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you should now dedicate your attention and the powerful mind with which you 
are endowed to the execution of the Enterprise contained in the present repre- 
sentation and to which is annexed the project I have conceived for forming a 
communication between the two oceans. 
By this your Excellency will see that I propose to execute this gigantic work 
in a very short time, considering the magnitude of the Enterprise ; and I ask 
not the least pecuniary assistance from Government, and from the commence- 
ment, 1 offer to the National Treasury, a considerable revenue, viz. one fourth 
of the transit duties on the line of the route; and these will, after the term of fifty 
years, belong wholly to the Republic. 
What I ask as an indemnification of expenses is certainly not much, when it 
is considered that it will be necessary to form forts, raise fortifications, and other 
edifices, and open roads or canals ; and when it is borne in mind that the indem- 
nification does not consist in any funds of which the government is at present 
possessed, but in property to which 1 am about to create a value. 
The value hereafcer of the lands of which I solicit a grant, will be the conse- 
quence of my efforts, for at the present day they have none whatever. 
The enterprise could not be undertaken by any person for less than what I 
have solicited, because the magnitude of the works will be such as probably to 
absorb all the resources arising from what I ask. 
Your Excellency cannot fail to remark two very striking features in my pro- 
ject. First : the establishment of the neutrality of the line of transit — this is a 
point worthy of the magnanimity of government, and necessary to interest all 
nations ; in order that the communication may not be seized by any foreign 
power, but be ever preserved as the property of the Republic. Secondly: that 
I have not proposed to open immediately a Ship Canal across the Isthmus ; 
because I have seen similar proposals fall to the ground in other parts of Cen- 
tral America and Columbia: Often the desire of carrying into execution a mag- 
nificent undertaking is the cause why a lesser one though highly important, has 
been neglected. 
Convinced that it has been well said that by " seeking perfection we lose what 
may be attainable," I have resolved to carry the latter into effect, without how- 
ever renouncing my hopes of accomplishing the former; although a commu- 
nication by water may not be practicable for the present, this will infallibly take 
place when the Isthmus shall become known from the commerce of the world 
traversing it, when the advantage of giving to this grand work all the perfec- 
tion of which it is capable shall be duly appreciated, and when both sides of the 
line shall be dotted with rich and populous cities, as will certainly happen in a 
fe'.v years. 
Let this be enumerated among the acts of your Excellency's public life, and 
your name will not only belong to the glory of your Country, but will be identi- 
fied with the best interests of mankind, and immortalized by an imperishable 
monument. Tlie whole world will receive incalculable benefits ; and what ad- 
vantages will not accrue to Mexico in particular, when the accomplishment of 
this undertaking shall make her the centre of universal commerce giving a vast 
impulse to the elements of her terrestial wealth undeveloped at present from 
the little intercourse she enjoys with the splendour and industry of Europe? 
