The fourteenth article of this treaty is an exact copy of the supplemental article of the “treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between Great Britain and the Republic of Honduras,” dated 26th day of August, 1856, with the necessary changes in names and dates.  Under this article the Government and people of the United States will enjoy in the fullest and most satisfactory manner the use of the “Honduras Interoceanic Railway,” in consideration of which the United States recognizes the rights of sovereignty and property of Honduras over the line of the road and guarantees its neutrality, and, when “the road shall have been completed, equally engages, in conjunction with Honduras, to protect the same from interruption, seizure, or unjust confiscation, from whatever quarter the attempt may proceed.”

This treaty is in accordance with the policy inaugurated by the Government of the United States, and in an especial manner by the Senate, in the year 1846, and several treaties have been concluded to carry it into effect.  It is simple, and may be embraced in a few words.  On the one side a grant of free and uninterrupted transit for the Government and people of the United States over the transit routes across the Isthmus, and on the other a guaranty of the neutrality and protection of these routes, not only for the benefit of the Republics through which they pass, but, in the language of our treaty with New Granada, in order to secure to themselves the tranquil and constant enjoyment of these inter-oceanic communications.

The first in the series of these treaties is that with New Granada of the 12th December, 1846.  This treaty was concluded before our acquisition of California and when our interests on the Pacific Coast were of far less magnitude than at the present day.  For years before this period, however, the routes across the Isthmus had attracted the serious attention of this Government.

This treaty, after granting us the right of transit across the Isthmus of Panama in the most ample terms, binds this Government to guarantee to New Granada “the perfect neutrality of the before-mentioned Isthmus, with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea may not be interrupted or embarrassed in any future time while this treaty exists.”

In one respect it goes further than any of its successors, because it not only guarantees the neutrality of the route itself, but “the rights of sovereignty and property” of New Granada over the entire Province of Panama.  It is worthy of remark that when it was sent to the Senate it was accompanied by a message of President Polk, dated February 10, 1847, in which the attention of that body was especially called to these important stipulations of the thirty-fifth article, and in which it was stated, moreover, that our charge d’affaires who negotiated the treaty “acted in this particular upon his own responsibility and without instructions.”  Under these circumstances the treaty was approved by the Senate and the transit policy to which I have referred was deliberately adopted.  A copy of the executive document (confidential), Twenty-ninth Congress, second session, containing this message of President Polk and the papers which accompanied it is hereto annexed.