judgment of the practicability and the probable expense of the undertaking on the routes which offer the greatest facilities. Measures may have been already executed, or be in progress, to acquire the requisite knowledge. You will inquire particularly as to what has been done, or may have been designed, by Spain, or by either of the new States, and obtain all other information that may be within your reach, to solve this interesting problem. You will state to the Ministers of the other American Powers, that the government of the United States takes a lively interest in the execution of the work, and will see, with peculiar satisfaction, that it lies within the compass of reasonable human efforts. Their proximity and local information render them more competent than the United States are, at this time, to estimate the difficulties to be overcome. You will receive and transmit to this Government any proposals that may be made, or plans that may be suggested for its joint execution, with assurances that they will be attentively examined, with an earnest desire to reconcile the interests and views of all the American Nations.

It will probably be proposed, as a fit subject of consideratlon for the powers represented at Panama, whether Hayti ought to be recognised by them as an Independent State; and whether any decision taken, in that respect, should be joint, or each power be left to pur. sue the dictates of its own policy. The President is not prepared now to say that Hayti ought to be recognised as an Independent Sovereign Power. Considering the nature and the manner of the establishment of the governing power in that Island,

and the little respect which is there shown to other races than the Afri. can, the question of acknowledging its Independence was far from being unattended with difficulty, prior to the late arrangement, which, it is understood, has been made between France and Hayti. According to that arrangement, if we possess correct information of its terms, the parent country acknowledges a nominal independence in the colony, and, as a part of the price of this acknowledgment, Hayti agrees to receive for ever the produce of France at a rate of duty one half below that which is exacted, in the ports of Hayti, from all other Na. tions. This is a restrictiion upon the freedom of its action, to which no Sovereign Power, really inde. pendent, would ever subscribe.— There is no equivalent, on the side of France, in the favourable terms on which the produce of Hayti is received in the ports of France. If the colonial relation may be correctly described to be the monopoly of the commerce of the colony, enjoyed by the parent State, it cannot be affirmed that Hayti has not voluntarily, by that arrangement, consented to its revival. There was no necessity urging her to agree to it, however she may have been called upon, by just and equi. table considerations, to indemify the former individual proprietors for the loss of their property in St. Domingo. Prior to the conclusion of that arrangement, Hayti enjoyed, no matter how established, a sort of independence, in fact. By that arrangement, she has voluntarily, and in a most essential particular, in respect to all foreign nations, changed her character, and has become, to say the least, not an independent state. Under the ac

tual circumstances of Hayti, the President does not think that it would be proper, at this time, to recognise it as a new State. The acknowledgment, or declining to acknowledge the Independence of Hayti, is not a measure of sufficient magnitude to require that, in either of the alternatives, it should be the result of a concert between all the American Powers.

You will avail yourselves of all suitable occasions to press upon the ministers of the other American states the propriety of a free toleration of religion within their respective limits. The framers of our constitution of government have not only refrained from incorporating with the state any peculiar form of religious worship, but they have introduced an express prohibition upon the power of our Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion. With us, none are denied the right which belongs to all—to worship God ac. cording to the dictates of their own consciences. In our villages and cities, at the same hour, often in the same square, and by the same kind of summons, congregations of the pious and devout, of every religious denomination, are gathered together in their respective temples, and, after performing, accord. ing to their own solemn convictions, their religious duties, quietly return and mix together in the cheerful fulfilment of their domestic and social obligations.

