Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I

No. 398.
Mr. Biddle to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
San Salvador, March 20, 1872. (Received May 4.)

No. 36.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 10.

Referring to the allusion in my No. 35 to the convention of plenipotentiaries at La Union to form a basis for reconfederation, I have now the honor to transmit to you an English version of “the pact” signed on the 17th of February, 1872, taken from the Star and Herald newspaper of Panama.

The general belief is that it will not be ratified. Its many details will cause endless discussions and postponements, and at the root of all are the rivalries and ambitions of the respective States, and of the rulers. The financial problem regarding future liability for existing indebtedness will prove a formidable obstacle, and the unhappy controversies as to the Jesuits threaten serious discord.

The absence of Nicaragua from the deliberations is in itself significant. Yet the necessity of some union among these republics is self-evident, and is admitted, but each plan is in turn repudiated. The ventilation of the subject is healthful, and a favorable result is a question of time alone. A general alliance of amity, commerce, and defense would seem most practicable, and closer bonds could be drawn as experience justified.

“The schoolmaster is abroad.” Salvador seems awake to the situation, and it passes belief that these lovely lands, yielding the agricultural productions of every clime, should be the perpetual victims of anarchy and civil wars.

I have, &c.,

THO’S BIDDLE.

[Inclosure No. 1.—Translation.]

THE PACT OF THE CENTRAL AMERICAN UNION; SIGNED THE 17th OF FEBRUARY, 1872, IN THE CITY OF LA UNION.

[Extract from the Panama Star and Herald, March 11, 1872.]

In the city of La Union, of Central America, in the republic of Salvador, at 4 p.m. of the 17th day of February, 1872, being present the ministers plenipotentiary of four of the republics of Central America, viz: Don Rafael Ramirez, on the part of Costa Rica; General Maximo Aran jo, for Honduras; the reverend presbyter Martin Merida, for Guatemala, and General Juan José Samayoa, on the part of Salvador, with the object of establishing the bases of the union of the States of Central America, in conformity with the desires of their respective constituents, and to secure in the most efficacious manner the general interests of Central America and of each of the high contracting parties. Also to preserve and maintain the peace between them and the interior of each republic, as being the best means of securing their greatness and give respectability abroad. To widen and sustain the principles of republicanism, guarantee the autonomies of Central America and the integrity of its territory against all aggressions and pretensions of foreign powers, and to defend the sovereignty of each of the States. To encourage in all its ramifications the moral, intellectual, and material progress. The ample powers being examined of the representatives of Honduras, of Salvador, of Costa Rica, and of Guatemala, and having verified the respective exchange and found them sufficient, and, after having conferred together on the important points of their high and delicate mission, they have agreed on the following stipulations:

• Article 1. The Central American republics engage to preserve intact the autonomy and integrity of the Central American territory, so that none of the governments under no title, motive, or pretext can sell, cede, or alienate in any way whatever might affect the sovereignty, and least of all to diminish the respective territory, nor admit annexation to, or the protectorate of, any government or foreign power. In this resolution are not comprehended voluntary territorial arrangements by whom it may concern, provided always that they be Spanish-American; but should any of the republics be violently deprived of their rights, in such cases the other Central American States are under the obligation to assist in an efficacious manner toward their revindication, making common cause with the State that is injured.
• Article 2. There shall never be established or consented to any other form of government in Central America than the republican, popular representative and alternative, having for foundation the national sovereignty residing in the community of those associated. Therefore the lawful and only source of public power is the popular and individual suffrage emitted in conformity to the constitution and laws of each one of the republics.
• Article 3. The preservation of peace in the Central American republics is one or the strictest duties of their respective governments and peoples, and the disputes that may arise between them, no matter what may be the motives, shall be arranged in a friendly way by the mediation of the other governments that had no part in the question. In case of non-agreement the matter will be submitted to the arbitral judgment of the Central American authority about to be established, or to a tribunal of arbiters composed of the neutral Central American governments. The government or governments which should infringe this principle will commit the crime of treason to the Central American nation.
• Article 4. Rebellion in Central America against the lawfully constituted authori-ities is a treasonable crime against the Central American nation.
• Article 5. The duration of the presidential term in all the Central American republics shall he uniform, without re-election immediate, nor any implication, under no motive or pretext whatever. The infraction of this principle is an act violating the national pact.
• Article 6. No one can be a slave within Central American territory, nor can even a foreigner be recognized as such. Should Central American come to possess slaves in a foreign country, he thereby loses his nationality and the protection of the laws of Central America.
• Article 7. Central America guarantees to all its inhabitants the imprescriptible rights of public meetings, associations, petitions, liberty of printing, of writing, of instruction, and of industry, conformably to the respective laws of each republic.
• Article 8. Every citizen of any of the republics of Central America acquires the rights of citizenship in all the others by the mere act of expressing his wish to do so before any government authority, nor would this act necessarily deprive him of his primitive citizenship.
• Article 9. The right of asylum is recognized for emigrants or political exiles in all the Central American republics, no matter where they come from. To guarantee nevertheless the public tranquillity of the States, without failing to comply with the duties of humanity, the following rules are to be established:

  1st. The government granting asylum engages to watch the political conduct of the exile in such a way that he cannot injure in any way the interests of the government of the country whence he comes, without any further requisite than the previous solicitude of the latter, to whom also belongs the qualifications of the persons to whom an asylum ought to be given as political refugees in the territory of the former.

