Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America; nor will make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have to or with any state or people for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortification." Moreover, that "vessels of the United States or Great Britain traversing the said canal shall, in case of war between the contracting parties, be exempted from blockade, detention, or capture by either of the belligerents; and that this promise shall extend to such a distance from the two ends of the said canal as may hereafter be found expedient to establish"; that "they will guarantee the neutrality thereof, so that the said canal may for ever be open and free"; and that they "will invite every state with which both or either have friendly intercourse to enter into stipulations with them similar to those they have entered into with each other."
This is solid American ground. These deliberate and explicit declarations of both Houses of Congress and of the treaty-making powers of Government must be taken as expressing the national conviction—1. That the construction of a canal at the American Isthmus is an open project to be entered upon by any "capitalists," "individuals," or "companies" that may undertake it; 2. That it is a great international work to be under the joint control of the nations; and, 3. That the international protectorate is to be secured by treaty arrangements which it is proper for the President of the United States to initiate.
This is the just and honorable historic position of the American Government, and, as we may fairly assume, of the American people, in relation to this great enterprise. It is a definite and explicit line of public policy which has been variously and repeatedly proclaimed without protest or dissent. We have recognized the great desirableness of the interoceanic canal for this country, and its importance to the world; and we have pledged the faith of the republic to cooperate with other nations in affording international security to whatever individual or company would carry out the work.
Ferdinand de Lesseps now comes forward and offers to construct the canal. He is no dreamer, but a man of action. He has had experience in this work, and means business. Fortified by the almost unanimous approval of a large convention, which represented the best engineering skill of the age, he has determined the plan and route of a canal that he thinks will best meet the demands of the future; and stakes his reputation upon its practicability. M. de Lesseps's character gives seriousness to the proposition, and probably brings the measure nearer a practical realization than it has ever been before. It is a question that can not much longer be postponed.
And now come grave intimations that the American Government is to reverse its historic policy on the Isthmian Canal question. The honorable and consistent ground it has hitherto maintained is to be abandoned, faith is to be broken, pledges repudiated, and treaties abrogated. The canal is not to be controlled by international law, and the coöperation of maritime nations, but it must be exclusively controlled by the United States. Whoever makes it, and whoever pays for it, we are to seize it and hold it whenever we please. A select committee of the House of Representatives on the Interoceanic Canal has unanimously recommended the immediate adoption of the following joint resolutions:
