THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 133 



would propose a new basis of settlement, which was, 

 cession of the Bay Islands to Honduras, according to certain 

 conditions to be incorporated in a new treaty between Great 

 Britain and Honduras. 



If the Senate had been unwilling to agree to conditions 

 already known, it was riot to be expected it would accept 

 conditions that were unknown. Nothing short of the un- 

 qualified retrocession of the Bay Islands to Honduras was 

 acceptable ; and, as Great Britain declined to accede to that 

 proposition, the Dallas-Clarendon convention failed of rati- 

 fication (May, 1857). Thus the two powers were thrown 

 back once more upon the unsatisfactory Clayton-Bulwer 

 treaty, with British officers at Greytown, a British protec- 

 torate over Mosquitia, together with British occupation of 

 the Bay Islands, and full sovereignty over Belize. 



In the fall of 1856 Mr. Buchanan was elected President 

 upon a Democratic platform extolling the Monroe Doctrine, 

 and calling for a vigorous foreign policy. He appointed 

 General Cass, Secretary of State, whose radical views upon 

 the subject of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty were well known, 

 as he had upon former occasions in the Senate led his party 

 in fierce opposition to that compact. Mr. Cass immediately 

 concluded an agreement with Nicaragua which made secure 

 American rights along the route of the proposed canal, and 

 further accorded the United States the unrestricted right of 

 transit for troops and munitions of war. The neutrality of 

 the canal was guaranteed, and the influence of both parties 

 pledged toward securing international cooperation toward 

 that desirable end. Great Britain objected to this agreement 

 upon the ground that it violated the Clayton-Bulwer treaty 

 of 1850. It was never ratified. 



Such was the diplomatic situation of the " canal problem " 

 in the fall of 1857, and in accordance with the spirit of his 

 party's platform, the President decided to remove embar- 

 rassment, at once and for all time, by abrogating the Clayton- 

 Bulwer treaty and proceeding thenceforth upon an entirely 

 new basis. "The fact is," the President urged upon Con- 

 gress, " when two nations, like Great Britain and the United 



