An Outline of Nicaragua

...its objectives should be clearly defined...

...With the advent to power of Jose Santos Zelaya, however, came resurrection of old political ambitions—the resurgence of the United States of Central America idea...

...Of the two isthmian ways, Nicaragua was the easier, and both were easier to a good many people than an attempt to cross the prairies and the Rocky Mountains, in spite of the greater distance by the southern route...

...It is not necessary to dwell long on this incident—it serves my present purpose to show that Nicaragua was better known to the generation of our fathers' youth than it is to our own...

...Diaz has always been particularly friendly to the United States and his business relationships have been American, a fact which is not infrequently held against him, not only in Nicaragua, but in the United States...

...Outside of the perennial struggle between the two chief cities of the republic, Nicaragua had been fairly quiet for twenty years...

...to protect the administration of government finances to the point whereat a new generation might become accustomed to honest accounting of government revenues...

...There were American vigilantes and vigilance committees on the Central American routes to California in 1849 to protect Americans in transit...

...One does not hesitate to endorse that abstract principle...

...that is not necessarily a crime...

...Some familiarity with subsequent events must be assumed in so brief a synopsis as this must necessarily be...

...That is, the two principal cities, Granada, the centre of the conservative or aristocratic party, and Leon, the centre of the liberals or "reds," were passing through one of their periodical jealous contests for supremacy...

...The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 was, in effect, a compromise...

...He has been opposed by Nicaraguan public opinion"—Nicaraguan public opinion is not easy to study...

...The public is entitled to it...

...Finally, in 1896, the Mosquito Indians voluntarily agreed to complete incorporation in the Nicaraguan republic...

...Carrero, the Indian President of Guatemala, was reaching into the affairs of the neighboring states...

...whether it should be guaranteed neutral by all nations in time of war, as a great international public utility, or fortified...

...The conservative party had elected Fruto Chamorro to be President...

...there were American marines there later as a symbol rather than an armed force, to protect growing American business interests from periodical devastation...

...This "recognition" encouraged the weaker "legitimists...

...In 1740, this protectorate by England was carried a step further and an English colony was set up, protected by troops...

...England continued to occupy Grey-town, however, which caused further dispute until, in i860, the British portion of the Mosquito coast was ceded to Honduras (Treaty of Comayagua) and the sovereignty or protectorate over the Nicaraguan portion was ceded to Nicaragua by the Treaty of Managua...

...There should be no mystery in American diplomacy...

...In 18 2.1, a British protectorate was again set up in the Mosquito country, and pressed against the Nicar-aguans more vigorously than had perhaps seemed wise against Spain...

...In 1909, a revolution broke out against him, headed by Adolf o Diaz...

...Zelaya was a disturber of the peace and hostile to the hegemony of the United States...

...There was talk of annexation by Mexico, in the air...

...Finally, S4i Walker and his companions were arrested by Commodore Paulding and deported...

...Intercourse between Americans and Nicaragua has been of the closest for a hundred years...

...Colonel, or (as he signs himself in his The War in Nicaragua...

...No doubt, either, that he had a vision of what Central America might become under the vigorous guidance of such a man as himself...

...54O AN OUTLINE OF NICARAGUA By WILLIAM FRANKLIN SANDS BOTH in Panama and in Nicaragua, Indian tribes hostile to the Spaniards gave frequent shelter to Spain's enemies, and those enemies were most generally represented in the Spanish Main by English buccaneers...

...He had even proposed agreement by his government to American protective intervention...

...The Hay-Pauncefote agreement of 1900 attempted to provide for neutrality...

...Of course, there also came into question profits to be derived from it directly in tolls as well as indirectly from improved world transportation...

...In 1911, a treaty was negotiated on the basis of the Dawson agreement of 1910, just referred to, and in spite of being rejected three times by our Senate, its provisions were nevertheless carried out by Adolfo Diaz, as President, in cooperation with American private interests...

...The whole question today seems to center about the "right" of the State Department to perform the acts in Nicaragua which it has performed over many years...

...it may be asserted also: to protect the growth in Nicaragua of a taste for peace and order and self-government...

...In 1848, Greytown was included in the British claim, though in the name of the "king" of the Mosquitoes, and an attempt was made at the same time to seize some spot on the western coast to give a terminal to the interoceanic canal which had long been contemplated...

...The year 1901 produced a treaty providing for American control of a canal, to be policed by the United States, but open to both merchant vessels and warships of all nations, in war or in peace, at equal toll rates...

...the struggle had reached a stalemate...

...He was employed by an American business...

...There had grown up in the United States a real divergence of opinion whether the canal should be purely American and monopolized, or American but free to all, or international...

...Some Americans, however, attempting to blow up a troop ship of Zelaya, were executed, with the inevitable result that Zelaya was forced out of the country by our government...

...Our methods might be reviewed to advantage...

...It is not necessary to assume that those acts were necessarily harmful to Nicaragua, oppressive, or even a full technical invasion of Nicaragua's sovereign rights or in any way unethical...

...The idea of a canal utilizing the great lake has always attracted Americans—as has the advantage of the climate over that of fever-ridden Panama...

