The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-24
Morgan Ire.

Senator Morgan RECALLED the senate
yesterday with an attack upon the
president, the occasion being his en-
forced retirement from the commit
tee on interoceanic canals. He de-
Spooner act and denounced the presi-
dent and all the supporters of the adj
ministration as lawbreakers, because,
upon the rejection of the former canal
treaty by the Colombian congress, the
president did not at once begin nego-
tiations with Nicaragua and Costa
Rica for canal rights thru those re-
publics. but proceeded to negotiate
with the only authority on the isthmus
capable of acting In sovereign capa-
city. viz, the new republic of Panama.
a Morgan thinks that, upon the break
ing out of the Panama revolution, our
government should have sent a strong
force thither and put down the revolt,
acting as Colombia's policemen. No
such duty devolves upon our govern
nlent. Colombia had abdicated her
sovereignty: her troops were with
drawn; the Panama people rightly as
suned sovereignty in place Of that
which had vanished q
AS for the charge of Mr.. Morgan,
that the president conspired to pro-
mote the Panama movement and was
In collision with the Panamans, nei-
ther he nor any of his party has ever
brought any evidence to sustain It.
The correspondence sent to congress
shows in a very distinct manner that
the only communications on the sub
ject related to the proper protection
Of the isthmian transit from obstruc-
ton and embarrassment such as might
naturally menace 1t in case of fighting
on the isthmus.
President Roosevelt Is a very diff
ferent president from Polk, whom Mr..
Morgan may remember. The Roose-
all been under the prescriptions of the
law Polk entirely outside the law, and
assuming that he was the government
Of the United States, decided in the
Texas case what was the southwestern
boundary of the United States, and,
without a declaration Of war against
Mexico by congress, ordered Taylor
privately to advance his troops to the
Rio Grande, ignoring the Mexican
claim to the Nueces boundary line.
He thus provoked an attack by the
Mexicans. and some weeks after Tay-
lor's bullyragging advance, congress
declared war against Mexico. Here
was real presidential assumption of
power, a real autocratic exhibition OF
indifference to law.
Mr.. Morgan's insinuations as to
President Roosevelt's determination
to push the canal thru at all hazards,
without the law, are base and menda-
cious When a senator makes a. charge
like that, he ought to have at least
some small measure of proof at hand.
1t is a charge which, it proven, merits
the penalty Of impeachment. Mr..
Morgan has no proof to offer. He
clings to the alternative provision OF
the Spooner act, insisting upon imme-
date negotiations with Nicaragua, ig-
nortng the fact that the rejection OF
the canal treaty by Colombia has not
left the isthmus without controlling
sovereign power with whom a new
canal treaty can be negotiated in an
effective manner and lawfully.
1.-The prospect is for an empty dinner
pail in the next campaign" says that
good old democratic newspaper, the AL
bert Lea Standard, and then in the next
Areath, or in a subsequent paragraph
in the same column, it declares: Every