Doc. No. 73. 



57 



oted colonial policy which still prevails in the management of our public 

 affairs, with only a change of names and rulers? No: we are led astray 

 like children. Let us think like men. Let us work as becomes a brother- 

 hood of republicans. Let us endeavor to promote our welfare by resort- 

 ing to the just and honorable means which are wittiin our reach, and 

 which, until this moment, we have neglected for want of proper knowl- 

 edge. Let us adopt, in one word, that system of action which is recom- 

 mended to us as the safest by the experience of other nations, and which 

 appeals to our conviction by results at once natural and certain. Trusting, 

 therefore, that I shall be listened to with attention and some interest, I 

 proceed at once with the details. 



According to Mr. Radcliff 's own showing, we perceive that, by con- 

 necting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the medium of a ship 

 canal in Nicaragua, such will be the saving of time and distance, such 

 the reduction of expenses and risks in navigation, that all the valuable 

 traffic of Europe and the United States with China, Japan, the Indian 

 Archipelago, Asiatic nations, western America, and the Pacific islands, as 

 well as that of the whale and skin and fur fisheries in the same seas, 

 must pass through this channel. This traffic constitutes an amount of 

 wealth which, as I shall demonstrate hereafter, cannot be less than two 

 hundred and fifty millions of dollars. This enormous sum is only wait- 

 ing for the opening of the canal to flow through our country, paying for 

 the privilege of way a transit duty commensurate with the reduction in 

 the expenses of the voyage, and the interest upon the capital invested in 

 the enterprise. This commerce being the property of other nations, it 

 follows that the amount of money collected in toll duties would be con- 

 tributed by foreigners; and if this sum should suffice to cover the interest 

 on the capital invested in the work, and gradually to cancel the debt it- 

 self, two important results would eventually follow: 



Firstly, That the work would be executed at the expense of foreign 

 commerce, without the least burden being imposed upon the people of 

 Central America. 



Secondly. That, on the final liquidation of the debt, the work and all 

 the products thereof would become the exclusive property of the nation, 

 and the people would be relieved of at least a considerable portion of the 

 taxes necessary to deti-ay the expenses of the government. 



The object of the Nicaragua canal is so comprehensive, that its magni- 

 tude affords an opportunity of carrying out in our own country the great 

 plan of Clinton, but upon a scale of grandeur incomparably superior. I 

 have already mentioned, incidentally, what would be the amount of traffic 

 which, by the lowest calculations, would have to flow through this canal, 

 from the day of its opening. On a subject of this kind, however, indefi- 

 nite statements are not enough . 



England exported, in the course of last year, two hundred millions of 

 pounds weight of cotton fabrics, of every kind and texture, for the 

 Asiatic market. Estimating the average value of the fine and grosser 

 articles at the low rate of three shillings in the pound, we have the sum 

 of seventy -five milHons of dollars. As England receives from Asia a re- 

 turn freight of equivalent value, the whole amount of traffic must have 

 been one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Moreover, England ex- 

 ports into Asia gold,- silver, hardware, and other articles; but, as I have 

 not been supplied with data to estimate their proper value^ I pass by this 



