The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-17
OPPOSITION TO THE
 RATIFICATION OF TREATY

canal could be cOnStructeo tuOfo uHASnAy by the other route, not Tor these reasons, but simply to obtain the doubtful and dts- puted advantage of one route over the other. - "Mr. President, I shall take Andrew Jackson and not Theodore Roosevelt for my Ruide. When my conduct Is Ques- tioned before my own people I do not doubt what answer will be given by snat proud old State. under whose bosom sleep the ashes of Old Hickory and among whose people his spirit is abroad. Salient points of the speech are as De- low:
 President Roosevelt openly thanked As- distant Secretary Loounis for speech st a dinner in which the latter falsely stated that all the great engineers of the world had declared the Nicaragua route tln- practicabie; this in the face of the decia- ration of the ''very last Canal Commis- sion," upon whose report the spooner iaw was founded, that-duoting tho language of the Commission--''both (Panama ana Nicaragua are entirely feasible and prae" ticable."
 The treat yof ls4s does not bind us not l to TO elsewhere to build canal. else there could have been no excuse Tor the | Spooner law.
 The President had no right of interven- ton, and whenever that assumed right eX0rC1S9Q war, the President ought first to nave | the consent of Congress. President Roosevelt preceded. accom- panied and followed his act recognizing Panama by acts of absolute violence | against Colombia.
 His acts were not simply unfriendly, not simply offensive, not simply a cause or war; they were war.
 There was but one man in that in- surrection, and that man was the Presi- dent of the United States" Colonel Black, the ofsicer of the United States army, who raised the flag of the revolution would never have done so had his act not been approved by the admins | tration.
 War ships of the United States were sent to Panama to keep Colombian troops from landing dn their own soil and they did what they were sent to do. The attempt to dsmonstrate that Colombia has not regarded tha act as an act of war is tho same line of reasoning as if large and strong man should strike a weak and decrepid man, and he did not apear to resent 1t, i tmight be said he was not guilty of an assault and bat tery.
 Secretary Hay had said there should be no civil war nj Panama. Had some of the great nations of Europe come to an agreement and enforced an order that | the United States should send no troops to the territory of the Confederate States in 1881, and. supposing. in order to be fair. l they had said that the Confederate troops | should not bring her troops from any | where else and land them within tue territory of the Confederate States, the Confederacy would have succeeded in an hour.
 The President does not conceal the fact
 
 | does not conceal the fact that he intended to aid 1t fl 1t occurred, and he cannot conceal the fact that he did aid it."
 If the conspirators were permitted fin advance to know that they would have the support of the United states Govern ment and its military power, then this government became a party to the con spiracy and the principal party.
 There was besides the assurance of $1o- of their success.
 No matter what Colombia did or did not do the President is not justified in violating the laws of the United States.
 In the Loomis speech, which the Preai- dent praised, it was stated that 1t was manifest last June that there was no in- tention of ratifying the treaty with Colombia. If that were true then since last June the President had been violating | USSoAAsC that the treaty would not be ratified the President was under obligation to execute | the alternatiev of the statute. | Secretary Hay had even advised Colom- bia that this government meant to execute its own law-the Spocner act. But when Colombia then did not ratify the treaty, the administration suddenly discoveres right to so to Panama ,siezs ColouabIaS | territory.
 This country has for fifty years submit ted to duping by British diplomacy and now flies into a rage with a weak and defenceless nation because of its folly and | indecision.
 The administration is excessively sensi- tive about the rights of the ''conviet" Panama corporation, which had nothing to sell for immense sum of money we proposed to give except concession soon to be dead.
 Insisting that President Roosevelt had needIessiy violated law that he could have observed with honor and profit to the nation. MT. CaRmack gave some lit- tie attention to the reported popular clamor for the canal at any cost. He said:
 MT. President, there has cRme to be an idea more or less prevalent among the people that no question of morals or of law should stand between this mill
 
 desirable object, but never befofs has the doctrine been proclaimed that where an object can be achieved by methods that are lawful and right, or by methods that are unlawful and wrong. it is a matter of indifference which methods shall be pursued.
 q have seen 1t stated again and again in large section of the press of the country that the people of this country want tho canal. and they do not care whether they get 1t by lawful or unlaw- full means. That Is the substance of what they say.
 T do not believe. MT, President, that there Is any such spirit dominating the great body of the American people; but if so, 1t Is a lawIess spirit; it is a spirit of mob violence; 1t is a spirit of anarchy, and no brave and honest man can afford to yield to such a sentiment. What avails 1t that the President thunders his de- nunciation against mob violence and against the growing irreverenee for law and for government, when. from the highest eminence in this land or upon this earth, he sets an example of that | contempt for law which is at tha ront aP