156 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



plishment of a particular object, the parties agreed " to extend 

 their protection by treaty stipulations to any other practicable 

 communications, whether by canal or railroad, across the 

 isthmus which connects North and South America, and espe- 

 cially to the interoceanic communications, should the same 

 prove to be practicable, whether by canal or railway, which 

 are now proposed to be established by way of Tehuantepec 

 or Panama." The use of the words "general principle" and 

 "especially" in reference to Tehuantepec and Panama, seem 

 to remove all doubt as to the construction of the treaty. 

 Granville's position was still further strengthened by the 

 general acceptance of this construction of the treaty in the 

 United States for many years following its ratification. 



General Cass, while Secretary of State in 1857, had asserted 

 to Lord Napier that "the United States demanded no exclusive 

 privileges in the interoceanic passages of the isthmus." All 

 of the treaties made since 1850, by Great Britain and the 

 United States with Central American states, acknowledged 

 the principle of joint protection. From one of these American 

 treaties (that of June 21, 1867, with Nicaragua), Lord Gran- 

 ville called attention to the fact that the United States riot 

 only " agreed to extend their protection to all such routes, 

 guarantees," etc., but it did further "agree to employ their 

 influence with other nations to induce them to guarantee such 

 neutrality and protection." Therefore, as the United States 

 had seen fit to pledge itself to the carrying out of that " gen- 

 eral principle " established by the Clay ton- Bui wer treaty and 

 opposed to all ideas of exclusive control, by treaties since 

 made, they could not now consistently fall back upon the 

 Colombian treaty of 1848, as giving them exclusive rights 

 upon the isthmus. 



It was to Mr. Frelinghuysen's contention that certain acts 

 of Great Britain, in violation of the terms of the Clayton- 

 Bulwer treaty, had voided the treaty itself, and liberated the 

 United States from its operations, that Granville especially 

 turned his attention. These alleged acts on the part of 

 Great Britain, it will be recalled, were the conversion of a 

 more restricted right of settlement in Honduras to a full- 



