And State Papers 705 



conferred by the treaty, expressed its expectation 

 that in the event of war between Peru and Spain the 

 United States would carry into effect the guarantee 

 of neutrality. There have been few administrations 

 of the State Department in which this treaty has 

 not, either by the one side or the other, been used 

 as a basis of more or less important demands. It 

 was said by Mr. Fish in 1871 that the Department 

 of State had reason to believe that an attack upon 

 Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on sev- 

 eral occasions, been averted by warning from this 

 Government. In 1886, when Colombia was under 

 the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti 

 case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that 

 the United States could not but feel, that a European 

 power should resort to force against a sister republic 

 of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and uninter- 

 rupted use of a part of whose territory we are guar- 

 antors under the solemn faith of a treaty. 



The above recital of facts establishes beyond ques- 

 tion : First, that the United States has for over half 

 a century patiently and in good faith carried out its 

 obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that 

 when for the first time it became possible for Co- 

 lombia to do anything in requital of the services thus 

 repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven years by the 

 United States, the Colombian Government peremp- 

 torily and offensively refused thus to do its part, 

 even though to do so would have been to its advan- 

 tage and immeasurably to the advantage of the State 

 of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, 



