It was on this footing that the negotiations commenced which resulted in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. It is manifest, as I submit, that the intention of both parties was that the passage through any canal that was made should be free to the two nations on equal terms. I now invite your attention to the material terms of that Treaty.
Her Britannic Majesty and the United States of America being desirous of consolidating the relations of amity which so happily subsist between them, by setting forth and fixing in a Convention their views and intentions with reference to any means of communication by Ship-Canal, which may be constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by the way of the River San Juan de Nicaragua, and either or both of the Lakes of Nicaragua or Managua, to any port or place on the Pacific Ocean; ·······
Article I.
The Governments of Great Britain and the United States hereby declare that neither the one nor the other will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said Ship-Canal; agreeing that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same, … Nor will Great Britain or the United States take advantage of any intimacy, or use any alliance, connexion, or influence that either may possess with any State or Government through whose territory the said canal may pass, for the purpose of acquiring or holding, directly or indirectly, for the subjects or citizens of the one, any rights or advantages in regard to commerce or navigation through the said canal, which shall not be offered, on the same terms, to the subjects or citizens of the other.
- ↑ App. A, post, p. 39.
