THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 159 



The results- of the Blaine-Frelinghuysen-Granville con- 

 .troversy greatl displeased the executive; it was unsatis- 

 factory to Congress ; it was regarded as a humiliating defeat 

 by the country at large. The conviction was general in 

 Washington that the United States had been duped in 1850, 

 and had been afterward seduced into the damaging admis- 

 sions, which now arose like ghosts, to frighten the nation into 

 the observance of a self-sacrificing compact. Many believed 

 it to be an exaggerated sense of virtue that bound the nation 

 to the fulfilment of those agreements. Technically, perhaps, 

 it was thought, Great Britain's position in Belize was justi- 

 fied ; but honestly, as the human heart appreciates the word, 

 it was not; Granville's arguments did not seem to ring 

 quite true. 



But especially discontented with the outcome of this cor- 

 respondence was a numerous group of Congressmen, who 

 persistently asserted that the salvation of the United States 

 depended upon the immediate construction of an isthmian 

 canal that should be entirely American in every particular. 

 President Arthur himself had been of this opinion, and he 

 at once entered upon the task of putting his convictions 

 into execution, notwithstanding the unfavorable outcome of 

 the recent diplomatic encounter with Great Britain. Having 

 convinced himself that the Panama Canal (then in process 

 of construction) could never come under the full American 

 control, which he felt to be a necessary condition to his 

 country's safety, he determined that the United States should 

 construct a canal of its own in Nicaragua. Mr. Freling- . 

 huysen prepared the way by concluding a new treaty with 

 Senor Zavala, Special Envoy from Nicaragua (1884). 



This treaty was made in total disregard of the conven- ^ 

 tion of 1850. It established a perpetual alliance between 

 the United States and Nicaragua ; the United States 

 should construct a canal and then maintain an exclusive 

 control over it. A strip of territory upon either side of the 

 route was transferred to the United States in fee simple. 



