The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-14

trality, treaties and war, and the vast injury to states and countless thousands of their inhabitants. they often pass into the wider domain of morality. where the breach of national duty is so hagrant, and redress so inadequate or impossible, that 1t is cognizable alone in the form of con- science and at the bar of an enlightened public opinion.
 Distinguished Itself In Shame.
 For the first time in our history as e people, in a single transaction, by its re- cent conduct in Panama, the federal ad- ministration distinguished itself in shame by adding to multiplied offenses against law. the grossest moral deiinquencies. To contempt of legal restraint which must challenge the solicitude of all patriots, to breaches of neutrality, to violations of precedents and treaty obligations, and waging an unjust though bloodless war. 1t added other wrongs to a defenseless republic and left other and more inef- faceable stains upon our national integ- rity and character. This incident through out was marked not alone by repeated injustice but by reproach and dishonor.
 The declaration of the administration that 1t did not officially and publicly inc stigate the revolt, for that is the whole force of the denial, is fully accepted, and yet its conduct was tantamount to in- stigatlon and encouragement, and had that effect. What 1t failed to do officially and publicly was done personally and secretly. The friendly press and periods calls of the time abounded with inspired suggestion and advice of secession, and personal correspondence of the adminls- tration encouraged editorial insistance up- on revolution and immediate recognition Foreign eonspirators at Washington be- came the confidants of the government and advised their confederates of the movement of the navy with an accuracy and detail impossible except from fore knowledge.
 Called to See President.
 Upon the failure of the senate of coiom- bia to ratify the canal treaty the chair man of the senate committee on foreign relations. (Mr. Cullom) was called to see the President, and immediately after the interview, the senator gave to a great newspaper in August. 1903, three months prior to the rebellion, this significant and remarkable statement which was no doubt published throughout this conti- nent and in Europe:
 Well, We might make another treaty, not with Colombia, but with Panama.
 But Panama is not a sovereign state and is only a department of Colombia,
 'lntimations have been made that there IS great discontent on the isthmus oyer the action of the congress of the central government, and Panama might break away and set up government which we could treat with' was the reply.
 ''Is the United States prepared to en- courage such a sehism in a South Ameri- can republic?''
 No, I suppose not but this country wants to build that canal and build il now. It needs 1t for its own defense, and it is needed by the whole world The iG Inv thaf hou been treated well by us. and there arg very weighty considerations, which mako us feel that at all hazards this great work should be undertaken at the earliest possible minute"
 Having inspired the nsurrection, it was natural, and comported with the honor which subsists even among vulgar and unpretentious plunderers that the admin istration should keep faith with it's pup pets and confederates to the end. In con- fus.ng and guilty haste it anticipated and discounted the time for the revolt. It magnfed the number and character cf the insurgents and officers of the gov ernment connived at a subterfuge to de- eeive and corrupt the forces sent to crush the uprising. It denied the authority of Colombia to suppress the revolutionary movement both prior and subsequent to its continuation. It invaded its territory by land and sea to accomplish its dis memberment upon the false pretense of preserving the freedom of transit across the isthmus.
 Never Been Done Before.
 Never before in our history has a revo- lutionary and seeding government been recognized without reference to what ac- ton might be taken by the present state to enforce it's authority over the revolt ing section. From Monroe to Mckinley tod Inc nd tnf ff1n of insisting in such cases upon the con dition that recognition of independent statehood is not due to a revolted depen- dency until the danger of it's being again subjugated by the parent state has en- tirely passed away"
 It was left to the present administra- ton, in the case of republic which we were the first to welcome into the fam fly of nations in 1923, to trample upon the wise precedents of eighty years, and in a spirit of cupdity to reverse the policy which made thsi government the exemplar of the world. The spacious de- fence of recognition by the President, in it's last analysis, is founded upon the argument of kings, some time called manifest destiny, impeled by the inter- ests of collective civilization, which he properly characterized in his life of Ben ton as that which would swallow up  were too weak to withstand us, theory that forthwith obtained immense popu- larity among the statesmen of easy in- ternatlonal morality"
 Breach Was DishonorabIe.
 Indefensible and scandalous others are, there is no phase of this lamentable affair from it's inception to it's close which is more dishonorable and more grossly perversive of moral rectitude than the breach of the treaty of 1S46. By that treaty the United States guaranteed to Colom- bia against all foreign nations including themselves the territory of the isthmus, yet contrary to the broad spirit of this obligation the administration through sham revolution has seized and appro- priated the property.
 In consideration of the guaranty by the United States of the territory and neu- trality of the isthmus, Colombia guar anteed not only the freedom of trans.t across it but other extensive and val1- able rights and privileges wholly dis tinct from .--e isthmus. If it be said in legal fiction that under present conditions the right of free transit comes from Pan- anna 1t remains true that the United States are holding Colombia to all other grants and privileges of the treaty when lne consideration for them has absolute ly failed.
 Can Bring No Pride.
 The contemplation of the course pursued by the administration in this great emerg- ency can bring neither satisfaction nor pride to an American citizen. Admitting