his acceptance, (of which advice has not yet reached the department,) he is expected to proceed from Kentucky, by the way of New-Orleans, to join you. You are at liberty to detain the bearer of this letter a reasonable time, to convey any despatches you may wish to forward to this government. If you should not wish him to remain at Mexico for that purpose, after stopping about two weeks to recover from the fatigues of the journey and voyage, he will return to the United States with such despatches as you may confide to him. I am, with great respect, CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY OF THE UNITED STATES. MR. CLAY TO MR. VAUGHAN, The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honour to inform Mr. Vaughan, his Britannic majesty's Envoy Extraordinary, and Minister Plenipotentiary, that, about the date of his note of the 21st of November last, in answer to one from the under. signed, of the 17th of the same month, it was deemed expedient to depute an agent to that portion of the state of Maine which is claimed by the British government as being part of the province of New Brunswick, to inquire into the origin of settlements made thereon, the causes of recent disturbances among the settlers, and especially into the grounds of the arrest, deportation, and detention in confinement, at Frederickton, of John Baker, a citizen of the United States. Accordingly, a Mr. S. B. Barrell was selected for the purpore, and sent on that service. About the same period, the government of Maine also appointed an agent to proceed to the disputed territory, and to Frederickton, for the purpose of making the same investigations. The undersigned postponed transmitting to Mr. Vaughan a reply to his abovementioned note, until the report of Mr. Barrell should be received. He has now the honour of laying before Mr. Vaughan a copy of that report, and also a copy of the report made by the agent of the go. vernment of Maine; and he avails himself of this occasion to submit a few observations. state of the negotiation between the two governments, having for their object the settlement of the question of disputed boundary, heartily concurs with Mr. Vaughan in the sentiment expressed in the conclusion of his note, that too much vigilance cannot be exerted by the authorities on both sides, to remove misapprehension, and to control all misconduct arising out of it. The undersigned also participates with Mr. Vaughan in the regret which he feels on account of the collisions of authority to which both countries are so repeatedly exposed by the long delay which has taken place in the final adjustment of the boundary on the northeast frontier of the United States. Without meaning to allege that the British government is justly chargeable with having intentionally contributed to that delay, the undersigned is fully persuaded that Mr. Vaughan must agree that the United States has not unnecessarily prolonged it. Considering the course which the business is now likely to take, it ought to be the earnest endeavour of both governments, and it will certainly be that of the government of the United States, to avoid giving any just occasion of inquietude, until the experiment of the arbitration shall have been crowned with success, or been attended with failure. Although the reports of the two agents before referred to, establish that there was some misrepresentation in the accounts of The undersigned, in the actual the disturbances which had reach ed the government of the United States prior to Mr. Barrell's departure on his agency, and which had been communicated to Mr. Vaugh. an, they disclose some transactions which the President has seen with regret. The undersigned cannot agree with Mr. Vaughan in the conclusion to which he has brought himself, that the sovereignty and juris. diction over the territory in dispute have remained with Great Britain, because the two governments have been unable to reconcile the difference between them respecting the boundary. Nor can he assent to the proposition stated by him, that the occupation and possession of that territory was in the crown of Great Britain prior to the conclusion of the treaty of 1783, if it were his intention to describe any other than a constructive possession. Prior to that epoch, the whole country now in contest was an uninhabited waste. Being, then, an indisputed part of the territory of the King of Great Britain, he had the constructive, and the right of the actual possession. If, as the government of the United States contend, the disputed territory is included within their limits, as defined in the provisional articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain, of November, 1782, and the definitive treaty which was concluded in September of the following year, the prior right of Great Britain became, thereby, transferred to the government of the United States, and it drew after it the constructive possession of the disputed territory. The settlement on the Madawasca, the earliest that has been made within its limits, was an authorized intrusion on the property of the state of Massachusetts, to which the territory then belonged, by individuals, posterior to the treaty of 1783. That settlement of those individuals could not affect or impair, in any manner whatever, the right of the state of Massachusetts, or give any stength to the pretensions of the British government. The settlers, in consequence, probably, of their remoteness, and their quiet and peaceable conduct, do not appear for a long time to have attracted the attention of either the state of Massachusetts or that of the adjoining British province. It was not till the year 1790, that the government of NewBrunswick took upon itself to grant lands to the intruders. No know. ledge of these grants is believed to have been obtained until recently, by either the government of Massachusetts or Maine, or that of the United States. The provincial government had no colour of authority to issue those grants for lands then lying within the state of Massachusetts. It cannot be admitted that they affected the rights of the United States as acquired by the treaty of peace. If, in consequence of the Madawasca settlement, a possession de facto was obtained by the government of New-Brunswick, it must be regarded as a possession limited by the actual occupancy of the settlers, and not extending to the uninhabited portions of the adjoining waste. Although, subsequent to the year 1790, the provincial government appears to have exercised, occasionally, a jurisdiction over the settlement, it has not been exclusive. As late as 1820, the inhabitants of the settlement were enumerated as a part of the popu. lation of the United States, by their |