Not unfrequently the heads of the same family, appertaining to different sects, resort to two different churches, to offer up in their own chosen way their orisons, each bringing back to the common household stock the moral instruction which both have derived from

their respective pastors. In the United States, we experience no in. convenience from the absence of any religious establishment, and the universal toleration which happily prevails. We believe that

none would be felt by other nations who should allow equal religious freedom. It would be deemed rash to assert that civil liberty and an established church cannot exist together in the same state; but it may be safely affirmed that history affords no example of their union where the religion of the state has not only been established, but exclusive. If any of the American powers think proper to introduce into their systems an established religion, although we should regret such a determination, we should have no right to make a formal com. plaint unless it should be exclusive. As the citizens of any of the American nations have a right, when here, without hindrance, to worship the Deity according to the dictates of their own consciences, our citizens ought to be allowed the same privi. lege when, prompted by business or inclination, they visit any of the American states. You are accordingly authorized to propose a joint declaration, to be subscribed by the ministers of all or any of the powers represented, that within their several limits there shall be free toleration of religious worship. And you will also, in any treaty or treaties that you may conclude, endeavour to have inserted an article stipulating the liberty of religious worship, in the territories of the respective parties. When this great interest is placed on the basis of such a solemn declaration, and such binding treaty stipulations, it will have all reasonable and practical security. And

this new guaranty will serve to give strength to the favourable dispositions of enlightened men in the various American states, against the influence of bigotry and superstition. The declaration on this subject in which you are authorized to unite, as well as that directed against European colonization with in the territorial limits of any of the American nations, hereinbefore mentioned, does no more than announce, in respect to the United States, the existing state of their institutions and laws. Neither contracts any new obligation, on their part, nor makes any alteration as to them, in the present condition of things. The President being the organ through which this government communicates with foreign powers, and being charged with the duty of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, is competent to authorize both declarations.

Questions of boundary, and other matters of controversy, among the new American powers, will probably present themselves, and of which an amicable adjustment may be attempted at the Congress. Your impartial and disinterested position, in relation to any such disputes, may occasion you to be called upon for your advice and umpirage. You will, whenever your assistance may be required to settle those controversies, manifest a willingness to give your best council and advice; and if it should be desired, you will also serve as arbitrators. A dispute is understood to have existed, and to remain yet unsettled, between the United Mexican States and the Central Republic, in relation to the Province of Chiapa. The President wishes you to give it a particular investigation, and if justice shall be

found on the side of the Republic of the Centre, you will lend to its cause all the countenance and support which you can give, without actually committing the United States. This act of friendship on our part, is due as well on account of the high degree of respect and confidence which that Republic has, on several occasions, displayed towards the United States, as from its comparative weakness.

Finally I have it in charge to direct your attention to the subject of the forms of government, and to the cause of free institutions on this continent. The United States never have been, and are not now animated by any spirit of propa. gandism. They prefer, to all other forms of government, and are perfectly contented with, their own Confederacy. Allowing no foreign interference, either in the formation, or in the conduct of their government, they are equally scrupulous in refraining from all interference in the original structure or subsequent interior movement of the governments of other independent nations. Indifferent they are not, because they cannot be indifferent to the happiness of any nation. But the interest which they are accustomed to cherish in the wisdom or folly which may mark the course of other powers, in the adoption and execution of their political systems, is rather a feeling of sympathy than a principle of action. In the present instance they would conform to their general habit of cautiously avoiding to touch on a subject so delicate; but that there is reason to believe that one European power, if not more, has been active, both in Colombia and Mexico, if not elsewhere, with a view to subvert, if possible, the ex

isting forms of free government there established, to substitute the monarchical in place of them, and to plant on the newly erected the newly erected thrones European Princes. In both instances, it is due to our sis. ter Republics, and otherwise proper to add, that the design met with a merited and prompt repulse; but the spirit which dictated it never slumbers, and may be renewed. The plausible motive held out, and which may be repeated, is, that of a recognition of the independence of the new States, with assurances that the adoption of monarchical institutions will conciliate the great powers of Europe. The new Republics being sovereign and independent States, and exhibiting this capacity for self-government at home, being in fact acknowledged by the United States and Great Britain, and having entered into treaties and other national com. pacts with foreign powers, have a clear right to be recognised. From considerations of policy, the act of recognition has been delayed by some of the European States, but it cannot much longer be postponed, and they will shortly find themselves required to make the concession, from a regard to their own interest, if they would not from a sense of justice. But their recognition is not worth buying, and nothing would be more dishonourable than that the Republic should purchase, by mean compliances, the formal acknowledgment of that independence which has been actually won by so much valour, and by so many sacrifices. Having stood out against all apprehensions of an attempt of the combined powers of Europe to subdue them, it would be base and pusillanimous now, when they are in the undisturbed enjoyment of the

