The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-18
WHAT HIS PREDECESSORS DID.


 WHAT HIS PREDECESSORS DID. History Justifies the Panama Policy of the President.
 The president has been compelled by recent occurrences at Panama to re- write a portion of his forthcoming mes sage to congress, which he had already prepared, concerning the Panama Ca nal. Some of the superseded para graphs have, however, been made pulp lie and seem to excite the ire of the censors of the administration. That may be because this very circumstance indicates that the president was not, as they would nightly like to show him, implicated in the Panama revolution as an accessory before the fact. At any rate, they are raging at what he meant to say, and especially at the remark that if Columbia continued to play the dog in the manager it might become ne- SSSSaly Lol us Ut ldhS IlS iildItSE luto our own hands" Shades of Monroe and Jefferson and all the great Ameri- cans of the past! they cry; what an abominable sentiment that is!
 If any one disagrees with the presi- dent on that point he has an unques- tionable right to say so and to set forth i the grounds of his dissent. But, really, unless for the sake of providing Homer 1 ic laughter, nobody should go to quot ing the Fathers of the Constitution" 1 against that utterance of the president. 1 For the policies of those venerated men and the proposals of President Roose- welt are practically identical. For ex- ample, something more than a century l ago the United States wanted to enjoy 1 free navigation of the lower part of the Mississippi, just as it has wanted to | cut a canal across the Isthmus of Pan- anna. That river ran through Spanish territory and was ias much Spanish property as the Isthmus of Panama was ever the property of Columbia. Yet Jefferson, as secretary of state in Washington's cabinet, insisted that we had a right to the free navigation of that river, regardless of Spain's wishes, and he added that if Spain did not con- cede us that right it would be impos- sible to answer for the forbearance of our western citizens" That is to say, if Spain persisted in controlling her own territory the United States would ''take matters into its own hands," Again, Jefferson as president. when France had succeeded Spain In owner- ship of the lower Mississippi, declared that the free use of that stream was "so indispensable that we cannot hesi- tate to hazard our existence for it's maintenance" That is, if France would not yield to our dictates concern ing her own property it would. be ne- cessary for us to take matters into our own hands," Of truth, 1t is not the shade of Thomas Jefferson that will re- buke Theodore Roosevelt.
 Monroe has been, still more cited against the present policy of the gov- ernment. We had thought that his pol icy toward Spain in Florida was suf- ficiently we'll remembered to restrain any one from summoning him up as an authority for y-footedness. In 1918, when he was president, a treaty be- tween the United States and Spain was made for the cession of Florida to this country. It was signed by the Spanish minister and by the American secretary of state and was ratified by the United States senate. But the Spanish govern ment refused to ratify ia. Thereupon Monroe, in a message to congress, Submitted whether 1t will not b proper for the United States to carry the conditions of the treaty into effect in the same manner as if it had been ratified by Spain." In other words, he suggested that we should take mat ters into our own hands," in circum- stances remarkably like those that ex-, isted when President Roosevelt penned that first draft of his message. In each case treaty of great importance to this country was made with a foreign pow- er In each case the treaty was signed by the representatives of both powers, was ratified by the United States, and was then rejected by any other power on inadequate grounds. In the one case Monroe suggested that we should "car- I'D the condition of the treaty into ef- IeCC III Ine SdIIle Ulduller as 1T IL mad been ratified by Spain." In the other, President Roosevelt, more tersely, but precisely to the same effect, suggested that we should take the mattr into our own hands,"
 Of course, it may have been all wrong. Jefferson, and Washington, who countenanced and approved him, and Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, who was his chief adviser may have been wicked filibusters compared with whom Walker and his fellows were Christian statesmen. If so, similar condemnation may fall upon the pres- ent government. But in the name of consistency and common sense let us not quote those men against President Roosevelt for doing precisely the things which they did and for praeticing the very policy which has since been con- sistently maintained for more than a