"Jo" Daviess, the prosecuting attorney. In 1804, Clay had been elected to the State legislature, and when, two years later, Gen. John Adair resigned his seat in the United States Senate, Clay was chosen to fill the vacancy, though he had not yet attained the constitutional age. No one could better appreciate than a patriotic KenLuckian the necessity of binding more closely the re. mote settlers beyond the Alleghenies to the people of the seaboard; and when President Jefferson, in his message of 1806, proposed that part of the money then beginning to accumulate in the national treasury should be spent on roads and canals, he found a ready supporter of his views in the young Senator from Kentucky. Clay's first speech in the Senate was in favor of building a bridge over the Potomac; he next proposed an appropriation for a canal around the falls of the Ohio at Louisville, and introduced a resolution directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report on the whole subject of internal improvements. In 1807, Clay was again a member of the State legislature, and in the next year was made Speaker of that body. In his advocacy of President Jefferson's policy of nonintercourse with Great Britain, he urged the members of the legislature to pledge themselves to wear nothing that was not of home manufacture. For this he was denounced by Humphrey Marshall as a demagogue. A challenge and a duel ensued, in which the combatants fired twice and were both wounded slightly. In 1809, Clay was again elected to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and began to urge the systematic protection of American manufactures. His speech that attracted most attention during the term was in opposition to the rechartering of the United States Bank, the arguments of which were afterward employed by President Jackson in his bank veto of 1832, when Clay had changed his views on that subject. In 1811, Clay was elected to the House of Representatives, and, though this was his first appearance in that chamber, he was already so well known that he was chosen Speaker by a large majority. The younger members of the Republican party were eager for war with England, whose wanton outrages on the American flag on the high seas had excited public feeling to the highest pitch. Led by Clay and Calhoun, they forced President Madison to declare war, although no proper preparations had been made for it. In spite of opposition in the House, the collapse of the finances, and repeated disaster in the field, Clay maintained the war-spirit to the close of the contest. When Great Britain had conquered a peace in Europe, and no longer had actual need to search American ships to discover possible subjects, she quietly relinquished the practice which had given offence and expressed her willingness to enter on negotiations for peace. Madison and his Secretary of State, Monroe, anxious for peace on any terms, gradually receded from any attempt to obtain an acknowledgment of the principle for which the war had been undertaken. Clay, being appointed one of the commissioners to frame the treaty, resigned the Speakership on Jan. 19, 1814, and sailed for Europe He was the representative of the interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley, as John Quincy Adams was of those of New England, while the adroit and conciliatory Gallatin was assiduously employed in bringing them to common ground. The negotiations were concluded Dec. 24, 1814, but Clay did not return to the United States until the following September. In the mean time, he had been In American history, Clay is especially noted as the compromiser who deferred from time to time the crisis of the irrepressible conflict between the systems of free labor and slavery. His ingenuity in this regard was first shown in the Congressional struggle over the admission of Missouri as a State. He suggested the balancing of Missouri as a slave State with Maine, and when that plan was rejected secured a committee of conference, which under his guidance prepared the celebrated Missouri Compromise. By this, Missouri was admitted without restrictions as to slavery, while in all the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase lying north of 36° 30' slavery should be for ever prohibited. To Clay's tact and personal influence the acceptance of this scheme was due. Yet at the very time when, in the estimation of the great body of his fellow-citizens, he had thus saved the Union, he was compelled to retire from Congress on account of the inadequacy of his salary to his needs. It is true that in his younger days his good-fellowship had led him to share the gambling habits of his associates, but after he became Speaker of the House, though an inveterate whist player, he strictly limited his stakes. In 1816 he had voted to increase the pay of members of Congress to fifteen hundred dollars a year, but this vote had nearly cost him his seat at the next election. He now retired to devote himself to his private affairs, which had suffered while he was attending to his public duties; but in the next term he returned, and had the satisfaction of seeing the independence of Greece recognized by the United States. As the close of Monroe's administration drew near, the clique which had long been dominant in national affairs marked William H. Crawford, then Secretary of the Treasury, as his successor, and the Congressional caucus gave him the nomination. But the younger men gave no assent to this plan, and the Presidential campaign became a personal contest between four candidates nominally of the same party. While John C. Calhoun received 182 