PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAM.AR
151
No. 2646 1858 July 25, L. CASS, WASHINGTON, [D. C.] TO M. B.•LAMAH, [LEON, NICARAGUA] 0 • no. 7. Department of State Washington 25 July 1858. 'To Mirabeau B. Lamar, Esquire Sir: The serious causes of complaint existing on the part ,of the United States against the Governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have already been made known to you, and you have received the necessary instructions to demand of those Governments prompt and .ample reparation for the injuries for which they are responsible. You will again draw their attention to this subject, and especially the .attention of the Government of Costa Rica, of which we have the most cause of complaint for wrongs done .to our citizens, and urge the im- mediate action of both Governments, in order that the United States may not be compelled to resort to other measures to secure that justice, to which they are entitled and which.they are determined to obtain. Recently, however, grave events have occurred in that -region, which have still more complicated our relations with those Re- publics. Your various dispatches, numbers 8, 9, and 10, 96 with the ,accompanying papers reached the Department a few days ago and have -engaged my attention. The information you communicate is important though much of it is little creditable to the Governments with which _you have to deal. And, besides the information received from you, two .documents have reached here from Europe requiring the attention of the Government, one of which purports to be a contract for opening .a canal, of which you were not aware at the time you wrote, while the other contains a kind of manifesto issued by the Presidents of Nica- ragua and Costa Rica against the United States as irrecociliable with the proprieties of their position as with the true state of the facts, which have furnished the occasion for this misrepresentation. These papers do not come to us through an official .channel, but still circumstances indicate that they are authentic. I enclose copies 97 of both of them. Your first step will be a categorical inquiry to ascertain whether this manifesto, or declaration is genuine, and if you find it is not, any further proceedings in relation to it will be necessary. In order that the views and intentions of the United States respecting their relations with Nicaragua and Costa Rica should be fully made known to those Governments you will communicate to their proper officers respectively a copy of this dispatch - omitting, however, such portion of it as relates to this manifesto, should its au- thenticity be disavowed. On receiving this extraordinary declaration, the first impression of the President was to take measures to ascertain its authenticity and, if found authentic, then to recall the minister of •'Copy. 00 See no. 2631. "'These copies are not now with the Lamar Papers.
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