The Portland daily press., 1881-01-18
M. de Lesseps' Canal and the Mon
roe Doctrine.

M. de Lesseps' Canal and the Mon
roe Doctrine.
The effort which is being made to secure
national aid to some project for connecting
the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans
by canal across the Isthmus of Panama,
or some similar means of maritime inter-
communication, will be likely to attract
more than ordinary attention from all classes,
not only from the interest which belongs to
the subject itself as commercial enterprise
but because the solution of the problem is
OF great importance to the American people,
affecting the condition of the future exis-
tence of the United States The recent ap-
pearance on this side the water of M. de
Lesseps, the proprietor and constructor of
the Suez canal, and his agents, busy with
the scheme of cutting ship canal across The
Isthmus of Panama in the exclusive interest
OF a foreign power, has caused the Ameri-
can people to inquire into the plans and pur-
poses Of the French engineer, by what au-
thority he acts, the political effect of his
completed enterprise upon the adjacent gov
ernments, and upon what pretext he under
takes to nullify national principle which
has been declared by the words and acts of
American statesmen, and acknowledged and
respected by nearly every European nation
for half century as part of the foreign pol
icy of the United States.
For more than thu ee hundred years the
subject of canal connecting the waters of
the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans has en-
gagged the attention of European capitalists
and statesmen. Spain, England, France,
and Holland have spent large sums of mon
ey in making explorations and surveys, and
concessions and grants have been freely
made by the Spanish-American States to Sc
cure the construction Of the desired COM
mercial highway; in fact, there is hardly
watercourse or valley in the length of the
Isthmus, from the Atrato river on the south
to the northern boundary of Tehuantepec,
that has not been examined for a canal or
road.
The number of organized attempts to pro-
secute this great undertaking during the
last $50 years is upwards of forty, and
brief recital of the most important may be
In 1880 the English govern
ment, recognizing the great strength which
the possession of the Isthmus would give to
her colonization schemes, fitted out an ex-
pedition to seize the Nicaragua route, Lord
Nelson participating in the expedition, but
the enterprise was not successful. 1t is no
ticeabe that when the negotiations between
the Spanish-American States and European
powers have failed, the United States have
been looked to as the natural ally in the
work; so we find that the first attempt origi-
mating in this country to open a way across
the Isthmus was in 1926, when charter
was granted to one Palmer of New York,
but the work was soon abandoned on ac-
count OF the inability of the company to
raise the requisite money. In 1880 the
work attracted the attention of President
Jackson's administration, and Col. Bidd e
Of Philadelphia was sent to examine the Nj
caragua route, but he disobeyed his instruc-
tions and visited Panama, returning with a
Charter for macadamized road across the
lsthmus at that point; but the result of his
mission dissatisfied the President and the
matter was dropped. In 1889 Congress was
memoralized to open negotiations and se-
cure forever by suitable treaty stipulations
the construction of a ship canal across the
isthmus and the free and equal right of nav
lgating it to all nations; but no government
tai action followed. The surveys made by
MIR. Childs of the Nicaragua route under
the auspices of an organized company in
lo49 were pronounced by governmental en-
glneers to be practicable and unusually IA
vorable, but Mr.. Childs was unfortunate in
providing for canal too small for the pros
pective business; capitalists refused to en-
bark withhim in the enterprise and the
project was finally ruined by Walker, the
The only highway across the Isthmus is
the Panama Railroad, completed in 1855 at
a cost OF $7,500,0 900; monument of Amer
lean energy and skill. Its value to its pro-
prietors and the nation does not require a
rehearsal here. In 1866 Rear Admiral Da
Wis, in response to resolution of Congress,
submitted his report on the subject of way
across the Isthmus which contained sum-
mary of all the explorations and surveys
that had been made at Honduras, Tehuante-
pee, Panama, Darien and Atrato, and illus
trated the Importance of an inter-oceanic
canal; and this report led to the thorough
and systematic explorations and surveys of
different routes by Messrs. Shufeldt, Lul,,
Menocal, Selfridge and Collins, by direction
Of our government.
Our most formidable rival for the posses
sion of the Isthmus is France; and as the
contest between the two powers promises to
be sharp, it is worth while to review briefly
The action of France in the matter and show,
by her own testimony the ends she has in
in view. In 1874 NJ. Castillon, of Nicara-
qua, visited France for the purpose of in
teresting Louis Philippe in le construction
Of canal He was granted an interview
with Louis Napoleon, then a prisoner in
The Fortress of Ham, who entered heart
lily into the scheme and promised to engage
in it if he could be permitted to 60 to Amer
lea; but no attempt was made to liberate
him. After his escape from prison in 1916
be secured charter from Nicaragua, and
spent much of his time in London in prepa-
rations for the undertaking, when the Revo-
luton of 1S4S called him away from the
work; but he never abandoned the idea.
Ten years later M. Belly began the prelim-
naries for the construction of canal by
way of the San Juan river, under the aus
pices of Louis Napoleon, but the work was
brought to a sudden termination by the
failure of his financial associate to provide
The promised funds. Ten years later Louis
Napoleon revived the French project of
Nicaraguan canal, but his arrangements to
put the contract in execution were sus-
pended by the Franco-G German war; and
another decade reveals the significant spec
,acle of the Paris Congress, with the hope
jul and loyal NJ. Belly among its numbers,
Is well as M. de Lesseps, relative of Eu-
genie and 1t. Bonaparte Wyse, the surveyor
md brother-in-law of Gen. Turr, the chief