electoral votes In 1828, Gen. Jackson attained the object of his ambition, being elected to the Presidency, by a majority of both popular and electoral votes, over John Quincy Adams, his only competitor. His hour for revenge had come, and he made a clean sweep from office of every person known to be, or suspected of being, a friend of Clay, while appointments were lavished on those who were especially hostile to him. The United States Bank, whose championship Clay had undertaken, was doomed to share his fate. for the Vice-Presidency, the votes for President were making reprisals on French vessels as the speediest thus distributed: Andrew Jackson, 99; John Q. way to obtain indemnity for the spoliations committed Adams, 84; W. H. Crawford, 41; Clay, 37. When on American vessels during Washington's administrathe choice devolved upon the House of Representa- tion. In 1836 he was prompt to urge the recognition tives, voting by States, Clay, as having the lowest of the independence of Texas, then in revolt against number, was excluded, and his friends, joining with Mexico, though a few years later he strongly opposed those of Adams, secured for the latter thirteen States, its annexation, as involving his country in war. while Jackson had seven and Crawford four. Jackson The financial disasters of 1837 prepared the way for had already been at enmity with Clay, on account of a change of national policy, but the Whig convention a speech in which Clay had condemned Jackson's at Harrisburg in 1840 passed by the true leader of the conduct in his invasion of Florida in 1818; this new party and selected Gen. William Henry Harrison, a cause of offence inspired in him a deadly hatred. When Western soldier without political record, as a more Clay accepted the position of Secretary of State available candidate for the Presidency. To win favor under President Adams, Jackson's partisans never at the South, John Tyler of Virginia, a Democrat wearied of crying, "Bargain and corruption!" while who had opposed Jackson's transfer of the governthe reckless and intractable John Randolph uttered ment deposits, was nominated on a Whig platform, of his well-known sarcasm on "the coalition of Puritan which he professed his acceptance. After the most with blackleg.' This language led to a duel between exciting election campaign which had yet occurred in Randolph and Clay, April 8, 1826, in which each fired America, noted especially for its monster meetings and two shots without effect. processions of workingmen, these candidates were elected. Harrison's death within a month after his accession placed Tyler in power. Clay had prepared the measures promised in the platform of the Whig party, but Tyler vetoed the bill distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the States and the bill incorporating a new Bank of the United States. Then the President gave his friends the outline of such a bank as he considered constitutional, and a bill was passed embodying some of these features. But in vain, for again the President vetoed the bill; and the Whig members of the Cabinet, except Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State, forthwith resigned. The party, thus cheated of its victory, turned in despair to Clay, now recognized as the unflinching champion of its principles, while the Democratic party, so lately defeated at the polls, renewed its strength under the fostering care of the administration. In March, 1842, Clay, wearied with the protracted struggle, resigned his seat in the Senate and delivered a memorable farewell speech, reviewing his political career since his entrance to that body. In 1844 he was called from his retirement to become the Presidential candidate of the party, and for a time had a fair prospect of success The opponents of slavery, however, had been driven by the steady and threatening growth of that institution, and especially by the proposed annexation of Texas, to organize a political party pledged to the repression, if not the absolute extinction, of that system. Clay was a slaveholder, and had for years unsparingly denounced the abolitionists as the enemies of the Union; yet in his own State he had advocated the emancipation of the slaves and their transportation to Africa, and he was president of the American Colonization Society, which had been formed to carry out this idea. He had also voted in favor of the right of petition when that was denied in Congress to those who asked for the abolition of slavery. In consequence of his ambiguous attitude, he was called upon for explicit statements of his views on the question of the day, and in August he ventured, in a letter to some friends in Alabama, to declare that he would be glad to see the annexation of Texas with the common consent of the Union, and upon just and fair terms. By this declaration, which was not strong enough to win favor in the South, he lost the support of many in the North. These mostly joined the Liberty party, which had nominated for the Presidency James G. Birney, who had emancipated his slaves in Alabama and removed to the North. This movemont secured enough votes in Western New York Meantime, Clay recruited his energies in the peaceful pursuits of farming and the outdoor life dear to every Kentuckian, until 1831, when he was again elected to the United States Senate. Here he defended the protective tariff, which was then filling the national treasury to overflowing, though also exciting discontent, especially in South Carolina. In support of his financial and economical views, which he had now fully developed in what he called "the American system,' Clay organized