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no notice that this committee have ever proceeded to the investigation.

"Why should the House of Representatives desire to encroach on the other departments of the Government? Their rightful powers are ample for every legitimate purpose. They are the impeaching body. In their legislative capacity it is their most wise and wholesome prerogative to institute rigid examinations into the manner in which all departments of the Government are conducted, with a view to reform abuses, to promote economy, and to improve every branch of administration. Should they find reason to believe, in the course of their examinations, that any grave offence had been committed by the President or any officer of the Government, rendering it proper, in their judgment, to resort to impeachment, their course would be plain. They would then transfer the question from their legislative to their accusatory jurisdiction, and take care that in all the preliminary judicial proceedings, preparatory to the vote of articles of impeachment, the accused should enjoy the benefit of cross-examining the witnesses, and all the other safeguards with which the Constitution surrounds every American citizen.

"If, in a legislative investigation, it should appear that the public interest required the removal of any officer of the Government, no President has ever existed who, after giving him a fair hearing, would hesitate to apply the remedy. This I take to be the ancient and well-established practice. An adherence to it will best promote the harmony and the dignity of the intercourse between the coördinate branches of the Government, and render us all more respectable both in the eyes of our own countrymen and of foreign nations.

"WASHINGTON, June 22, 1860."

"JAMES BUCHANAN.

On the reading of this message it was, on motion of Mr. Benjamin Stanton, of Ohio, referred to a select committee, consisting of himself, Mr. Curry, Mr. Charles F. Adams, Mr. Sedgwick, and Mr. Pryor, which was instructed to report to the House at the next session. No report was ever made. Thus ended the Covode Committee.

CHAPTER XIII.

The successful foreign policy of the administration with Spain, Great Britain, China, and Paraguay-Condition of the Mexican Republic; and the recommendations to Congress thereupon not regarded, and the effect—The origin, history, and nature of the "Monroe Doctrine"-The treaty with Mexico not ratified by the Senate, and the consequences.

THE administration of Mr. Buchanan, in conducting our foreign affairs, met with great and uncommon success.

SPAIN.

Our relations with Spain were in a very unsatisfactory condition on his accession to power. Our flag had been insulted, and numerous injuries had been inflicted on the persons and property of American citizens by Spanish officials acting under the direct control of the Captain General of Cuba. These gave rise to many but unavailing reclamations for redress and indemnity against the Spanish Government. Our successive ministers at Madrid had for years ably presented and enforced these claims, but all without effect. Their efforts were continually baffled on different pretexts. There was a class of these claims called the "Cuban claims," of a nature so plainly just that they could not be gainsayed. In these more than one hundred of our citizens were directly interested. In 1844 duties had been illegally exacted from their vessels at different custom houses in Cuba, and they appealed to their Government to have these duties refunded. Their amount could be easily ascertained by the Cuban officials themselves, who were in possession of all the necessary documents. The validity of these claims was

eventually recognized by Spain, but not until after a delay of ten years. The amount due was fixed, according to her own statement, with which the claimants were satisfied, at the sum of $128,635.54. Just at the moment when the claimants were expecting to receive this amount without further delay, the Spanish Government proposed to pay, not the whole, but only one-third of it, and this provided we should accept it in full satisfaction of the entire claim. They added that this offer was made, not in strict justice, but as a special favor.

Under these circumstances, the time had arrived when the President deemed it his duty to employ strong and vigorous remonstrances to bring all our claims against Spain to a satisfactory conclusion. In this he succeeded in a manner gratifying to himself, and it is believed to all the claimants, but unfortunately not to the Senate of the United States. A convention was concluded at Madrid on the 5th March, 1860, establishing a joint commission for the final adjudication and payment of all the claims of the respective parties. By this the validity and amount of the Cuban claims were expressly admitted, and their speedy payment was placed beyond question. The convention was transmitted to the Senate for their constitutional action on the 3d May, 1860, but on the 27th June they determined, greatly to the surprise of the President, and the disappointment of the claimants, that they would "not advise and consent" to its ratification.

