The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-23

| treaty of 1916 between the United
States and Colombia, and into the po-
litical history of Colombia and Pan
anna. and the canal
AS to the part the United States
took in the revolution, Mr.. Root said:
by all the principles of justice
among men and among nations that
we have learned from our fathers and
all peoples, and all governments should
! maintain, the revolutionists in Pan
| anna were right, the people of Panama
were entitled to be free, the Isthmus
was theirs and they were entitled to
govern it; and it would have been a
shameful thing for the government of
the United States to return them again
to servitude. 1t is hardly necessary
to say now that our government had
no part in devising, -fomenting, or bring
ing about the revolution on the 18TH
mus of Panama.
THE recognition of independence and
the treaty with Panama are the real
| grounds of Colombia's complaint, and
upon the justice of those acts Ameri-
ca stands, fairly, openly, with full dis
closure of every step taken and every
| object sought. Upon the firm founda-
tion of that righteous action, with the
willing authority of the lawful owners
of the soil, we will dig the canal not
for selfish reasons, not for greed of
benefting Colombia most of all. We
shall not get back the money we spend
upon the canal any more than we shall
get back the money we have expend-
ed to make Cuba a free ard indepen-
dent Republic, or the money we have
| expended to set the people Of the Phil
ippines on the path of ordered liberty
and competency for self-government.
But we shall promote our commerce,
we shall unite our Atlantic and Pacific
ws.sts, we shall render inestimable
service to mankind"
At the banquet tonight. after Mr.
Root had responded to a toast. adj
dresses were delivered by Judge
Emory Speer, of the United States
District Court of Georgia and DIR. w.
j. Tucker, president of Dartmouth
College.
Judge Emory Speer of Georgia, in
responding to the toast, 1.-THE Ameri-
can President" said
God send the time when the people
of the North and the South will know
each other better.
May the day hasten when the
Southern people may have the full
sympathy and counsel of their North
ern brethren in all their anxieties and
may they rejoice in the liberty to put
behind them their apprehensions for
the control of their local governments
and for the safety of their loved ones
and their homes. May they feel free
to forever break their solidarity on
national questions, the greatest men
ace of the nation. May they regain
the substance, as well as the form. of
republican government May they ex-
ercise anew at the ballot box the I'M
trammelled franchises of American
freemen and determine for themselves
upon their merits the excellence of
men and the rightfulness of measures
on which the welfare of the nation de-
ponds. These things accomplished, all
things making for the happiness of the
nation a home and its strength and
honor abroad will be added unto us
and the sons forever reunited can Join
anew in the chorus their fathers loved.
for
The union Of lakes, the union of
lands,
The union Of states none can sever.
Inc union of hearts, the union of
hands.
And the flag of our union forever"