a national party, which subsequently assumed the name of "Whig. In 1832 this party, with Clay as its Presidential candidate, seemed likely to be successful; but Jackson, who had been pledged to a single term, thrusting aside Calhoun, again entered the field, and through his overwhelming popularity with the masses carried off the prize. Bitter as was the animosity of the rival candidates, their devotion to the Union was shown when South Carolina, under the influence of Calhoun, declared the tariff acts null and void and threatened to establish an independent government if they were enforced by the Federal authorities. This declaration was made by the State convention which assembled Nov. 24, 1832, and in reply President Jackson issued his fa mous proclamation of Dec. 11, declaring his determi nation to enforce the law at all hazards. Clay, with his ingrained tendency to compromise, now sacrificed the principle of protection by proposing that all duties exceeding 20 per cent. ad valorem should be reduced to that uniform rate by removing annually one-tenth of the excess. This compromise was accepted by both Houses, even Calhoun, who had resigned the VicePresidency and was now a member of the Senate, assenting. Thus once more was threatened disunion averted by compromise. After the war of 1812, for which he was in a large measure responsible, Clay was never again in favor of an appeal to arms for redress of national wrongs or grievances. Being chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, he curbed Jackson's intention of to give the electoral vote of that State to Polk, an avowed friend of the annexation policy. But the annexationists, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, did not wait even for Polk's accession; in spite of constitutional restrictions, the project was hurried through before Tyler left the Presidential chair, and to Polk was left the inevitable sequence of a war with Mexico. Clay had opposed the course which led to war; but when the war came, he would not refuse whatever was necessary to the success of the army. In the course of the war he was called to mourn the loss of his son Henry, who was killed, while in command of a regiment, at the battle of Buena Vista, Feb. 22, 1847. people to his will. Yet the effect of his speeches was rather immediate than permanent. When examined critically, little can be found in them to account for their powerful effect on his auditors. Clay was especially successful in great debates which called forth at once the native powers and the intuitive perceptions of the participants. Then his knowledge of human nature, his quickness in seizing points of advantage, the charm of his marcer, and the brilliancy of his speech readily gave him the victory. The effect of the doctrines which he advocated and of the course which he pursued on the progress of the country has been but slightly indicated here, as the full treatment of it belongs to history rather than to a biographical sketch. At their next national convention, held in Philadel- As the leader and the chief exponent of a great politiphia, in June, 1848, the Whigs nominated for the Pres- cal party, he exercised immense influence on the desidency Gen. Zachary Taylor, whose military reputation tinies of his country. Yet his career seems more rehad been acquired in the Mexican war, and this, with markable for its defeats than for its victories. The his Southern connections, was sufficient to secure his latter, won by compromise, though full of illusion at election. In the same year Clay was again elected to the time, proved transient and ineffective; yet the the United States Senate, though he did not take his principles which he advocated, though sometimes sacseat till Dec. 3, 1849. He had come forth, in spite of rificed for a temporary purpose, were really working the infirmities of age, to make a last effort to stem the their way into the institutions of his country. Throughrising tide of disunion. Asserting that his country's dan- out his career he was devoted to the preservation of the ger sprang from the abolitionists of the North rather Union as the only safeguard of liberty and popular govthan from the fire-eaters of the South, he devoted all ernment, and to the protective tariff for the maintehis remaining strength to the repression of the former nance of national independence. and the conciliation of the latter. As the most effectual See Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry means for this purpose, he prepared his last great com- Clay, by Calvin Colton (6 vols., N. Y., 1864). promise, the "Omnibus Bill" of 1850. By its multi- CLAYTON, JOHN MIDDLETON (1796-1856), an farious provisions Congress was to be precluded from American statesman, born at Dagsboro', Sussex co., interfering with the introduction of slavery into terri- Del., July 24, 1796; died at Dover, Del., Nov. 9, 1856. tory acquired from Mexico, California was to be ad- He was descended from Joshua Clayton, an English mitted to the Union without any restriction on the sub- Quaker who came over with Penn and settled in Delaject, the slave-trade between the States was allowed to ware. James Clayton, the grandson of Joshua, a Susgo on, and United States officers in the various States sex farmer, married Sarah Middleton, of Virginia anwere empowered to restore fugitive slaves to their mas- cestry, and John M. was their second child and eldest ters. As an offset to these pro-slavery measures, the son. Receiving some preparatory instruction at schools national disgrace of the slave-trade in the District near his home, he passed the examination at Yale