THE TREATY OBLIGATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 

 RELATING TO THE PANAMA CANAL. 



By CHARLEMAGNE TOWER. 



(Read April 17, 1913.) 



I beg leave to call to the attention of the society a subject which 

 has been considerably discussed of late, in Congress and throughout 

 the country, and cannot be considered in any sense to be new ; but, 

 in spite of this fact, and of a certain familiarity which it has acquired 

 in men's minds from frequent mention, I am inclined to the thought 

 that it can scarcely be too plainly or too forcibly brought before the 

 sober consideration of the American people, — the international obli- 

 gations undertaken by the United States in the treaties relating to 

 the Panama Canal. 



The subject of a canal across the narrow strip of land that joins 

 the two continents is one, indeed, that is nearly contemporaneous 

 with the discovery of America ; for its advantages made themselves 

 evident even to the earliest explorers and navigators, who, upon 

 returning to Spain, in 1528 — more than 150 years before William 

 Penn entered the Delaware, — presented to the Emperor Charles V. 

 a plan for the opening of a waterway through the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama ; a project that never was lost sight of and which acquired 

 greater importance to us, both from our political and commercial 

 point of view, after our separation from Great Britain and the estab- 

 lishment of our independent nationality. 



In 1826, Mr. Clay, then Secretary of State, wrote, in connection 

 with a Congress at Panama : 



" A cut or canal for purposes of navigation somewhere through the isth- 

 mus that connects the two Americas, to unite the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, 

 will form a proper subject of consideration. That vast object, if it should 

 be ever accompHshed, will be interesting, in a greater or less degree, to all 

 parts of the world." 



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