746 Presidential Addresses 



of the House of Representatives in 1839. In 1846 

 its importance had become still more apparent by 

 reason of the Mexican war. If the treaty of 1846 

 did not in terms bind New Granada to grant reason- 

 able concessions for the construction of means of in- 

 teroceanic communication, it was only because it was 

 not imagined that such concessions would ever be 

 withheld. As it was expressly agreed that the United 

 States, in consideration of its onerous guarantee of 

 New Granadian sovereignty, should possess the right 

 of free and open transit on any modes of communi- 

 cation that might be constructed, the obvious intenf 

 of the treaty rendered it unnecessary, if not super- 

 fluous, in terms to stipulate that permission for the 

 construction of such modes of communication should 

 not be denied. 



Long before the conclusion orf the Hay-Herran 

 treaty the course of events had shown that a canal to 

 connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans must be 

 built by the United States or not at all. Experience 

 had demonstrated that private enterprise was utterly 

 inadequate for the purpose; and a fixed policy, de- 

 clared by the United States on many memorable oc- 

 casions, and supported by the practically unanimous 

 voice of American opinion, had rendered it morally 

 impossible that the work should be undertaken by 

 European powers, either singly or in combination. 

 Such were the universally recognized conditions on 

 which the legislation of the Congress was based, and 

 on which the late negotiations with Colombia were 

 begun and concluded. Nevertheless, when the well- 



