National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1885-01-20

decided to maintain at all hazards.
Mr.. VIM. NJ. Evarts's election as United
States senator at this very moment Is most
opportune. 1t is an appropriate recogni-
ton OF his vigorous assertions while secre-
tary OF state of the Monroe doctrine and
of his effective opposition to the construc.
ton Of tho Panama canal under French
auspices aud control.
NJ do Lesseps commenced his financial
operations upon the French public to
procure the means for the construction Of |
this cSual during the period OF President
Hayes administration, while Mr. Evarts |
was secretary of state. 1t was felt by tho |
French promoters Of the enterprise that n |
bold aud unequivocal, assertion at that
bic opposition to tho construction and
control of any isthmus canal by any
European power would be fatal to the
French plan, and it was decided that 1t
was Of vital Importance to prevent that
protest by tho Hayes administration,
which would thus destroy their project.
Accordingly it was determined to use
money in America, and to demoralize
and paralyze Mr. Hayes and his admin
istration. Hon. X. w. Thompson was
paid $4,000 to resign his office of secre-
tary Of the navy, and to use his great in
fuence toward keeping President Hayes
from acting seasonably, 80 as to prevent
the success of the canal loan on the Paris
bourse.
En- uno disco Omnes 1t 10 fair to pc.
sumo that If $4,000 could be spared to
procure the secretary of the navy to re-
sign his Office money for all other useful
movements was not wanting and the
Golfers of tho American agents, Messrs.
Seligman Brothers, were doubtless ready
to be drawn upon for any plan which
would delay the action of our govern
ment until the success of the first INSTALL
ment of the loan should be secured. 1t
is impossible TO say how much money
was used, or ready to BIO used, in New
York city and Washington in employing
attorneys and shysters to prevent that
prompt action of our government which
it was felt would destroy the French
canal in its inception.
To the credit of Mr.. Eyarts, it must be
said that he resisted all attempts to in
du0e him to swerve from the path of duty.
He did not resign, but remained firm at
his post, and he sent TO Minister Noyes
such clear and cogent expositions of the
Monroe doctrine and Of the fixed deter
mination of the United States to adhere
to it, that no doubt should have been felt
in Paris that our government would even
fight If necessary to enforce our great
national traditional policy against foreign
colonization of the American continent
In particular, Mr.. Evarts underworld
to mako it not only known to our
minister in France, but to tho French
public and the whole world, that
tho United States would never allow
a ship canal across tho American isthmus,
to connect the waters Of tho Atlantic and
Pacific for the traffic Of the nations, if
such canal were to be controlled by any
European power, or in fact If II were not
to be absolutely dominated by the United
States alone. Mr. Baine's letters on tho
Clayton Bulwer treaty are smooth and
rhetorical; Mr. Frelinghuysen's are cloar,
explicit, and unmistakable in purpose.
But all are only amplifcations OF those
mastery state papers in which Mr.. Evarts
led the way to the assertion and vindica-
ton of our great national principle, pre-
vented the full success of the De Lesseps
Panama canal loan, and saved the great
transit route for American ownership.
1t is true that NJ. do Lesseps was not
wholly defeated. The striking fact OF
an American cabinet minister leaving his
post to accept service at $4,000 year
under the French company, some little
want of adaptation on tho part of our
minister, Mr. NOyes. to French mon and
methods, and his failure properly to com
municate Mr.. EvRrts's imperative in
structions, and the easy Rullibility of the
French people, enabled the company Il
obtain the money with which to com
mence the canal, and the enterprise still
fingers and languishes, and the Frencl
have possession Of the state Of Panama
waiting to be invited to depart by th'
irresistible force Of aroused American
: public sentiment like that which sent
Louis Napoleon's forces, as soon as oul
; rebellion was subdued, lettering out o
Mexico, leaving poor, doludod Maximilian
TO his terrible fate,
But for all these little incidents o
! the struggle for isthmian ascondanc!
Mr.. Eyarts Is not to blame. lilo coult
not alone accomplish everything. Posi-
bly, Secretary Thompson exercised somC
influence directly upon President Hayes
: who may have been in private communal
c cation with Minister Noyes Mr. Eyart
}. nobly did his own duty. Ho resisted
( every temptation; no remained in tn
o cabinet to the last; he proclaimed in hi
= dispatches the great principles he wa
s bound to assert, and to him in tho end
4 whom the French canal proves a failure
Q whom France quits the Panama isthmus
# and when tho truo canal, built b!
o and controlled by the United State
j. aud Nicaragua, opens an oceaI
. highway across the continent, vii
o DO principally due the great success 70
d which no laid the foundation by his pa