And State Papers 697 



obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the 

 Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world 

 whose commercial rights we are safeguarding and 

 guaranteeing by our action. We have done our duty 

 to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown 

 the utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights. 

 Last spring, under the act above referred to, a 

 treaty concluded between the representatives of the 

 Republic of Colombia and of our Government was 

 ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into 

 at the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia 

 and after a body of experts appointed by our Gov- 

 ernment especially to go into the matter of the routes 

 across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in 

 favor of the Panama route. In drawing up this 

 treaty every concession was made to the people and 

 to the Government of Colombia. We were more 

 than just in dealing with them. Our generosity was 

 such as to make it a serious question whether we had 

 not gone too far in their interest at the expense of 

 our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all 

 possible heed, not merely to the real but even to the 

 fancied rights of our weaker neighbor, who already 

 owed so much to our protection and forbearance, we 

 yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing 

 up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Co- 

 lombia not merely repudiated the treaty, but repu- 

 diated it in such manner as to make it evident by 

 the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not 

 the scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satis- 

 factory treaty from them. The Government of Co- 