Colof Columbia was partially removed. This Omnibus lege, and was admitted to its classes on the day he was Bill, reported unanimously by a committee of the Sen- fifteen years old. He graduated in the class of 1815 ate, obtained the support of Daniel Webster and other with the highest honors, having meantime studied with Northern Whigs, but led to a fierce parliamentary con- diligence, not even returning home for a vacation. test, which was protracted through six months. It Entering the office of his cousin, Thomas Clayton was found impossible to enact these measures in one (afterwards chief-justice of Delaware and United States bill, as Clay had earnestly desired, but separately they Senator from that State), he began the study of law, secured majorities, and became law in the summer of and in March, 1817, went to the law-school at Litch1850, after the death of President Taylor and the ac- field, Conn., where he remained twenty months, studysession of Millard Fillmore. Clay was thus permitted to rejoice in the belief that he had again been the instrument of averting a dissolution of the Union. Though widespread opposition was shown in the North to the enforcement of the stringent Fugitive-Slave law, yet generally the commercial and professional classes of the North accepted the compromise and urged observance of its terms. Clay continued in the Senate, though his physical strength was exhausted and he was able to take no part in its debates. He died at Washington, July 29, 1852. On the announce ment of his death Congress immediately adjourned, and on the next day leading members of both Houses paid eloquent tributes to his memory. No man in American history has possessed in greater measure the gift and the art of pleasing than did Henry Clay. Over his followers he exercised not merely control, but fascination. They were ready to do anything to secure his triumph; they were overwhelmed with grief at his defeat. As an orator he was able not only to entrance the Senate, but to mould the masses of the ing, he said, sixteen hours a day. In 1819 he was admitted to the bar in his native county, but fixed his residence at Dover, the State capital, in the adjoining county of Kent. Here he came into competition with several lawyers of unusual strength, including his preceptor, Thomas Clayton; Willard Hall, subsequently, for many years, judge of the U. S. district court; and Henry M. Ridgely, who was United States Senator from 1827 to 1829. He took, however, from the first, a high position. His ability as an advocate was remarkable; his power over juries so great that the opinion of Mr. James A. Bayard, his political rival, is quoted to the effect that he had no superior in the country as a jury lawyer. His career at the bar continued ten years, and won him thorough acquaintance and great repute with the people of Delaware, with whose character and tastes he had a singularly perfect sympathy, enabling him to exert with them, during his public career, an influence commanded previously or since by no other man. In 1822 he married Sally Ann, the daughter of Dr. James Fisher of Camden, near Dover, but she died three years later, leaving two infant chil- and other States. He did not, however, re-enter pub dren, one but a few days old. M.. Clayton's devotion lic life until 1845, when he again took his seat in the to her memory was such as to influence in a marked Senate, having for his colleague his cousin, Thomas degree the whole of his after life-more than thirty Clayton. His service in that body now continued for years and while he never remarried, he even avoided, four years. He took a prominent part in favor of the to a degree, all female society. payment of the French spoliation claims and in the adjustment of the Oregon boundary question; supported the war with Mexico after it had been entered upon; and actively promoted the nomination by the Whigs of Gen. Taylor as their candidate for President. In March, 1849, he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State, resigning, upon the death of the President, in July, 1850. During his service in the State Department he negotiated with Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, then British envoy to the United States, the famous CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY (which see) relating to the proposed construction of a ship-canal in Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He also, through an agent sent to Hungary, gave expression to the interest felt by the American people in the efforts of that country to gain its independence, and conducted a correspondence with Lady Franklin in reference to the search for her husband. In 1829, Mr. Clayton entered the United States Senate. He had filled several clerkships in the State legislature one or more of them during his minorityand had served as a member of that body and as secretary of state and State auditor. In 1828, in the fierce Presidential contest between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson, he had thrown himself warmly into the fight in favor of the former's re-election, and the electoral vote of Delaware being so decided, the legislature chosen was also in accord with Mr. Clayton's friends. He was therefore chosen Senator, and he entered the Senate at the special session in March, contemporane ously with the opening of Jackson's eventful admin istration. In that body he found himself the youngest member, the list of his colleagues containing the names of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Hayne, Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White, Edward Livingston, and