The Need for an American Canal

Our Government has repeatedly asserted the necessity for the canal, and that it would look with extreme hostility upon its being built or owned or dominated by a foreign Power.

Continuing USA Acquires Rights to Build the Panama Canal.
Today we begin the second part of the series with our selection from Speech to the US Senate by Chauncey M. Depew delivered on January 14, 1904. The selection is presented in 5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Chauncey M. Depew (1834-1928) was an US Senator and President of the New York Central Railroad.

Previously in USA Acquires Rights to Build the Panama Canal.

Time: 1903

The most interesting and vitally important question to the American people is the construction of the Isthmian Canal. There is absolute unanimity of opinion for the work to be begun, prosecuted, and completed at the earliest possible moment. Piercing the Isthmus of Darien is no new idea. It has appealed to statesmen for hundreds of years, and now, four centuries after Columbus sailed along the coast of the isthmus trying to find the opening which would let him into the Pacific, the completion of his dream is near at hand. