THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 



never comply with the terms of its contract, and they further 

 discovered a willingness on the part of Nicaragua to grant 

 them a concession of their own. Accordingly, in 1898, a 

 canal syndicate-Was formecLin New York City, among whose 

 directors are to be found the names of W. R. Grace, J. D. 

 Crimmins, J. A. McCall, Warner Miller, J. J. Astor, George 

 Westinghouse, D. O. Mills, Levi P. Morton, G. T. Bliss, and 

 many others well known in the financial world. This 

 very substantial association, called the " Grace-E}^re-Cragin 

 Syndicate," at once proceeded to secure a concession from 

 Nicaragua, for which purpose its representatives appeared in 

 Managua in the autumn of 1898. At that particular moment 

 Central America was just reaching the point in the usual cycle 

 of its political affairs, when several of its states were about to 

 merge their own sovereignty into that of a Greater Republic, 

 and their interests were to be united. They were to forswear 

 forever the old bickering and quarrelling in a bond of ever- 

 lasting amity and peace. President Zelaya received the 

 envoys of the newly formed company with marked cordiality. 

 In a special message setting forth the great advantages which 

 would accrue from granting a concession to the newly organ- 

 ized company, he called a special session of Congress for 

 the purpose of considering the validity of the old con- 

 cession of 1887 to the Maritime Canal Company, and the 

 propriety of granting a concession to the new company. 

 The date of the president's message is October 27, 1897. 

 That same day a contract was signed. The next day the 

 Supreme Court pronounced the " Maritime " concession null 

 and void for non-user and other reasons. The 28th and 29th 

 were devoted to discussion of the contract by the Congress. 

 The next day, the 30th, it was accepted by unanimous vote, 

 and the day after it was approved as law. At 12 o'clock 

 that night (October 31) Nicaragua ceased to exist as a 

 sovereign state, and became a part of the Greater Repub- 

 lic of Central America, along with Honduras and San Sal- 

 vador. 



The contract thus hastily secured was considered by all 

 parties to be an actual concession infuturo, to take effect on 