others of national distinction. His ability, however, was quickly recognized. The first regular session began in December, 1829, and he took part, a few weeks later-March, 1830-in one of the most famous debates of the Senate, that upon "Foot's Resolution," which gave occasion to the great encounter between Messrs. Webster and Hayne. Of his speech in this debate John Quincy Adams records in his Diary the judgment that it was 66 one of the most powerful and eloquent orations ever delivered in either of the halls of Congress." His vigor as an orator and the high order of his capacities as a Senatorial leader gave him rank at once amongst those who were arrayed in opposition to the Administration, and he was one of the most effective of the Senators who antagonized the several radical measures of Gen. Jackson's two terms. He made an energetic inquiry into irregularities in the Post-Office Department, and ultimately secured important reforms in it; he was conspicuous in the promotion of the prompt passage of the compromise tariff in 1833, by which Mr. Calhoun and the nullification party of South Carolina were afforded a door of retreat from their threatened rebellion; he advocated effectually the Land Act of 1833, and strongly supported the United States Bank in its application for a re-charter and its resistance to the removal of the deposits and of the pension fund. Voting for Mr. Clay's resolutions condemning the removal of the deposits, he was one of the Senators against whom the President made an issue, by name, in his famous "Protest." His term of office was now closing; he received, however, and accepted, a re-election in 1835 as the proof of the continued confidence of his State. In the autumn of 1836 he resigned, and was appointed a few months later chief-justice of the Delaware courts, His first service in the Senate had therefore continued about eight years and a half. He had been since 1833 chairman of the committee on the judiciary. Mr. Clayton held his judicial office until August, 1839. The active canvass then begun for the election of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency attracted him irresistibly, and he resigned to enter again the political field. The electoral vote of Delaware had been given to Gen. Harrison in 1836, and was again cast for him in 1840, Mr. Clayton having been one of the most earnest and effective of the Whig speakers in his own By the election of 1852 the Whigs, friendly to Mr. Clayton, obtained a majority in the Delaware legisla ture on joint ballot, but as the Democrats had control in the Senate, it was presumed that they would decline to go into a joint convention for the election of a United States Senator. Early in January, 1853, however, Gen. Cass of Michigan made a speech in the Senate at Washington attacking the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and criticising Mr. Clayton in connection with it. The feeling in Delaware was such that the Democrats in the Senate agreed to a joint session, and Mr. Clayton was again chosen Senator, his term commencing on the 4th of March following (1853). Taking his seat at that time in the special session, he spoke on the 10th in explanation and defence of the treaty, and on the 14th replied to speeches against it delivered by Messrs. Mason and Douglas. The subject continued to occupy attention at each session during the remainder of his service in the Senate (which closed with his death), and he made other elaborate addresses concerning it. His remains are interred in the Presbyterian church yard at Dover. (H. M. J.) con CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY, THE, a convention between the United States and Great Britain, ne gotiated at Washington in 1850 by John M. Clayton, Secretary of State, and Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, British envoy. It consists of nine articles, the preamble to which states its object to be the desire of " solidating the relations of amity" between the two nations 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 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. . . . The vital parts of the treaty are expressed in the first and eighth articles, which, in full, are as follows: "ART. I.-The Governments of the United States and Great Britain 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 or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mos quito Coast, or any part of Central America; nor will either make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have to or with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising dominion over the same; nor will the United States or Great Britain take advantage of any intimacy, or use any alliance, connections, 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 hold ing, directly or indirectly, for the citizens or subjects 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 citizens or subjects of the other." worded under the advice of the attorney-general, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, to the effect that he (Mr. Clayton) so understood it, that he was informed by Mr. King, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, that the Senate so understood it, but that the treaty referred to and did include "all the five Central American states of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and San Salvador, with all their just limits and proper dependencies. He also declared to the British envoy that nothing in either of these explanatory notes could affect the treaty itself, as no alteration could now be made by either negotiator, and notified him that if he meant to ask any change in its provisions the proposition must go to the Senate. He also defined what he understood by the term "dependencies' of Balize-i. e., small islands quite near (a marine league or thereabouts) the town of Balize. One of these was Cayo Cafina, or St. George's Key, the others "ART. VIII.