Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/283

JAMES BUCHANAN 225 the danger of their annexation to the United States; and this Mr. Buchanan was very desirous to use as a powerful lever to secure the third point, which the United States earnestly desired, viz., the withdrawal of all British dominion in Central America, and the recognition of the Monroe doc trine, which the Clayton-Bulwer treaty had not firmly established. President Pierce considered it best that the reci procity and fishery questions should be settled at Washington ; but Mr. Buchanan was intrusted with the negotiation of the Central American question in London. Mr. Buchanan s main object was to develop and ascertain the precise difference be tween the two governments in regard to the con struction of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, but the Crimean war so long delayed the negotiations with this country that nothing could be accomplished while he remained in England. As the war ap proached and when it was finally declared, the prin ciples of neutrality, privateering, and many other topics came within the range of the discussion ; and it was very much in consequence of the views ex pressed by Mr. Buchanan to Lord Clarendon, and by the latter communicated to the British cabinet, that the course of England toward neutrals dur ing that war became what it was. When Lord Clarendon, in 1854, presented to Mr. Buchanan a projet for a treaty between Great Britain,