The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-05
D. B. HILL ROASTS
 THE PRESIDEN I

(contlnue-i from First Paae) --------~-~-----------~~ Tn defense of her sovereignty which the treaty of 1846 bound the President to re- I spect. Those orders were excutd. The revolt of November, 1903, was of course successful. President Roosevelt upheld 1t and 'so created'' Panama as an nde- pendent state. Two days thereafter he recognized as independent the state he had created by an act of war, and four teen days later made a treaty with the new state for the excavation Of a ship canal. which treaty the newly created state ratified on December g. 1903.
 l pleading by the President In behalf l of such extraordinary conduct, he set forth in his special message to congress fourteen days later, which contains correspondence between General Reyes special commission of Colombia, then | In Washington. and Secretary Hay whose utterances are to be assumed as expressing the Presidents views, any one can discern whether or not the accusa- tion of lawlessness made in the demo- cratic platform is well founded. The is- sue of the democracy can be safely rested upon these two documents.
 Takes Up Messages.
 MT. Hill took up the messages of the 1 Presidents referred to and analysed l them in detail. The Presidents view of treaty ratification as a means of pro- tecting state from unfit agreements, he contended, Is as novel as 1t Is lawless. l No state can be held bound to ratify a l treaty beyond the power of the state to make, because of incompatibility with its fundamental law, or of conflict with a L. been misconception of facts, or If for | any reason the government branch hay ing power to reject deems the treaty unwise and unsafe. The senate of the United States Is free to exercise its dis erection on treaty ratification, not wan | tonly, to be sure, but wisely. The United | States executive has repeatedly with drawn from the senate the condemned treaties sent thither by himself or his predecessors for ratification.
 The President told congress that proof that he held the mandate of civilization | to recognize Panama as he did, was to be found In the promptness With which twenty governments had followed his lead. He made no account of the fact that he had by the exercise of naval force created and upheld the independence of Panama, and that those foreign govern ments were, none of them, like the United
 
 the sovereignty of Colombia.
 Argued Right to Congress.
 He argued to congress his right to cre- ate and then recognize Panama, as If it depended solely on his opinion of the justice of the rebellion. and on his desire to clutch a strip of land on which to ex- cavate a canal
 His special message to congress in the Panama affair and urging the ratifica- tion of the Hay-Varllla treaty, disclose how incapable he Is of correctly inter- preting treaties and statutes. He alludes to the treatly of 1S46 as the dedication by New Granada to all the world of the isthmus of Panama for a ship Hcanal whereas 1t was In fact the dedication of free transit only to the United States and made, as Secretary Hay said, to keer out European governments. He inter prets the Spooner law as commanding tho President to do that which congress can not lawfully do. namely, to compel hin to negotiate special form of treaty.
 Used Newspaper Clippings.
 President Roosevelt on Jar uary 4, 1904 dumped on congress newspaper clippings to show that every one knew insurrec tion was In sight at Panama after Co lombia rejected the Hay-Herran treaty He confessed that he knew even the da, and hour from two army officers whC had by queer coincidence come to hin from inspection In Panama. It will bt proof of strange absence in the Pres ident of detective instinct, If 1t shall turn out hat he did not ascertain iron those officers or from other so>rces who was financing the coming revolt, and what varilla was doing in the interest oi revolt, news of which induced him to or. der the navy to keep Colombian forces fifty miles away from Panama and such great distance solely that he could forsooth police the transit and keep Il open.
 Why need President Roosevelt have yielded the ''big stick Tn behalf of the Preach company. then chafferng lob by'oss Hssd huckstering at Bogota as |, had Esen for a quarter of a century what influence. bad for the United States would have been exerted by paying a few millions more or less, in comparison with international law violated by the Presi. dent of the United States a public obli. gation like that in the treaty of lS46 repu. diated by him, the federal constitution set at defiance by him. plain statute disobeyed by him and executive prece- dents begun by him most inconvenient and damaging in our future diplomacy. I