-The Governments of the United a cluster of small islands forming a triangle, and menStates and Great Britain having not only desired, in tioned in the treaty of London concluded in 1786 beentering into this convention, to accomplish a particu- tween Great Britain and Spain. By this treaty Great lar object, but also to establish a general principle, they Britain received the permission for her subjects to hereby agree to extend their protection, by treaty stip- land and cut dye-woods, mahogany, and other natural ulations, to any other practicable communications, products on the Balize coast, and after Mexico became whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which independent of Spain a like grant was negotiated with connects North and South America, and especially to that country. But in acts of Parliament passed in the inter-oceanic communications, should the same 1817 and 1819, Great Britain disclaimed all dominion prove to be practicable, whether by canal or railway, or sovereignty over Balize and its dependencies. The which are now proposed to be established by the way rights of that country with reference to them were, at of Tehuantepec or Panama. In granting, however, the time of the treaty (of 1850), as represented by Mr. their joint protection to any such canals or railways as Clayton in his speeches in the Senate, of the narrowest are by this article specified, it is always understood by description-simply to land and cut and remove timber, the United States and Great Britain that the parties etc., making no colony or settlement except for this constructing or owning the same shall impose no other purpose, and refraining even from entering upon the charges or conditions of traffic thereupon than the cultivation of artificial products of the soil. (These aforesaid Governments shall approve of as just and rights, however, seem to have been enlarged. equitable, and that the same canals or railways, being BRITISH HONDURAS, in ENCYC. BRIT., Vol. XII. open to the citizens of the United States and Great Britain on equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the citizens and subjects of every other state which is willing to grant thereto such protection as the United States and Great Britain engage to afford." See This explanation seems necessary, because the questions involved in it were the chief occasion of elaborate debates upon the treaty in the United States Senate in 1853, 1854, 1855, and later. In Jan., 1853, Mr. Cass of Michigan attacked the treaty, and criticised Clayton The other articles relate to the particulars in which for having conceded too much in saying it did not refer the two Governments undertook to guarantee the to Balize. In March of the same year Clayton elabor neutrality of the proposed canal and secure its com- ately replied, and made rejoinder to speeches of Messrs. mon use to other nations; to the protection of its Mason and Douglas, who spoke in support of Cass's builders and their property; to the encouragement of views. On Dec. 12, 1853, the Senate called on the its early construction, etc. The sixth article engages President for correspondence that had taken place conthe contracting parties "to invite every state with cerning the treaty between the State Department and which both or either have friendly intercourse to enter the British Foreign Office; and this being communiinto stipulations with them similar to those which they cated on Dec. 30, a second elaborate debate occurred have entered into with each other; ... and [they] in January, in which Mr. Clayton and Mr. Cass were likewise agree that each shall enter into treaty stipula- the principal speakers. In Dec., 1855, the question tions with such of the Central American states as they again came up, the British Government having manimay deem advisable for the purpose of carrying out the great design of this convention-namely, that of constructing and maintaining the said canal as a ship communication between the two oceans for the benefit of mankind on equal terms to all, and of protecting the same." The treaty was signed by the negotiators April 19, 1850, and having been approved by the British Government and confirmed by the U. S. Senate, the ratifications were exchanged at Washington, July 4, 1850. In making this exchange the British minister gave notice that his Government understood the treaty not to apply to the settlement at "British Honduras [Balize] and its dependencies," to which the American Secretary replied with a carefully-drawn counter-declaration, fested an apparent uneasiness concerning the treaty. In 1881 the proposed construction of the ship-canal of DeLesseps across the Isthmus of Panama, revived interest in the treaty and its bearing on the occupation of American soil by Europeans. Correspondence took place between the American Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, and his successor, Mr. Frelinghuysen, on one side, and Lord Granville, on the other. Nothing was done, however, and DeLesseps' scheme failed on account of the physical and financial difficulties. Concerning the general character of the treaty, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, in a letter written in 1853 and read in the Senate, said: "It is the first instance within my knowledge in which two great nations of the earth have |