Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-25

|
to confiscate the s40,00O,0O0 worth of
property of the company and take from
the United States for themselves, in
payment for it, the 10000, 900 we had
agreed to pay the company. The re-
| port of the committee on which the
Colombian Senate acted contained the
following:
By the S1st of October of next year
that is to say, when the next Con-
gress shall have met in ordinary ses-
sion-the extension will have expired,
and every privilege Nyith it. In that
case the Republic will become the pos
SCISSOR and owner, without any need of
Z previous judicial decision and with
out any indemnity, of the canal itself,
and of the adjunctS that belong to it,
according to the contracts of 1873 and
| 1900.
| When that time arrives the Republic,
without any impeachment, will be able
to contract and Will be in more clear,
more definite and more advantageous
possession both legally and materially.
The authorizations which would then
be given by the next Congress would be
very different from those that would
be given by the present one.
| Ey becoming party to this scheme
we might indeed have looked forward
TO the time when, the appetite OF
Colombia being satisfied at the expense
OF the unfortunate stockholders of the
| French Company, we could proceed
| with the work; but such a course was
! too repugnant to the sense of justice
| that obtains in every civilized COM
| munity TO be for q moment cOntem-
plated. We had yielded to the last
| point, beyond reason and justice, in
agreeing TO pay for a privilege to which
we We're already entitled and we could
not, with self-respect, submit to be
nulcted further. We could negotiate
no further Rejection of the treaty was
| practically a veto of the canal. Every
effort was made to bring Colombia to Il
realization of what it WAS that she was
doing; the effort was in vain, and on
! the 31st of October, when the
Colombian Congress adjourned, the
| inchoate treaty had expired by limita-
! ton.
The questions presented to the United
States by this rejection We're of the
eTavest Importance. Lewis Cass,
Secretary of State, said in 1858:
The progress of events has rendered
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 the Pacific coasts, and
demand the speediest and easiest modes
OF communication. While the rights of
sovereignty of the State occupying this
region should always be respected, We
| shall expect that these rights be eX-
ercised in a spirit BETTING the occasion
and the wants and circumstances that
have arisen. Sovereignty has it's duties
as we'll as its rights, and none of these
local Governments, even if adminiS-
tered with more regard to the Just de-
mands of other nations than they have
been. would be permitted in a spirit of
eastern isolation to close the gates OF
intercourse Oh 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 cucumber them
with such unjust relations as would
prevent their general use.
The time had apparently come to
stand upon this declaration or abandon
| the canal. The question was. Should
we submit to be deprived of the canal
at the will of Colombia, whose SOW
ereiSnty was justly subject to the
worlds right of passage? Should we
| continue to maintain upon the isthmus
that feeble sovereignty whose existence
had depended for half century upon
our protection, in order that it might
still bar the way of the worlds pro-
gresS and the exercise of our just
rights? Should we prepare to protect
that sovereignty in its scheme of
spoliation, against the justly indignant
protests of France surely coming to
the support of the stockholders of the
French canal company? Or should we
say to Columbia. you have 10 right to
prey ent the construction of this canal;
you are bound to consent to it upon
| reasonable terms; but your request we
have assumed a position in which we
are bound to build it for the use of the
nations and in which we are entitled to
build it for our own interest; and we
shall now proceed to build it with due
regard for your interests. whether you
agree upon the terms and conditions or
not.
l think that Secretary Cass answered
the question forty-fve years ago. In
Europe q concert of the Powers would
| have made short work of the question.
In Central America they would have
| made short work of it but for the
Monroe Doctrine. to which New
Granada appealed, and the protection
which we guaranteed to her under the
| treaty of 1Si6. By the assertion of that
doctrine and the engagements of that
treaty we took the responsibility upon
ourselves alone, to do for civilization
what otherwise all the maritime
Powers would have united in requiring;
1t was for us alone to act; and l have
no question that our right and duty
were to build the canal, with or without
the consent of Colombia.
These were the conditions existing when
| the revolution of Nov. happened To
an understanding of that revolution n
knowledge of the character and history of
Panama is essential. Some uniformed
persons have assumed that it was merely
number of individual citizens of Colon
I IL ls,,.