ploy all the means necessary to their security.

If you should be unable to prevail on those Republics to renounce all designs of the invasion and con. quest of Cuba and Porto Rico, you will then exert your endeavours to induce them to suspend the execu. tion of them until the result is known of the interposition which we are authorized to believe the late Emperor of Russia, and his allies, at the instance of the United States, have made to put an end to the war, and that which has been herein stated to have been recently made at the instance of the Repub. lic of Colombia. Such a suspension is due to Russia. It would be a deference to that great power which the reigning Emperor would not fail to appreciate, and the value of which the new Republics might hereafter experience, if in this in. stance the counsels, which we have reason to believe will have been given to Spain, should not be followed. But there is much reason to hope, that Spain will pause be. fore she rejects them, and will see her true interest, as all the world sees it, on the side of peace; and the late events-the fall of the castles of San Juan d'Ulloa and of Callao especially-must have a powerful effect in urging her to terminate the war.

A cut or canal for purposes of navigation, somewhere through the Isthmus that connects the two Ame. ricas, to unite the Pacific and At. lantic Oceans, will form a proper subject of consideration at the Congress. That vast object, if it should ever be accomplished, will be interesting, in a greater or less degree, to all parts of the world. But to this continent will probably accrue the largest amount of bene

fit from its execution; and to Colombia, Mexico, the Central Republic, Peru, and the United States, more than to any other of the Ame. rican nations. What is to redound to the advantage of all America, should be effected by common means and united exertions, and should not be left to the separate and unassisted efforts of any one power.

In the present limited state of our information as to the practicability and the probable expense of the ob. ject, it would not be wise to do more than to make some preliminary arrangements. The best routes will be, most likely, found in the Territory of Mexico, or that of the Central Republic. The latter Repub. lic made to this Goverment, on the 8th day of February, of last year, in a note which Mr. Canaz, its Minister here, addressed to this Department, (a copy of which is now furnished,) a liberal offer, manifesting high and honourable confidence in the United Sates. The answer which the President instructed me to give, (of which a copy is also now placed in your hands,) could go no further than to make suitable acknowledgments for the friendly overture, and to assure the Central Republic that measures would be adopted to place the United States in the possession of the information necessary to enlighten their judg

judgment of the practicability and the probable expense of the undertaking on the routes which offer the greatest facilities. Measures may have been already executed, or be in progress, to acquire the requisite knowledge. You will inquire particularly as to what has been done, or may have been designed, by Spain, or by either of the new States, and obtain all other informa. tion that may be within your reach, to solve this interesting problem. You will state to the Ministers of the other American Powers, that the government of the United States takes a lively interest in the exe. cution of the work, and will see, with peculiar satisfaction, that it lies within the compass of reasonable human efforts. Their proximity and local information render them more competent than the United States are, at this time, to estimate the difficulties to be overcome. You will receive and transmit to this Government any proposals that may be made, or plans that may be suggested for its joint execution, with assurances that they will be attentively examined, with an earnest desire to reconcile the interests and views of all the American Nations.

It will probably be proposed, as a fit subject of consideratlon for the powers represented at Panama, whether Hayti ought to be recognised by them as an Independent State; and whether any decision taken, in that respect, should be joint, or each power be left to pursue the dictates of its own policy. The President is not prepared now to say that Hayti ought to be recog nised as an Independent Sovereign Power. Considering the nature and the manner of the establishment of the governing power in that Island,

and the little respect which is there shown to other races than the African, the question of acknowledging its Independence was far from being unattended with difficulty, prior to the late arrangement, which, it is understood, has been made between France and Hayti. According to that arrangement, if we possess correct information of its terms, the parent country acknowledges a nominal independence in the colony, and, as a part of the price of this acknowledgment, Hayti agrees to receive for ever the produce of France at a rate of duty one half below that which is exacted, in the ports of Hayti, from all other Nations. This is a restrictiion upon the freedom of its action, to which no Sovereign Power, really independent, would ever subscribe.— There is no equivalent, on the side of France, in the favourable terms on which the produce of Hayti is received in the ports of France. If the colonial relation may be correctly described to be the monopoly of the commerce of the colony, enjoyed by the parent State, it cannot be affirmed that Hayti has not voluntarily, by that arrangement, consented to its revival. There was no necessity urging her to agree to it, however she may have been called upon, by just and equitable considerations, to indemify the former individual proprietors for the loss of their property in St. Domingo. Prior to the conclusion of that arrangement, Hayti enjoyed, no matter how established, a sort of independence, in fact. By that arrangement, she has voluntarily, and in a most essential particular, in respect to all foreign nations, changed her character, and has become, to say the least, not an independent state. Under the ac.

tual circumstances of Hayti, the President does not think that it would be proper, at this time, to recognise it as a new State. The acknowledgment, or declining to acknowledge the Independence of Hayti, is not a measure of suffi cient magnitude to require that, in either of the alternatives, it should be the result of a concert between all the American Powers.

