held and considered as free, and subjects of free and lawful commerce, so that they may be carried and transported in the freest manner by both the contracting parties, even to places belonging to an enemy, excepting only those places which are at that time besieged or blockaded; and to avoid all doubt in this particular, it is declared that those places only are besieged for blockaded which are actually attacked by a belligerent force capable of preventing the entry of the neutral.

ARTICLE 18th.

The articles of contrabar.d, before enumerated and classified, which may be found in a vessel bound for an enemy's port, shall be subject to detention and confiscation, leaving free the rest of the cargo and the ship, that the owners may dispose of them as they see proper. No vessel of either of the two nations shall be detained on the high seas on account of having on board articles of contraband, whenever the master, captain, or supercargo of said vessels will deliver up the articles of contraband to the captor, unless the quantity of such articles be so great and of so large a bulk that they cannot be received on board the capturing ship without great inconvenience; but in this, and in all other cases of just detention, the vessel detained shall be sent to the nearest convenient and safe port, for trial and judgment, according to law.

ARTICLE 19th. And whereas it frequently happens that vessels sail for a port or place belonging to an enemy, without knowing that the same is besieged, blockaded, or invested, it is agreed, that every vessel so

circumstanced may be turned away from such port or place, but shall not be detained, nor shall any part of her cargo, if not contraband, be confiscated, unless, after warning of such blockade or investment, from the commanding officer of the blockading forces, she shall again attempt to enter; but she shall be permitted to go to any other port or place she shall think proper. Nor shall any vessel of either, that may have entered into such port before the same was actually besieged, blockaded, or invested, by the other, be restrained from quitting such place, with her cargo, nor, if found therein, after the reduction and surrender, shall such vessel or her cargo be liable to confiscation, but they shall be restored to the owners thereof.

ARTICLE 20th.

In order to prevent all kind of disorder in the visiting and examination of the ships and cargoes of both the contracting parties on the high seas, they have agreed, mutually, that whenever a vessel of war, public or private, shall meet with a neutral of the other contracting party, the first shall remain out of cannon shot, and may send its boat, with two or three men only, in order to execute the said examination of the papers concerning the ownership and cargo of the vessel, without causing the least extortion, violence, or ill treatment, for which the commanders of the said armed ships shall be responsible with their persons and property; for which purpose the commanders of said private armed vessels shall, before receiving their commissions, give sufficient security to answer for all the damages they may commit. And it is expressly agreed, that the neutral party shall in no case

be required to go on board the examining vessel, for the purpose of exhibiting her papers, or for any other purpose whatever.

ARTICLE 21st.

To avoid all kind of vexation and abuse in the examination of the papers relating to the ownership of the vessels belonging to the citizens of the two contracting parties, they have agreed, and do agree, that in case one of them should be engaged in war, the ships and vessels belonging to the citizens of the other must be furnished with sea letters or passports, expressing the name, property, and bulk of the ship, as also the name and place of habitation of the master or commander of said vessel, in order that it may thereby appear that the ship really and truly belongs to the citizens of one of the parties; they have likewise agreed, that such ships being laden, besides the said sea-letters or passports, shall also be provided with certificates, containing the several particulars of the cargo, and the place whence the ship sailed, so that it may be known whether any forbidden or contraband goods be on board the same: which certificates shall be made out by the officers of the place whence the ship sailed, in the accustomed form; without which requisites, said vessel may be detained to be adjudged by the competent tribunal, and may be declared legal prize, unless the said defects shall be satisfied or supplied by testimony entirely equivalent.

ARTICLE 22d.

It is further agreed, that the stipulations above expressed, relative to the visiting and examination of vessels, shall apply only to those which sail without convoy;

It is further agreed, that in all cases the established courts for prize causes, in the country to which the prizes may be conducted, shall alone take cognisance of them.

And whenever such tribunal of either party shall pronounce judgment against any vessel or goods, or property claimed by the citizens of the other party, the sentence or decree shall mention the reasons or motives on which the same shall have been founded, and an authenticated copy of the sentence or decree, and of all the proceedings in the case, shall, if demanded, be delivered to the commander or agent of said vessel, without any delay, he paying the legal fees for the same.

shall be allowed the term of six months to the merchants residing' on the coasts and in the ports of each other, and the term of one year to those who dwell in the interior, to arrange their business, and transport their effects wherever they please, giving to them the safe conduct necessary for it, which may serve as a sufficient protection until they arrive at the designated port. The citizens of all other occupations, who may be established in the territories or dominions of the United States and of the Federation of the Centre of America shall be respected and maintained in the full enjoyment of their personal liberty and property, unless their particular conduct shall cause them to forfeit this protection; which, in consideration of humanity, the contracting parties engage to give them.

ARTICLE 26th.

Neither the debts due from individuals of the one nation to the individuals of the other, nor shares, nor moneys, which they may have in public funds, nor in public or private banks, shall ever, in any event of war, or of national difference, be sequestered or confiscated.

ARTICLE 27th.

Both the contracting parties being desirous of avoiding all inequality in relation to their public communications and official intercourse, have agreed and do agree, to grant to the envoys, ministers, and other public agents, the same favors, immunities and exemptions, which those of the most favored nation do or shall enjoy; it being understood, that whatever favors, immunities or privileges, the United States of America or the Federation of the Centre of America, may find it proper to give the

ministers and public agents of any other power, shall, by the same act, be extended to those of each of the contracting parties.

