The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-08

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ercise a systematic control of the mill
tary affairs of the navy, and be Au-
thorized advisers of the Secretary con-
corning it.
The Isthmian Canal.
BY the act of June Is, 1902 the Con-
gress authorized the President to en-
ter into treaty with Colombia for the
building of the canal across the 18TH
mus of Panama; it being provided
that in the event of failure to secure
such treaty after the lapse of a reas-
enable time. recourse should be had
to building canal through
Nicaragua. 1t has not been necessary
to consider this alternative, as l am
enabled to lay before the Senate a
treaty providing for the building of
the canal across the Isthmus of Pan
anna. This was the route which COM
mended itself to the deliberate judy
ment of the Congress, and we can now
acquire by treaty the right to con-
struct the canal over this route. The
question now, therefore, is not by
which route the isthmian canal shall
be built, for that question has been
definitely and irrevocably decided.
The question is simply whether or not
we shall have an isthmian canal
When the Congress directed that we
should take the Panama route under
treaty with Colombia, the essence of
the condition, of course, referred not
to the government which controlled
that route, but to the route itself: TO
the territory across which the route
lay. not to the name which for the
moment the territory bore on the
map. The purpose of the law was to
authorize the President to make a
treaty with the power in actual con-
troll of the Isthmus of Panama. This
purpose has been fulfilled.
In the year 1916 this government
entered into a treaty with q, New
Granada, the predecessor upon the
isthmus of the republic of Colombia
and of the present republic of Pan
anna, by which treaty it was provided
that the government and citizens of
the United States should always have
free and open right of way or transit
across the Isthmus of Panama BY any
modes of communication that might
be constructed while in return our
government guaranteed the perfect
neutrality of the above mentioned
isthmus with the view that the free
transit from the one to the other sea
might not be interrupted or embar-
United States a@substantial property
right carved out of the rights of SOW
ereignty and property which New
Granada then had and possessed oyer
the said territory. The name Of Flew
Granada has passed away and its ter
ritory has been divided. It's successor,
the government of Colombia, has
ceased to own any property on the
isthmus. A new republic, that of
u L. sz.l.
sovereign state. and at another time
a mere department of the successive
considerations know as New Granada
and Colombia, has now succeeded to
the rights which first one and then
the other formerly exercised over the
lsthmus. But as long as the isthmus
endures the mere geograp hcal fact
of its existence and the peculiar in
terest therein which is required by
our position, perpetuate the solemn
contract which binds the holders Of
the territory to respect our right to
freedom of transit across it, and binds
us in return to safeguard for the
isthmus and the world the exercise
of that inestimable privilege. The
true Interpretation of the obligations
upon which the United States entered
in this treaty of 1916 has been given
repeatedly in the utterances of Presi-
dents and Secretaries of State, Secre-
tary Cass in 1858 officially stated the
position of this government as fol-
lows: -'14 af
THE progress of events has render
ed the interoceanic route across the
narrow portion of Central America
vastly important to the commercial
world, and especially to the United
States, whose possessions extend
along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,
and demand the speediest and easiest
modes of communication. While the
rights of sovereignty of the states oe-
cupying this region should always be
respected, we shall expect that these
rights be exercised in spirit BETTING
the occasion and the wants and cir
cumstances that have arisen. Sow
ereignty has it's duties as we'll as its
rights, and none of these local govern
ments, even if administered with
more regard to the just demands of
other nations than they have been,
would be permitted, in a spirit of
Eastern isolation, to close the gates
of intercourse on the great highways
of the world, and justify the act by
the pretension that these avenues of
trade and travel belong to them and
that they choose to shut them, or.
what is almost equivalent, to encum-
Der LueHl WIFI SuCH ulJuSl IcleillOllS
as would prevent their general USE
Seven years later, in 1865, Mr.. Sc
ward in different communications took
the following position:
THE United States have taken and
will take no interest in any question
of internal revolution in the state of
Panama, or any state of the United
States of Colombia, but will maintain
a perfect neutrality in connection with
such domestic alterations. The
United States will, nevertheless, hold
themselves ready to protect the transit
trade across the isthmus against in
vasion of either domestic or foreign
disturbers of the peace of the state of
Panama. Neither the text nor
the spirit of the stipulation in that
article by which the United States en-
cages to preserve the neutrality of
the Isthmus of Panama, imposes an
obligation on this government to
comply with the requlsition. (of the
Y- CURE Gil