The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume IV, part 2

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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY

ducted them to good, but to many evils; and ·which are now, more than ever, directing them in the road to trouble and probable ruin. - Does Nicaragua ask - how she is to begin her new career ? Behold her wide-extended plains, and boundless forests ! Is there no wealth in these? - Let her survey those lands - invite her neighbors to unite with her own people as friends in the cultivation of them; and very soon she will have waving fields - her .fine habita- tions - her schools, accademies and colleges - all springing up like the work of magic, while every section of the country will be enlivened by the iron-Cars of Commerce, bearing off the overflowing abundance of a smiling land- the boundless products of what is now a wilderness and a waste. - .The Treaty was designed as the beginning of this new order of things - the opening of the door to these incalculable bless- ings; and on my first arrival in the country, I was so cheered by -the assurances of Your Excellency, that the ratification of the convention was beyond all question, that I began to hear in my delighted fancy; the roaring saw, the clattering hammer and the sounding axe; but very soon was the· pleasing delusion dispelled by the universal shriek of the nation - "to arms! to arms!- land of the Lion; and land of the Lillies. - Behold the American Eagle is whetting its beak; for the gore of our children !" - I do n"ot ask of the people of Nicaragua to explain the motive of this unappeasible dislike to my nation. It cannot be founded, as pretended by many, upon the operations of the Filibusters in this Country. The events of those times, it is true, were well cal- culated to inspire a fiery resentment at the moment; but every body in Nicaragua knews [sic] that my government was as far from approv- ing of those operations as the Nicaraguences themselves; and that so far from desiring to victimize this country, it has done all in its power to scatter the spoilers and protect the weak. Nicaragua, cannot, there- fore, make the Walker and Rivas war, a pretext for a rejection of the proffered friendship of my government. The true motives have a deeper foundation than this. I have already alluded to some of them; and it is useless to discuss the rest. Suffice to say that when that friendship of the United States, which this government is about to repell with insulting defiance, shall be withdrawn, the protection which now accom- panies that friendship may be needed by Nicaragua. Throughout my remarks I have carefully abstained from the use of menacing language; yet it may be useful in conclusion to let Nicaragua understand, distinctly - that the Transit route will be opened without her consent, should she choose to withhold that con- sent. The necessity of said route, and the right to open it, is not doubted or disputed by any commercial nation. When opened, the right of the government of the United States to protect its commerce and its citizens in passing over said route is inseparable from the right to pass; and the right to protect, necessarily implies the employment of force. Thus Nicaragua will perceive that the life, liberty and property of American citizens can, aud will be protected, as effectually without a treaty as with one. Not so peaceably perhaps; but just as effectually. rntler this aspect of affairs how much better would it be for Xicaragua to abandon all her ill natured feelings towards the United States, and avail herself of the present favorable opportunity of uniting in peace

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