ARTICLE 28th.

To make more effectual the protection which the United States, and the Federation of the Centre of America shall afford in future to the navigation and commerce of the citizens of each other, they agree to receive and admit consuls and vice-consuls in all the ports open to foreign commerce, who shall enjoy in them all the rights, prerogatives, and immunities of the consuls and vice-consuls of the most favored nation; each contracting party, however, remaining at liberty to except those ports and places in which the admission and residence of such consuls may not seem convenient.

ARTICLE 29th.

In order that the consuls and vice-consuls of the two contracting parties may enjoy the rights, prerogatives, and immunities which belong to them, by their public character, they shall, before entering on the exercise of their functions, exhibit their commission or patent, in due form to the government to which they are accredited; and having obtained their exequatur, they shall be held and considered as such, by all the authorities, magistrates, and inhabitants, in the consular district in which they reside.

ARTICLE 30th.

It is likewise agreed, that the consuls, their secretaries, officers, and persons attached to the service of consuls, they not being citizens of the country in which the consul resides, shall be exempt from all public service, and also from all kind of taxes, imposts, and contri

butions, except those which they shall be obliged to pay on account of commerce, or their property, to which the citizens and inhabitants, native and foreign, of the country in which they reside are subject, being in every thing besides subject to the laws of the respective states. The archives and papers of the Consulate shall be respected inviolably, and under no pretext whatever shall any magistrate seize, or in any way interfere with them.

ARTICLE 31st.

The said consuls shall have power to require the assistance of the authorities of the country for the arrest, detention, and custody of deserters from the public and private vessels of their country, and for that purpose they shall address themselves to the courts, judges, and officers competent, and shall demand the said deserters in writing, proving by an exhibition of the registers of the vessel's or ship's roll, or other public documents, that those men were part of the said crews; and, on this demand so proved, (saving, however, where the contrary is proved,) the delivery shall not be refused. Such deserters, when arrested, shall be put at the disposal of the said consuls, and may be put in the public prisons at the request and expense of those who reclaim them, to be sent to the ships to which they belonged, or to others of the same nation. But if they be not sent back within two months, to be counted from the day of their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and shall be no more arrested for the same cause.

ARTICLE 32d.

For the purpose of more effectually protecting their commerce and navigation, the two contracting

parties do hereby agree, as soon hereafter as circumstances will permit them, to form a consular convention, which shall declare specially the powers and immunities of the consuls and vice-consuls of the respective parties.

ARTICLE 33d.

The United States of America and the Federation of the Centre of America, desiring to make as durable as circumstances will permit, the relations which are to be established between the two parties by virtue of this treaty, or general convention of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation, have declared solemnly, and do agree to the following points :

1st. The present treaty shall remain in full force and virtue for the term of twelve years, to be counted from the day of the exchange of the ratifications, in all the parts relating to commerce and navigation; and in all those parts which relate to peace and friendship, it shall be permanently and perpetually binding on both powers.

2dly. If any one or more of the citizens of either party shall infringe any of the articles of this treaty, such citizen shall be held personally responsible for the same, and the harmony and good correspondence between the two nations shall not be interrupted thereby; each party engaging in no way to protect the offender, or sanction such violation.

3dly. If, (which, indeed, cannot be expected,) unfortunately, any of the articles contained in the present treaty shall be violated or infringed in any other way whatever, it is expressly stipulated, that neither of the contracting parties will order or authorise any acts of re

prisal, nor declare war against the other, on complaints of injuries or damages, until the said party considering itself offended, shall first have presented to the other a statement of such injuries or damages, verified by competent proof, and demanded justice and satisfaction, and the same shall have been either refused or unreasonably delayed.

4thly. Nothing in this treaty contained shall, however, be construed or operate contrary to former and existing public treaties with other sovereigns or states.

Done in the city of Washington,

on the fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, and the fifth of that of the Federation of the Centre of America, in duplicate.

L. S.] H. CLAY.

[L. S.] ANTONIO JOSE CANAS.

the United States.

In compliance with the resolution of the house of the 5th ultimo, requesting me to cause to be laid before the house, so much of the correspondence between the government of the United States, and the new States of America or their ministers, respecting the proposed congress, or meeting of diplomatic agents at Panama, and such information respecting the general character of that expected congress, as may be in my possession, and as may, in my opinion, be communicated without prejudice to the public interest; and also, to inform the house, so far as in my opinion the public interest may allow, in regard to what objects the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress: I now transmit to the house, a report from the secretary of state, with the correspondence and information requested by the resolution.

With regard to the objects in

which the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress, I deem it proper to premise, that these objects did not form the only, nor even the principal motive for my acceptance of the invitation. My first and greatest inducement was to meet, in the spirit of kindness and friendship, an overture made in that spirit by three sister republics of this hemisphere. The great revolution in human affairs which has brought into existence, nearly at the same time, eight sovereign and independent nations in our own quarter of the globe, has placed the United States in a situation not less novel, and scarcely less interesting, than that in which they had found themselves, by their own transition from a cluster of colonies to a nation of sovereign states. The deliverance of the Southern American republics from the oppression under which they had been so long af flicted, was flicted, was hailed with great unanimity by the people of this union, as among the most auspicious events of the age. On the