After reaching Granada, Randolph informed Walker that he and Crittenden
had carefully examined the charter of the Accessory Transit Company, and
were both clear and decided in the opinion that it had been forfeited.
Then he stated what the lawyers would call the points of the case; and
they were almost too clear for argument. As they are fully stated in the
decree whereby the charter of the Transit Company, and of the Atlantic
and Pacific Ship Canal Company were revoked, they will properly appear
when the publication of that decree is narrated. Suffice it to say, at
present, that after due reflection Walker was entirely satisfied as
to the views of Randolph and Crittenden. At the same time Walker was
informed that under his letter Crittenden had agreed with Garrison to
obtain a new transit charter from the government of Nicaragua, and with
this view Randolph had come to Granada. In virtue of this agreement of
Crittenden with Garrison, more than a hundred Americans for the service
of the Republic came down with Randolph on the steamer Sierra Nevada; and
it was promised that as many as possible should be hereafter brought from
California; Garrison advancing to the State the price of their passages.
Up to that time nearly all the Americans in Nicaragua had come from
California, and a very large proportion of them had been brought thither
at the expense of Garrison. The immigration into the country by persons
paying their own passage was small; for at that time little was known
in the United States of the natural advantages of Nicaragua. It was
necessary to get at once a number of persons capable of bearing arms into
the State; and none were more urgent in this policy, or more anxious
when the steamer arrived to hear how many passengers were for Nicaragua,
than the Provisional President and the members of his cabinet. Internal
order as well as freedom from foreign invasion depended, in their eyes,
entirely on the rapid arrival of some hundreds of Americans.
It will thus appear that the agreement of Crittenden with Garrison was
the means, and at that time, the only means, for carrying out the policy
vital to the Rivas administration. True, neither the President nor the
cabinet knew of the means whereby their objects were accomplished; and
it was in fact highly necessary to the success of the measures that
they should be known by as few persons as possible. After Randolph and
Walker had agreed on the terms of a new transit grant, a copy was sent
up to Garrison at San Francisco, Macdonald being the bearer of it. W. R.
Garrison went to New-York for the purpose of informing Charles Morgan
of the arrangements which had been, and were about to be made; while
Randolph remained in Granada to await the return of these parties.
Nothing was said to Rivas of the new transit contract, Walker and
Randolph had drawn up and agreed to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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