The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-03-08
TO ACT UPON APPOINTMENTS BY THE
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
Puts Down With Peremptoriness a
Disposition OF the Galleries to APP
plaud the Convening OF This Body.
Senator Platt's Cioture Resolution.
Senator Morgau's Isthmian Canal
speech-His Attack on Bngland's At
titude as to the Canal
SENATE.

SETNa1
Washington, March 6.-Again today
when the senate convened the CALLER
les were packed with people. a majori-
ty OF whom, as on recent days, being
composed of visitors to the city. The
executive gallery was ablaZe with blue,
gold cord and epaulettes, the visitors
being members of the staff of Govern
or Yates, of Illinois.
Promptly at noon, Vice President
Roosevelt entered the chamber. AS he
stepped forward TO his desk to call the
senate to order a burst of spontaneous
applause rang through the galleries.
With evident manifestations of his
disapproval, the vice president seized
his gavel and raped sharply twice
for order. Glancing sternly around the
gailar.es he said, and the words cut
through the chamber like a knife:
IF there is any applause or disorder
the sergeant alarms will clear the
galleries.
The chaplain in his invocation referr-
ed with deep pathos to the sorrow
which has fallen upon the Junior SEN
ator from Alabama (Mr. Pettus). and
h wife in the death of their only son.
Inquiry from Senator Teller brought
out the fact that it was not the inten-
ton of Senator Platt, of Connecticut,
to press his cloture resolution during
the present session, and the resolution
was referred to the committee on rules.
After the routine of morning busi-
ness had been transacted, Senator
Morgan addressed the senate upon his
would exclude
from his argument any consideration
of the Panama canal commission. The
only prospect of the construction of the
Nicaragua canal now by the United
States rested upon the protocols which
had been entered into between this
country and the governments of Mica
ragua and Costa Rica-
He challenged any senator to point
to single proposition which Great
Britain had made for such a modifica-
ton of the Nicaragua canal No such
action, he said, ever had been taken
by Great Br. tain. During all the time
when Americans were "hugglng TO
their bosomS" the delusion that Great
Britain eventually would enter upon a
friendly arrangement for the construc-
ton of the canal. Great Britain had
preserved "a profound and golden sill
ence" He called her silence golden
because, he asserted, Great Britain
through Liverpool, which was the COM
merciaI center of the world, was being
enriched and the United States, be-
cause of the lack of the Nicaragua
canal, was contributing to the enrich
ing of Great Britain.
There cannot be anything more pre-
cious today to Great Britain" said Sen
ator Morgan, than to prevent the con-
struction of the Nicaraguan canal. If
Great Britain by her golden silence
can prevent that, her profits VIII con-
tinue and the longer she can do that
the greater will be her profits on the
Suez canal. She remained as silent as
the sphinx which looks out upon the
Nile and upon the desert and she seems
to be looking out upon a desert of
wasted American opportunities and,
sad to say, American honor. Great
Britain is still silent"
With some feeling in referring TO the
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, the Alabama
senator said:
I'VE will make no compromise with
Great Britain upon that subject. We
will make no concession to Great Brit
ain in relation to that treaty. What
We shall do with it (and some of our
people are opposed even to that, is
that we shall declare it abrogated. If
the vote on my resolution could be
taken today it would inform the presi-
dent Of the United States that he has
no two-thirds majority in the senate
to adopt any compromise he may make
with Great Britain If 1t is the purpose
of Great Britain still to look for delay
she will not get it. If it be her de-
term nation to pick quarrel with US
about il. she will find the United States
can master at least half the number OF
men who voted for president In the last
election-fghtipg men. And she viii
find, when that war terminates. that
the steel band which binds the throne
in London with Australia and India
and passes through Canada will have
been rent in twain: and with its sew
erance. down will go the empire.
She will find that her possessions in
the Caribbean sea have lapsed. She
will find that she has overtaxed our pa
tience. She has started with a new
king and upon a new career that will
break up the empire and reduce the
king to the sovereignty of his own is
land. Does Great Britain suppose she
can escape from the terrors of the ex-
isting situation and the prospective
everywhere and that she can
find favorable opportunity to display
her military power against the Unite j
States?'
Without concluding his speech. Sen
ator Morgan yielded the floor and at
2:45 O'Clock. on motion of Senator War
rem. OF Wyoming. the senate went into
executive session. adjourning fifteen
minutes later