814 



UNITED STATES. 



are called upon by any principle of equity to : 

 those provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 



I may then state the President's views on the whole 

 subject, which I do with an assurance that they will 

 meet with a candid consideration from Lord Gran- 

 ville, and with the hope that they may be substan- 

 tially concurred in by her Majesty's Government. 



The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was concluded to se- 

 cure a thingwhich did not exist and which now never 

 can exist. It was to secure the construction of a canal 

 under the grant of 1849 from Nicaragua that the 

 United States consented to waive the exclusive and 

 valuable rights which had been given to them ; that 

 they consented to agree with Great Britain that they 

 would not occupy, fortify, colonize, or assume domin- 

 ion over any part of Central America, and that they 

 consented to admit her Majesty's Government at some 

 future day to a share in the protection which they 

 have exercised over the Isthmus of Panama. 



The Government and people of the United States, 

 though rich in land and industry, were poor in money 

 and floating capital in 1850. The scheme for a canal, 

 even without the complications of the Mosquito pro- 

 tectorate, was too vast for the means of the Americans 

 of that day, who numbered then considerably less 

 than one half of their numbers to-day. They went 

 to England, which had what they had not, surren- 

 dered their exclusive privileges, offered an equal share 

 of all they had in those regions, in order, as ex- 

 pressed in the seventh article of the treaty, " that no 

 time should be unnecessarily lost in commencing and 

 constructing the said canal." Through no fault of 

 theirs time was unnecessarily lost, the work was never 

 begun, and the concession failed. 



The President does not think that the United States 



revive 

 which 



were specially applicable to the concession of August, 

 1849, and apply them to any other concession which 

 has been since or may hereafter be made. The con- 

 ditions of 1882 are not those of 1852. The people of 

 the United States have now abundance of surplus 

 capital for such enterprises, and have no need to call 

 upon foreign capitalists. The legislative branch of 

 the Government of the United States may also desire 

 to be free to place the credit of the United States at 

 the service of one or more of these enterprises. The 

 President does not feel himself warranted in making 

 any engagement or any admission respecting the ex- 

 tinct provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty which 

 would prevent or interfere with such a purpose. On 

 the contrary, frankness requires him to say that, as 

 the persons who held the grant which the United 

 States understood to be accepted by the two govern- 

 ments under the provisions of the treaty have not 

 "carried out the proposed enterprise," the United 

 States esteem themselves competent to refuse to afford 

 their protection, jointly with Great Britain, to any 

 other persons or company, and hold themselves free 

 hereafter to protect any interoceanic communication 

 in which they or their citizens may become inter- 

 ested in such way as treaties with the local sovereign 

 powers may warrant and their interests may require. 



There are some provisions of the treaty which the 

 President thought might be advantageously retained. 

 With this purpose the present correspondence was 

 opened by the note to you of the 19th November last, 

 in which these points were indicated. The President 

 is still ready, on the part of the United States, to 

 agree that the reciprocal engagements respecting the 

 establishment of a free port at each end of whatever 

 canal may be constructed shall continue in force, and 

 to define by agreement the distance from either end 

 of the canal where captures may be made by a bel- 

 ligerent in time of war, and with this definition thus 

 made to keep alive the second article of the treaty. 

 He hopes that Lord Granville, on future considera- 

 tion, may not be averse to revising his opinion that 

 such agreements would not be beneficial. 



To the suggestion made by Lord Granville, at the 

 close of his note of January 7th, that the United 

 States should take the initiative hi an invitation to 

 other powers to participate in an agreement based 



upon the convention of 1850, the President is con- 

 strained, by the considerations already presented, to 

 say that the United States can not take part in ex- 

 tending such an invitation, and to state with entire 

 frankness that the United States would look with 

 disfavor upon an attempt at a concert of political 

 action by other powers in that direction. 



It is not necessary to observe that there is no pro- 

 vision of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty which authorizes 

 Great Britain to invite or obliges the United States to 

 accept the aid of other nations to protect or to guar- 

 antee the neutrality of the Panama route. 



Fortunately the want of harmony in the views of 

 the two governments can have at present no injurious 

 influence. No canal yet exists across the Isthmus, 

 and in the natural course of events some time must 

 elapse before one can be constructed ; meanwhile the 

 points of divergence between her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment and that of the United States may disappear. 

 The President hopes that, long before the subject be- 

 comes one of practical importance, her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment may be brought to sec that the interests of 

 Great Britain and the United States in this matter 

 are identical, and are best promoted by the peaceful 

 policy which he has marked out for this country. 



The most authentic information regarding 

 the progress of the work of constructing the 

 canal at Panama is to be found in a report by 

 Lieutenant Rodgers, of the United States Navy, 

 who by order of Admiral Cooper passed over 

 the line late in the year, and examined the 

 plans and condition of the work. In a brief 

 recapitulation of the progress made he said : 

 "The engineers and other employes of the 

 company arrived in Aspinwall at the begin- 

 ning of 1881. The line of the canal was not 

 then fixed, nor was any part of it cleared ; no 

 docks and but little property belonged to the 

 company, so that it was extremely difficult to 

 lodge the employes and to receive the material. 

 In brief, it may be said that wharves have been 

 constructed, ground purchased or made, large 

 quantities of machinery received and put up, 

 villages and workshops built along the line, 

 hospitals erected at Panama and Aspinwall, 

 the line of the canal definitely fixed and its 

 route cleared to a width of 100 metres, and 

 that the work of excavation, which has been 

 delayed by the slow arrival of the necessary 

 machinery, will, within a month, be begun at 

 several points." Lieutenant Rodgers found 

 about 1,500 to 1,600 workmen and navvies em- 

 ployed, at wages varying from $1.20 to $2 per 

 day. Several contracts had been made for the 

 excavation of portions of the canal, and a large 

 amount of machinery, including heavy steam 

 dredges, had been procured for the work of ex- 

 cavation under the company's own directio" 

 From conversation with the officers of the 

 pany, as well as with others acquainted with 

 fairs on the Isthmus, and from personal obser 

 tion of the works, drawings, and plans, Liei 

 enant Rodgers drew the following conclusi< 



"That the preliminary work of fixing 

 clearing the route, of erecting docks, quartei 

 machine-shops, machinery, rolling-stock, et< 

 and the accumulating of material and person- 

 nel have been so far advanced that the work of 

 excavation will be vigorously begun by the be- 

 ginning of the next dry season ; that the work 