You will avail yourselves of all suitable occasions to press upon the ministers of the other American states the propriety of a free toleration of religion within their respective limits. The framers of our constitution of government have not only refrained from incorporating with the state any peculiar form of religious worship, but they have introduced an express prohibition upon the power of our Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion. With us, none are denied the right which belongs to all-to worship God ac. cording to the dictates of their own consciences. In our villages and cities, at the same hour, often in the same square, and by the same kind of summons, congregations of the pious and devout, of every religious denomination, are gathered together in their respective temples, and, after performing, according to their own solemn convictions, their religious duties, quietly return and mix together in the cheerful fulfilment of their domestic and social obligations.

Not unfrequently the heads of the same family, appertaining to different sects, resort to two different churches, to offer up in their own chosen way their orisons, each bringing back to the common household stock the moral instruction which both have derived from

their respective pastors. In the United States, we experience no inconvenience from the absence of any religious establishment, and the universal toleration which happily prevails. We believe that none would be felt by other nations who should allow equal religious freedom. It would be deemed rash to assert that civil liberty and an established church cannot exist together in the same state; but it may be safely affirmed that history affords no example of their union where the religion of the state has not only been established, but exclusive. If any of the American powers think proper to introduce into their systems an established religion, although we should regret such a determination, we should have no right to make a formal com. plaint unless it should be exclusive. As the citizens of any of the American nations have a right, when here, without hindrance, to worship the Deity according to the dictates of their own consciences, our citizens ought to be allowed the same privi. lege when, prompted by business or inclination, they visit any of the American states. You are accordingly authorized to propose a joint declaration, to be subscribed by the ministers of all or any of the powers represented, that within their several limits there shall be free toleration of religious worship. And you will also, in any treaty or treaties that you may conclude, endeavour to have inserted an article stipulating the liberty of religious worship, in the territories of the respective parties. When this great interest is placed on the basis of such a solemn declaration, and such binding treaty stipulations, it will have all reasonable and practical security,

And

this new guaranty will serve to give strength to the favourable dispositions of enlightened men in the various American states, against the influence of bigotry and superstition. The declaration on this subject in which you are authorized to unite, as well as that directed against European colonization with in the territorial limits of any of the American nations, hereinbefore mentioned, does no more than announce, in respect to the United States, the existing state of their institutions and laws. Neither contracts any new obligation, on their part, nor makes any alteration as to them, in the present condition of things. The President being the organ through which this government communicates with foreign powers, and being charged with the duty of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, is competent to authorize both declarations.

Questions of boundary, and other matters of controversy, among the new American powers, will proba. bly present themselves, and of which an amicable adjustment may be attempted at the Congress. Your impartial and disinterested position, in relation to any such disputes, may occasion you to be called upon for your advice and umpirage. You will, whenever your assistance may be required to settle those controversies, manifest a willingness to give your best council and advice; and if it should be desired, you will also serve as arbitrators. A dispute is understood to have existed, and to remain yet unsettled, between the United Mexican States and the Central Republic, in relation to the Province of Chiapa. The President wishes you to give it a particular investigation, and if justice shall be

found on the side of the Republic of the Centre, you will lend to its cause all the countenance and support which you can give, without actually committing the United States. This act of friendship on our part, is due as well on account of the high degree of respect and confidence which that Republic has, on several occasions, displayed towards the United States, as from its comparative weakness.

Finally I have it in charge to direct your attention to the subject of the forms of government, and to the cause of free institutions on this continent. The United States never have been, and are not now animated by any spirit of propa. gandism. They prefer, to all other forms of government, and are perfectly contented with, their own Confederacy. Allowing no foreign interference, either in the formation, or in the conduct of their government, they are equally scrupulous in refraining from all interference in the original structure or subsequent interior movement of the governments of other independent nations. Indifferent they are not, because they cannot be indifferent to the happiness of any nation. But the interest which they are accustomed to cherish in the wis dom or folly which may mark the course of other powers, in the adoption and execution of their political systems, is rather a feeling of sympathy than a principle of action. In the present instance they would conform to their general habit of cautiously avoiding to touch on a subject so delicate; but that there is reason to believe that one European power, if not more, has been active, both in Colombia and Mexico, if not elsewhere, with a view to subvert, if possible, the ex