704 Presidential Addresses 



members next May to approve the treaty. [An 

 eminent Colombian] has the perfect confidence of 

 vice-president, he says, and if it became necessary 

 will go to the Isthmus or send representative there 

 to adjust matters along above lines to the satisfac- 

 tion of the people there." 



This despatch is noteworthy from two standpoints. 

 Its offer of immediately guaranteeing the treaty to 

 us is in sharp contrast with the positive and con- 

 temptuous refusal of the Congress which has just 

 closed its sessions to consider favorably such a 

 treaty; it shows that the government which made 

 the treaty really had absolute control over the situa- 

 tion, but did not choose to exercise this control. The 

 despatch further calls on us to restore order and 

 secure Colombian supremacy in the Isthmus from 

 which the Colombian Government has just by its 

 action decided to bar us by preventing the construc- 

 tion of the canal. 



The control, in the interest of the commerce and 

 traffic of the whole civilized world, of the means of 

 undisturbed transit across the Isthmus of Panama 

 has become of transcendent importance to the United 

 States. We have repeatedly exercised this control 

 by intervening in the course of domestic dissension, 

 and by protecting the territory from foreign inva- 

 sion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian 

 minister that we should not hesitate to maintain the 

 neutrality of the Isthmus in the case of war between 

 Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has 

 always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges 



