THE MONROE DOCTRINE 355 



ration of the several American states, each, however, acting 

 for and binding only itself, that within the limits of their 

 respective territories no new European colony will here- 

 after be allowed to be established." 



On the question of the interoceanic canal, should it come 

 before them for consideration, they were to take the stand 

 that " If the work should ever be executed so as to admit 

 of the passage of sea vessels from ocean to ocean, the bene- 

 fits of it ought not to be exclusively appropriated to any one 

 nation, but should be extended to all parts of the globe upon 

 the payment of a just compensation or reasonable tolls." 



The Congress of Panama assembled on the 22d of June, 

 1826, but neither of the American representatives was pres- \ 

 ent. Mr. Anderson, one of the commissioners, was Minister 

 at Bogota at the time of his appointment to Panama ; he 

 died on his way to attend the meeting. The other Ameri- 

 can delegate, Mr. Sargent, had been so long delayed by the 

 lengthy debate in Congress over the expediency of his mis- 

 sion that he was unable to effect his departure from the 

 United States in time to be present. 



The Panama Congress proved to be a fiasco ; neither the i 

 United States, Chili, Brazil, nor Buenos Ayres was repre- 

 sented, and without the cooperation of these, the largest and I 

 most important states of the Western Hemisphere, the reso- 

 lutions of the Congress necessarily reached a " lame and im- 

 potent conclusion." The more soul-inspiring and magnificent 

 the utterances of the few delegates present at the convention, 

 the more ridiculous they appeared. A treaty of perpetual 

 union and confederation, a sort of offensive and defensive 

 alliance, was entered into by the delegates the purpose 

 being to pledge all the American states to aid each other in 

 maintaining their own integrity. Of all the states repre- 

 sented, Colombia alone ratified the treaty. Indeed, had the 

 delegates of the United States been in attendance at the con- 

 ference, they could not have subscribed to the resolutions 

 that were adopted. 



A resolution to meet again the following year in jSouiii 

 was only responded to by the two United States 



