The Portland daily press., 1881-01-18

for the last twenty years been active in plans
and efforts to check the territorial extension of
the United States. She has assumed the
direction of this aggressive work. as being the
leading Latin power. The avowed purpose of the
French invasion of Mexico during the late civil
war was to curb Anglo-Saxon progress beyond
the borders of Texas; and it was openly de-
clared in the famous letter of Louis Napoleon
to General Forey, that his object in founding
an empire in Mexico was the establishment of
the power OF the Latin race on this continent,
as counterpoise to the Anglo-Saxon domn-
ion. The French newspapers of that period
may be proftably studied for the additional
light they throw on the designs of France in
this quarter of the globe"
"Such are still the sentiments of French
statesmen and of the leaders of French
thought. Is the policy of the New World"
which failed under the guiding hand of Louis
Napoleon, to be made splendid success under
DE Lesseps? The inter-oceanic canal project
OF M. de Lesseps--although in its inception
urged as great international and "fraternal'
enterprise-has been from the first thoroughly
French, and designed for the promotion of
French interests alone. The canal is to be
bailt under French charter and by pre-
ponderance of French capital The concession
from Colombia is owned by French compa-
ny. The amount of capital required to build
the canal is so great relatively to the financial
resources of Colombia that the corporation
owning it would be much greater than the
OGdte ltSell; Fr6uCu troops must sooner or lat
er protect it. 1t will be administered by
French officials. who will schedule and i'm
pose tolls upon the commerce passing through
it. More than two-thirds of that commerce at
the outset must be the commerce of the United
States OF America All the numerous and i'm
portant ltigated questions as to maritime and
national and international liabilities concern
ing the transit of passengers and freight, must
be adJudicated either at Bogota virtually un-
der French influence, or at Paris itself.
A transatlantic foreign power, established as a
neighbor, will control the most important
channel of our immense coastwise trade. A
foreign nation will at any time be able to close
that channel to us in case of war with any
great power. In time of peace we could
doubtless secure favorable conditions for the
passage of our shipping, but war would place
US at the mercy of the great foreign corpora
ton virtually owning the United States of
Colombia"
1t is not necessary to discuss the Monroe
doctrine which French ambition seeks to
nullify. Although it has not received the
formal Endorsement of Congress, its moral
effect is as potent as legislative enactment
could make it. 1t has been accepted by
all parties: in the language of Mr.. Buchan-
an: sit has become canon of faith for the
American people, and they have placed it
side by side with their hostility to the i'm
prisonment of American seamen and the
search of American vessels on the high
seas" Itwas Mr.. Seward enforcement of the
doctrine that dispensed with the necessity
of special legislation to secure the with
drawal of the French forces in Mexico; and
during his Senatorial career the late Henry
Wilson on the floor of the Senate, more than
once proclaimed his adhesion to this prin-
ciple. Whether the maritime route across
the isthmus be canal or ship railway;
whether its location be at Tehuantepec,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Darien or
Atrato, the American people will doubtless
insist that it shall be purely American, con-
trolled exclusively as means of security
for American nationality.