THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 127 



trust. The numerous failures thereafter to harmonize their 

 conflicting interests had only aggravated the situation ; both 

 governments were more than ever ill disposed to grant 

 favors or yield a point in Central America. In fact, the 

 situation called for the most careful diplomacy, if their dif- 

 ferences were to be settled upon a peaceful footing; but 

 with an offensive bluntness, the British Government com- 

 mitted an act which, it must have foreseen, could only be 

 accepted by the United States as one of unwarranted aggres- 

 sion and in direct violation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. 

 The people of the United States were filled with indigna- 

 tion. The election of 1852 had brought the Democratic 

 party into power, and the new administration if for party 

 reasons only was strongly anti-British. 



When Congress convened in December, the Seriate at once 

 called for all the correspondence relating to British advances 

 in Central America, and General Cass of Michigan intro- 

 duced a resolution, asking, "What measures, if any, have 

 been taken by the Executive to prevent the violation of 

 Article I of the Treaty of July 4, 1850?" On January 4 

 (1853), the President sent a copy of such correspondence to 

 the Senate, which included the letters exchanged by Mr. 

 Clayton and Sir Henry Bulwer just before the concluding 

 ceremonies of the treaty. Then, it appeared for the first 

 time, that the full meaning of that instrument, with its 

 fatal reservation, was understood in the Senate. The scene 

 that followed in that chamber was sensational. One after 

 another of the senators arose to denounce, in the most vigorous 

 language, the treaty, Mr. Clayton, the preceding Whig 

 administration and Great Britain. 



A resolution was drafted by the Foreign Affairs Committee 

 to the effect that England's title to Belize was worthless, 

 and that her occupation of the Bay Islands, and her position 

 in Mosquitia were in direct violation of the terms of the treaty 

 and in defiance of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine. 

 The debate which followed upon the presentation of this 

 resolution was characterized by an intemperate display of 

 partisan feeling that has not often been equalled in the Sen- 