The reason for this decision, because made in executive session, cannot be positively known. This, as stated and believed at the time, was because the convention had authorized the Spanish Government to present its Amistad claim, like any other claim, before the Board of Commissioners for decision. This claim, it will be recollected, was for the payment to the Spanish owners of the value of certain slaves, for which the Spanish Government held the United States to be responsible under the treaty with Spain of the 27th October, 1795. Such was the evidence in its favor, that three Presidents of the United States had recommended to Congress to make an appropriation for its payment, and a bill for this purpose had passed the Senate. The validity of the claim, it is proper to observe, was not rec

ognized by the convention. In this respect it was placed on the same footing with all the other claims of the parties, with the exception of the Cuban claims. All the Spanish Government obtained for it was simply a hearing before the Board, and this could not be denied with any show of impartiality. Besides, it is quite certain that no convention could have been concluded without such a provision.

It was most probably the extreme views of the Senate at the time against slavery, and their reluctance to recognize it even so far as to permit a foreign claimant, although under the sanction of a treaty, to raise a question before the Board which might involve its existence, that caused the rejection of the convention. Under the impulse of such sentiments, the claims of our fellow-citizens have been postponed if not finally defeated. Indeed, the Cuban claimants, learning that the objections in the Senate arose from the Amistad claim, made a formal offer to remove the difficulty by deducting its amount from the sum due to them, but this of course could not be accepted.

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With Great Britain our relations were in a most unsatisfactory condition at the commencement of Mr. Buchanan's administration. Two irritating and dangerous questions were pending between them, either of which might at any moment have involved them in war. The first arose out of her claim to a protectorate over the Mosquito Coast, and her establishment of a colonial government over the Bay Islands, which territories belonged respectively to the feeble Central American Republics of Nicaragua and Honduras. These acts of usurpation on the part of the British Government were in direct violation of the Monroe doctrine, which has been so wisely and strenuously maintained by our Government ever since it was announced. It was believed that the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, concluded in April, 1850, under the administration of General Taylor, had settled these questions in favor of the United States, and that Great Britain would withdraw from the territories of Nicaragua and Honduras. But not so. She still persisted in

holding them. She even contended that the treaty only prohibited her from making future acquisitions in Central America, and by inference admitted the right to hold all her then existing possessions. The true construction of this treaty was the subject of a prolonged correspondence between Mr. Buchanan while Minister in London and the British Government. This produced no effect at the time. After he became President, however, the question was amicably and honorably settled, under his advice and approbation, by treaties between Great Britain and the two Central American States, in accordance with our construction of the Clayton and Bulwer treaty.

Great Britain, both before and after the war of 1812, had persistently claimed the right of search. Her exercise of this right in the spring of 1858 had nearly involved the two countries in war. The American people have ever been peculiarly sensitive against any attempt, from whatever power, to invade the freedom of the seas. This their whole history attests from the days of the Revolution. The question was now brought to direct issue by the British Government, from which there could be no escape. At this period she despatched a number of small armed vessels, which had been employed in the Crimean war, to the coast of Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico, with instructions to search American merchantmen whom they might suspect as slave-traders. These waters are traversed by a large portion of our navigation, and their free and uninterrupted use is essential to the security of our coastwise trade between the different States. This was all placed at the mercy of the junior officers in command of these small vessels. They proceeded at once to execute their orders. They forcibly boarded and searched numerous American vessels, and this often, as might have been expected, in a rude and offensive manner. Day after day reports of these violent proceedings succeeded each other, and produced general indignation throughout the country. The call of the people was loud for immediate redress. The President remonstrated to the British Government against these deliberate violations of our national sovereignty, but judg ing from the experience of the past, this would have proved unavailing. It had become necessary to resist force by force.

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