The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-20
SPEECH OF EDWARD M. SHEPARD
 ON PROMISE OF ISTHMIAN CANAL"

The complete address of Edward M. Shepard of New York before the Ala bama State Bar Association at the State Capitol yesterday was as follows, his subject being The Promise of the lsth- milan Canal"
 In the Act of Congress of June 2Sth. . year ago. eliminated a discussion which began with modern times Hardly had early navigators along the American coasts learned that the Atlantic did not wash the shores of Asia, but was separ- ated by a newly discovered continent from still greater ocean, than they also knew that at one point these oceans were separated by a,neck of land of about the same width ras the silver strait which made England an island, and was as harmful to the commerce of the world as that strait was helpful.
 The dramatic picture of the first sight of the Pacific by Balboa. three hundred years ago when he stood silent upon peak in Darien." put into the imagination of mankind the restless idea. fruitful in spite of it's inaccuracy, that the future wealth and glory of the world were to be found in the Pacific; and that, # they were to belong to Europeans the barrier which shut out their ships from a direct approach to it must, in some way and al some point. be pierced by water way
 When the P,sitans landed on the coast of New England and the Cavaliers found eti inc venerable Commonwealth of Vir- Kinia, the world had already for nearly century dreamed of such water way through the Isthmus of Panama or the Nicaragiian Lake. Long afterwards, when the grim sobriety of John Quincy Adams was in the White House and the captivating eloquepce of Henry Clay lighted up our foreign dispatches. and globe" a sort of navel of the earth, in lS24 a congress was summoned at the point to form ap Amphictyonic council of all American nations. When Presioent commissioner. he told Congress that, al- though 1t did not assure ''all or even any of the transcendent benefits to the hu- man race which warmed the conceptions ed to the ssmeIioriation of the condition pf unankindn and to the further triumph R the spirit which filled the hearts and lred the souls of the immortal foundeFs A our revolution.
 THE PANAMA ROUTE.
 Tbree- quarters of a century after the klory had evaporated from all this. CTh, e,.s kords of the statute enacted year aeo' tsdicated the Jsthfnus of Panama, pr, our efforts there should fail the route }y Nicaragua to the mighty service nsol kie required their President to chose 2 soIIte across the American Isthmus ana khere to construct and operate canai tuitabls flor vessels of the largest ton. haze and greatest draught now in use. Fhe President was authorized to buy krona the French Company the portion ot xhe canal which it had partially built at Panama and the railroad nearby which f had years ago acquired from American kuiIders But the President was not to bay for such railroad and partially oon- ktructed canal more than $40.eoo.0oo. Nor ras he to choose the Panama route un- less the Republic of Colombia should cede kontrol over the necessary strip of terri Aory six miles wide from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific. Nor was the cost Of khe canal in addition to the payment Jo ahe French Company to exceed $1S5, ,OoO Ooe being thus fixed at s175. .oo0.0 600. If the President should fail to acquire the prop erty of the French Company or IT Co- ioYnbia should refuse proper concession. then the President was to build a canal upoh the more northerly and longer. but in some respects no doubt preferahie, Nicaragua route at cost not exceeding $1S0, 900. 600.
 The treaty with Colombia for the right of way has not yet been ratified nor has the purchase from the French Company been consummated. But it Is improbable to the last degree that the Colomhians will permit their neighbors at the north to secure the enormous advantage of the canal. or that the transaction with the French Company will be obstructed. A ship canal. able to float the most naestic of ocean steamships and, by Its locks, lift them through one of the valleys beneh- gently cut by nature and deepened by man in the Cordilleran wall at the west of our continent, will be open within the next ter. years. During that time. the industrial and commercial plans of the world and especially of the United States and stlll more especially of our Gulf States must be adjusted to the new water way. To this preparatory work public
 t~- AA Tk., subject is. therefore, fit one for as- gemblages of our profession in States where as here they so perfectly represent public sentiment. doubt whether the fiatterine tribute paid by De Tocqueville seventy. years ago to the function of American lawyers as publicists be today as applicable to the bar of any other State as to the bar of Alabama. Very certainly the noble tradition that an American lawyer ought to be somewhat of a statesman survives with you better far than in my own State or in any Northern State of which I know. So 1t ls that I dare now venture beyond the limits of strictly professional discussion.
 No doubt bring 'coals to Newcastle" wheh 1 discuss here the promise of the Isthmiau Canal. Fo- no State of the Union Is so familiar as yours with Inter- oceanic canal questions. Nor, if engineers and other experts be excepted is there I fancy, any body of men more familiar with the group of topics belonging to the canal than the members of your own bar. You have the great advantage of the pres ence in your own State of master of all this learning in the venerable statesman who Is full of the patriotic zeal and en- ergy of youth. To Senator John T. Nor gan, the chairman of the Senate Canal Committee, more than to any single man is due the assurance We now have that the canal Is to be built and that it Is to be American. No man in public life is to be envied so much as one who has indis- Bolubly joined his name to the perform ance of a great public service. the results of which remain in the plain sight of coad3utor. Senator Pettus, to whom like debt is due by the American people. re- main in the fuli present vigor Of their faculties and usefulness to preside over the dedica ton of the completed canal, and long after. to rejoice in R glorious realization of its present promise
 HISTORY OF MOVEMENT.
 The plan of @ canal by either the Mica Sagua or the Panama route was crystal liZed from visions which came to geog- raphers soon after America was known to Europe. For long time the view of rnisdirected piety was that since God had not fit for man to put them asnndsr. The same rule would have forbidden tools to the first mechanics of our race and re- fused to Calico the use of the optic glass. 1t would have kept our race in barbarism: forests would not have been cleared; nor swamps drained: nor mountains pierced with railroads; nor harbor channels open ed. Fortunately, the better and more truly religious idea long since became dominant that the genius of man was It. self a divine creation. that human pur- nose and wisdom were truly inspired to