  2d. If the government of the State from which the refugee came should solicit his concentration or change of residence, the government giving asylum is obliged to comply, but in case of non-compliance with this obligation, or not deeming the measure a just one, such resolution shall be submitted to the arbitration of national, the authority that may be established, or to that of the three governments neutral to the question, without however, delaying to concentrate or change the residence of the refugee as demanded.

  3d. If, in the judgment of the government making the claim, the vigilance, concentration, and change of residence should not be sufficient to restrain the refugee in his evil doings, his expulsion may be asked for, and the government granting the asylum will agree to so do, provided it think it just and necessary; otherwise its resolution must be submitted to the arbitrate and collective judgment of the other three neutral governments of Central America, or to the Central American authority that may be established.

  4th. Extradition for political crimes is prohibited, and even for common offenses, if the refugee has committed political offenses in the country whose government solicits the extradition. The qualification in this case rests solely with the government granting the asylum.

• Article 10. Literary, academical, and military titles, conferred in one of the Central American republics shall be recognized in the others, requiring only the legal proofs of the authenticity of them, and of the identity of the person.
• Article 11. The civil and penal legislation, as well as procedures, shall be in the future the same in all Central America, being at the same time understood that the particular legislatures of each State have a right to modify them in those points in which experience has shown the necessity of reform, according to the peculiarities and interests of each people.
• Article 12. Confiscation is abolished in Central America.
• Article 13. Property essentially is inalienable; consequently, hereafter, entails cannot be established in Central America.
• Article 14. Weights and measures shall be equal for all Central America, as well as the weight and alloy of the coins, which shall follow the decimal system for gold coin, and for those of silver above the value of 25 cents. This will not prevent that for silver coins of less value than 25 cents, each republic may adopt the system of subdivision it thinks best.
• Article 15. The plan of official primary instruction shall be uniform in all Central America, being at the same time gratuitous, compulsory, and comformable to republican and evangelical principles.
• Article 16. When any association, business, or establishment of any kind exists or endeavors to establish itself hereafter for any purpose whatever in any of the republics, and any one of the others judge that it would injure the general interests of Central America, that State has the right to solicit from the national authority, or of the collective arbitration of three States, the resolution of the question, all of them being obliged to make such resolution effective.
• Article 17. The stipulations of the previous article does not include those affairs already arranged, nor those establishments founded in virtue of contracts for the same, which, at the date of this exchange of credentials of this pact, had become law in some of the republics.
• Article 18. The questions of limits, or those that may arise in the future between the republics of Central America, shall be judged and decided upon definitively by the national authority, or by the collective tribunal of the three States, if the parties interested cannot arrange amicably between themselves.
• Article 19. As material ties to establish, foster, and develop the union of Central America, the following are declared to be national undertakings, and will be carried out, viz:

  1st. The establishment of a line of telegraphs which, starting from the port of Colon, in Colombia, will cross the territory of Central America and terminate in the frontier of Mexico. That part of the telegraph to be formed by a submarine cable between Colon and Port Linton, in Costa Rica, shall be paid or subventioned in equal parts by the five Central American republics, and the rest will be paid or subventioned by each republic according to its extension in crossing the territory of the respective States. The right of selecting the points on their limits belongs to the States that are contiguous where they wish the telegraph line to pass, and in case of any disagreement on this point the matter shall be laid before the national authority about to be established for its decision or to the arbitral and collective opinion of the other Central American States. The employe’s who administer and manage the cable and national land telegraph line shall be appointed by and depend solely on the national authority about to be established, but particular States may appoint their own employes for the exclusive service of their own State.

  2d. The construction of a national highway by land which shall unite and put in communication all the capitals of the Central American republics, leaving to the will and possibility of each State the quality and condition of said road within its respective territory; but it must be fit, at least, for carriages drawn by horses. The cost of construction and maintenance of this national road shall be paid by each one of these States, in proportion to the territory affected by it.

  3d. The establishment of mail-steamers on the coast of the Pacific, which, leaving Punta Arenas, or any other port in Costa Rica nearer New Granada, shall arrive at Port Champerico or any other in Guatemala nearer to the coast of Mexico, touching in the intermediate ports of the Central American coast, The expenses of the establishment and management of the aforesaid line of steamers shall be borne in equal parts by all the republics of Central America, the use and management of them being dependent solely on the Central American national authority. The excavation of an interoceanic canal by way of the river known as San Juan of Nicaragua, which will be proposed by the Central American authority, or by representation in common of all the States, shall be paid for by subscription, or by shares, among all the governments of the American-Latin people; but should it happen that they cannot furnish the necessary funds, subscription or share lists shall be opened to all the other governments of the world for the purpose of forming a universal transit, but whose neutrality and keeping shall be exclusively in the hands of Central America. It is declared from now henceforth that the duties of transit shall be agreed on by a congress of plenipotentiaries of all the nations contributing, so that a tariff shall be established, making a difference between and in favor of the subjects of those nations that have contributed to the undertaking, and those that have not. This association once formed, the contributing governments shall acquire the right, as has been said, of dictating regulations for the preservation and administration of the canal, as well as to distribute the net profits produced from it. Central America will exercise over said canal the jurisdiction and political sovereignty, guaranteeing to all governments the neutrality and universality of the route.

