And State Papers 745 



Colombia, then resolved into the States of New 

 Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador, to continue from 

 Bogota to rule over the Isthmus of Panama, is a 

 conception that would in itself be incredible, even if 

 the contrary did not clearly appear. It is true that 

 since the treaty was made the United States has 

 again and again "been obliged forcibly to intervene 

 for the preservation of order and the maintenance of 

 an open transit, and that this intervention has usu- 

 ally operated to the advantage of the titular Gov- 

 ernment of Colombia, but it is equally true that the 

 United States in intervening with or without Colom- 

 bia's consent, for the protection of the transit, has 

 disclaimed any duty to defend the Colombian Gov- 

 ernment against domestic insurrection or against 

 the erection of an independent government on the 

 Isthmus of Panama. The attacks against which the 

 United States engaged to protect New Granadian 

 sovereignty were those of foreign powers; but this 

 engagement was only a means to the accomplish- 

 ment of a yet more important end. The great de- 

 sign of the article was to assure the dedication of the 

 Isthmus to the purposes of free and unobstructed 

 interoceanic transit, the consummation of which 

 would be found in an interoceanic canal. To the 

 accomplishment of this object the Government of 

 the United States had for years directed its diplo- 

 macy. It occupied a place in the instructions to our 

 delegates to the Panama Congress during the Ad- 

 ministration of John Quincy Adams. It formed the 

 subject erf a resolution of the Senate in 1835, and 