...There came into the whole situation also, not only an interoceanic canal, but a colonization plan for free Negroes from the United States —"a better solution for them than Liberia...

...Their study would be a subject of itself...

...under both the Treaty of Paris (1763) and the Treaty of Versailles (1783) England agreed to withdraw from the "Spanish continent," but by maintaining that the Mosquito coast was part of the "American continent," occupation was kept alive until 1786, when both the English colony and England's claim to a protectorate of the Mosquito coast fell into abeyance until the time of the wars of independence...

...Revolutions in Central America can be private affairs...

...perhaps a close alliance with American capital was wise policy...

...The consequent agitation in all five republics called down the disapproval of the United States...

...In 1855, Nicaragua had become well known to Americans, perhaps better known to a larger percentage of Americans than was the case in our own day, before the landing of marines...

...Concerning this arrest President Buchanan, in his message of January 7, 1858, rebuked Paulding and vindicated Walker's motives...

...The democratic party, so-called, or liberals, had elected Francisco Castellon...

...each country disclaimed monopolistic desire in order to thwart the other...

...During the latter part of this time, since the annexation of California, and very particularly since the discovery of gold and the gold rush of 1849, Nicaragua had become a highway to California from our eastern states, as had Panama...

...Various projects have been advanced—even for a ship railway to carry ships bodily across from sea to sea...

...In 1854, Nicaragua was in civil war...

...Mobile: i860) General Walker had just come through an experience of empire building in Mexico...

...Our failure to accept a decision by the Central American court of justice, which we helped to establish for just such questions, certainly demands fullest explanation...

...Costa Rica had certainly gained in material comfort through the great fruit industry...

...Before Jamaica was occupied by the British in 1655, English buccaneers used the Nicaraguan coast for outfitting and careening, or hiding from stronger Spanish fleets...

...Walker's military success terrified Nicaragua's neighbors and brought them in on the conservative side...

...The position of the liberals had to be strengthened...

...Attempting to return, Walker was captured and shot in 1860...

...This move brought help to the Nicaraguan side of the controversy from the United States, and the much quoted Clayton-Bulwer Treaty resulted, by which each party to it agreed not to claim exclusive control over any canal that might be built through Nicaragua, nor to exercise dominion over any part of Central America...

...Very often the Panama Indians would receive a party of pirates and guide them across the isthmus where, on the Pacific side, they would pick out some fishing boat, with it capture some larger vessel in the Gulf of Panama, and eventually possess themselves of something big enough to prey on the Peruvian great ships and bring their looted cargoes around the Horn...

...At about the same time, two diplomatic representatives to Central America (a federal republic of Central America had existed from 1823 to 1839) the Spanish and the American ministers presented their credentials to the conservative government, though, it is said, both favored the liberals...

...To some degree, the conduct of foreign relations must be responsible to someone, and ultimately to the American public, in the interest of peace...

...To the interests of groups of American citizens was added, by the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1915, an interest which might truly be called a national interest, the exclusive right to build the long contemplated Nicaraguan interoceanic canal...

...No doubt, Walker enjoyed fighting for its own sake...

...He has been held in power by American marines" ; that is perfectly true...

...The composition of the Nicaraguan public must be taken into consideration, as well as the fundamental rivalry between the two social elements, conservatives and liberals, Granada and Leon...

...Castellon hit upon a device, and made an innocent-looking contract for "settlers" or "colonists" to take up land within liberal territory—in reality, of course, to form a foreign legion...

...It is very much up to the Department of State to restate first principles in this problem...

...The request of Castellon for 300 Americans appealed to him...

...Her working population of Indians, mestizos (white and Indian) and samboes (Negro and Indian) was beginning to taste prosperity from the extension of tropical industries, like fruit growing, mahogany production, etc...

...He had been defeated, disarmed by the California authorities, and tried by jury—but acquitted...

...Nicaragua was still in the minds of most Americans, but (perhaps because having checked England we could always come back to Nicaragua if necessary, and the Panama route having fallen into the hands of the French he felt it necessary to do something about that) Roosevelt decided for Panama, diverting attention from Nicaragua for a time...

...In 1910 came the reestablishment of "constitutional" government under American auspices, including settlement of claims for damage of American citizens, a loan from American bankers guaranteed by customs receipts, supervision of the customs by Americans, and general straightening out of government finances...

...It is freely asserted that this was one of the many backed by American private capital, and one in which our State Department was "not interested" since it was "pro-American...

...After the establishment of a British colonial government at Port Royal, it became somewhat awkward to give shelter to the buccaneers, and the Carib chief of what had come to be called the Mosquito coast was given a charter from Jamaica, under the title of king, making him governor and protector of all Englishmen within his dominions, in return for protection by England...

...there has been a marine guard in Nicaragua for years...

...His call reached the ready and sympathetic ears of William Walker, of Nashville, Tennessee...

...a national interest since it must be acquired and probably be constructed out of the general funds of our government, i. e., the American taxpayers' funds...

...many surveys have been made...

...What is being questioned at the present time is the right of the first step—the extension of governmental acts beyond its own boundaries for whatever purpose...

...both England and the United States aimed at monopoly...

...It is unquestionably desirable that these Indian populations should be permitted to develop in peace...