greatest of human blessings, to yield to the secret practices or open menaces of any European power. It is not anticipated that you will have any difficulty in dissuading them from entertaining or deliberating on such propositions. You will, however, take advantage of every fit opportunity to strengthen their political faith, and to inculcate the solemn duty of every nation to reject all foreign dictation in its domestic concerns. You will also, at all proper times, manifest a readiness to satisfy inquiries as to the theory and practical operation of our Federal and State constitutions of government, and to illustrate and explain the manifold blessings which the people of the United States have enjoyed, and are continuing tinuing to enjoy, under them.

The war which has recently broken out between the republic of La Plata and the Emperor of Brazil, is a cause of the most sincere regret. To that war the United States will be strictly neutral. The parties to it should feel themselves urged no less by all the interests which belong to the recent establishment of their independence, than by principles of humanity, to bring it to a speedy close. One of the first measures which has been adopted for its prosecution by the Emperor of the Brazils, is to declare the whole coasts of his enemy, inclu. ding entirely one, and a part of the other shore of the La Plata, and extending as far as Cape Horn, in a state of blockade. That he has not the requisite naval force to render valid, and to maintain, according to the principles of the public law, such a sweeping blockade, is quite evident. Persistance in it must injuriously affect the interest of neutrals in the pursuit of

their rightful commerce, if it should involve no other consequences to them. You will avail yourselves of every proper opportunity to represent to the parties how desira. ble it is to put an end to the war, and with what satisfaction the United States would see the bless

ings of peace restored. And it will occur to you, whilst remon. strating against any belligerent practices which are not strictly warranted, to draw from the fact of the Brazilian blockade fresh support to the great maritime prin. ciples to which you have been instructed to endeavour to obtain the sanction of the American nations. I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

Appointed Envoys Extraordinary, and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Tacubaya, &c. &c. &c.

Gentlemen :-By the appointment of Mr. Poinsett, made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as one of the ministers of the United States to the Congress of the American nations, expected to assemble at Tacubaya, you have become associated in that mission. Mr. Poinsett, it is, therefore, anticipated, will be disposed cordially to co-operate in the performance of those duties which have been enjoined by the instructions heretofore addressed to Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Sergeant, or to either of them, so far as they remain to be executed. And the president relies, with great confidence, on the zeal and ability of both of you, to promote,

in this important service, the interests of our country.

The instructions addressed to Messrs. Anderson and Sergeant, have been sufficiently explicit as to the nature of the assembly. According to our views, it is to be considered as entirely diplomatic. No one of the represented nations is to be finally bound by any treaty, convention, or compact, to which it does not freely consent according to all the forms of its own particular government. With that indispensable qualification, the mode of conducting the conferences and deliberations of the ministers is left to your sound discretion, keeping in view the observations which have been made in your general instructions. I am induced again to advert to this topic, in consequence of a letter from the Colombian minister, under date of the 20th of November last, (a copy of which is here with transmitted,) from the tenor of which it might probably be inferred, as his opinion, that a majority of voices in the assembly, on any given proposition, is to be decisive. We have not yet obtained copies of the treaties concluded at Panama, which are mentioned in that note. these we have a right, and we shall continue to expect them.

To

We have no later information than that contained in [Mr. Ser. geant's despatch No. 1, under date of the 19th of January last, and its accompaniments, as to the proble time of the convention of the ministers of the several powers. The course which he adopted of announcing himself to such of them as had arrived at Mexico, is approved. From the answers he received to his note, it appears that eight months, from the 15th