l8o EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [478 



Constitution vests in the Senate through the treaty clause. 

 But aside from this, the President's proposed course may, 

 from all appearances, be interpreted as the attempt to direct 

 the American state policy with a perspective, wider and 

 broader than that of the past. 



After the ratification of the treaty of peace between Peru 

 and Chile in March, 1884, which deprived Peru of her rich 

 nitrate and guano provinces, the Congress of Venezuela 

 thus expressed the then prevalent sentiment of condemna- 

 tion of Chile's action: "We solemnly protest against the 

 iniquitous and scandalous usurpation of which Peru and 

 Bolivia are the victims, in spite of their heroism, and we 

 beseech the God of nations to look favorably on the prompt 

 restoration of lawful sovereignty for peace and concord 

 among the sons of America."^® 



At the First International American Conference held in 

 Washington in 1890, the following resolutions were adopted, 

 Chile alone not voting: 



First: That the principle of conquest shall not, during the con- 

 tinuance of the treaty of arbitration, be recognized as admissable 

 under American public law. 



Second: That all cessions of territory made during the contin- 

 uance of the treaty of arbitration shall be void if made under 

 threats of war in the presence of an armed force. 



Third: Any nation from which such cession shall be exacted may 

 demand that the validity of the cessions so made shall be submitted 

 to arbitration. 



Fourth: Any renunciation of the right to arbitration, made under 

 the conditions named in the second section, shall be null and void.'^^ 



Thus among the states of the American continent title 

 by conquest was no longer to be acknowledged, and the way 

 opened for the adoption of the principle that the wishes of 

 the inhabitants of the territory ceded should be consulted. 



It thus seems that President Wilson, in framing his Four- 

 teen Points on the principle of no conquests and popular 

 consent for all territorial settlements, was in reality voicing 

 not only his own political conviction but the summary and 



20 C. R. Markham, History of Peru, Chicago, 1902, p. 425. 

 2^^ International American Conference, Washington, 1889-1890, Re- 

 ports of Committees and Discussions thereon, vol. ii, pp. 1147-1148. 



