shington and the accession of California to the Union.

Impelled by these considerations, the United States took steps at an
early day to assure suitable means of commercial transit by canal
railway, or otherwise across this isthmus.

We concluded, in the first place, a treaty of peace, amity, navigation,
and commerce with the Republic of New Granada, among the conditions of
which was a stipulation on the part of New Granada guaranteeing to the
United States the right of way or transit across that part of the
Isthmus which lies in the territory of New Granada, in consideration of
which the United States guaranteed in respect of the same territory the
rights of sovereignty and property of New Granada.

The effect of this treaty was to afford to the people of the United
States facilities for at once opening a common road from Chagres to
Panama and for at length constructing a railway in the same direction,
to connect regularly with steamships, for the transportation of mails,
specie, and passengers to and fro between the Atlantic and Pacific
States and Territories of the United States.

The United States also endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to obtain from
the Mexican Republic the cession of the right of way at the northern
extremity of the Isthmus by Tehuantepec, and that line of communication
continues to be an object of solicitude to the people of this Republic.

In the meantime, intervening between the Republic of New Granada and
the Mexican Republic lie the States of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, the several members of the former Republic of
Central America. Here, in the territory of the Central American States,
is the narrowest part of the Isthmus, and hither, of course, public
attention has been directed as the most inviting field for enterprises
of interoceanic communication between the opposite shores of America,
and more especially to the territory of the States of Nicaragua and
Honduras.

Paramount to that of any European State, as was the interest of
the United States in the security and freedom of projected lines of
travel across the Isthmus by the way of Nicaragua and Honduras, still
we did not yield in this respect to any suggestions of territorial
aggrandizement, or even of exclusive advantage, either of communication
or of commerce. Opportunities had not been wanting to the United States
to procure such advantage by peaceful means and with full and free
assent of those who