• Article 20. In consequence of what has been agreed on in the preceding articles, the governments signing this treaty engage to convoke a national Central American congress, which will issue dispositions and laws in conformity with the bases and stipulations laid down, developing and arranging them, and providing for the creation and maintenance of the national authority, which shall give them force in any given case.
• This congress will consist of three principal representatives and equal number of suplentes, or substitutes, for each State, whose election will be made as each State determines for those that correspond to it; but it must be done in such a way that they may be able to meet three months after the verification of the exchange of ratifications of the present pact.
• Article 21. This Central American congress shall have no power to pass any disposition or law which would augment or diminish the obligations which the present pact imposes on each one of the republics taking part; but it can convoke another national congress, to take place in four years at least, and eight years at farthest; may alter the bases of union according to the common wants and conveniences which experience may have shown to be necessary.
• Article 22. Besides the faculties spoken of, Congress will have to issue laws for the interior, indicate the place of residence of the national authority to be established, decree the budget for the nation as well as its dependencies, agree on the means to carry out the material enterprises which Central America takes in charge, authorizing, if needed, the national authority, can negotiate; either at home or abroad, a Central American loan sufficient to realize them, and finally to determine the amount of military force necessary for the security and honor of the national authority, as well as to preserve order in the population of the place of its residence, not to pass, however, the number of one hundred men.
• Article 23. All the expenses declared in the budget common to the Central American nationality, spoken of in this treaty, shall be paid by all the governments of Central America in equal parts, in the cases where the mode of providing for them is not expressed. In the same way they will contribute to the support of the guard of honor of the national authority.
• Article 24. The Central American congress will meet in the city of La Union of Salvador, three months after the verification of the exchange of credentials of this pact, and a minority of its members, united, may dictate the means for obtaining the presence of the others, but it cannot declare itself installed to carry out its objects, except with four-fifths of its representatives present. The traveling and daily expenses of the latter shall be determined and paid by the government of the republic which sends them.
• Article 25. In the place designated for the residence of the national authorities about to be established, there shall not exist other armed force than that at its orders, the republic in whose territory it is located engaging itself to have no military jurisdiction over it.
• Article 26. The Central American governments oblige themselves to carry out the stipulations of the present convention in those points which are or may be deemed peremptory for the preservation of the peace in Central America, from the moment of the canje, arranging to provide at once for the arbitral and collective tribunal mentioned in this pact, which is to resolve the disputes and differences of opinion contrary to it, until the appearance of the national congress and authority of Central America, which will, in the future, take charge and execute these functions.
• Article 27. Even before the canje or exchange of the ratification of credentials, all the governments oblige themselves to preserve the peace and avoid disputes, employing conciliating measures; but if these should not be sufficient, each one of them has full liberty while such canje is being made, to act as they think proper, without forfeiting the right to carry out, when the time comes, the union stipulated in the agreement.
• Article 28. All and each of the Central American republics oblige themselves to lay down, sustain, and fulfill all and each of the principles and stipulations contained in the present pact; any infraction of it shall be made the subject of the arbitral and collective judgment of the governments, or of the national authority, which obliges itself to fulfill and cause to be fulfilled.
• Article 29. The governments of the republics of Central America, after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, are under the obligation to make it known to foreign governments with whom they are or may be in relations.
• Article 30. The canje of the ratifications of this treaty shall be done in the city of La Union of Central America, within three months from the date in which the ministers plenipotentiary assisting agree to sign it, or before, if possible, and its effects will go on taking place among those that have taken part in it, according as they are put into force.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

1st. The punishment of death is abolished in Central America for political crimes, and there shall be established as soon as possible, on one of the islands of the Central American coast, a general penitentiary, for the reception of such criminals as the particular legislatures may send to, without prejudice to the penitentiaries which each State may erect for itself.

2d. The representative of the government of the republic of Nicaragua not having assisted at this congress, the minister plenipotentiary of Costa Rica will take upon himself to visit the city of Managua and present to that government the present pact, for the purpose of obtaining the adhesion of that government to it, in which case its effects will be equal over all Central America, just as if Nicaragua had assisted at the congress as one of the signers. In case she refuses, the effects stipulated in Article 19 remain of no account, i. e. with respect to the establishment of telegraph lines, national road, and interoceanic canal.

In witness of the above stipulation we, the aforesaid ministers plenipotentiary, sign five copies of the same tenor in the city of La Union of Central America, with the aforesaid date, and in the year fifty-one of the independence of Central America.

• R. RAMIREZ.
• MAXIMO ARANJO.
• J. J. SAMAYOA.
• MARTIN MERIDA.