Mr. Fish to Mr. Baxter
Sir: Your dispatch No. 25, of the 1st ultimo, has been received. The Department has already instructed you in regard to the obligations of the United States to maintain the neutrality of the railway between the two oceans, through Honduras. That obligation can in no event be construed as imposing upon this Government the duty of forcible intervention in quarrels between Honduras and her neighbors, even if the advantages promised to the United States were available by the completion of the railway. If that work were in a condition to perform the service between the Atlantic and the Pacific for which it was intended, and that service were to be forcibly obstructed or interrupted by a foreign power, especially with a view to divest Honduras of her right of eminent domain in the railway, it would be incumbent upon their government first to remonstrate against such obstruction or interruption. If this should be unheeded or persisted in, the aggressor might then be warned of the consequences, and if this warning also should be fruitless, the President might then apply to Congress for authority and means to carry the guaranty of neutrality into effect. That guaranty, however, by no means implied that the United States are to maintain a police or other force in Honduras for the purpose of keeping petty trespassers from the railway. This would be a measure contrary to the dignity of Honduras as an independent republic, and contrary to that cardinal policy of non-intervention in ordinary cases, which has hitherto characterized the United States.
I am, &c.,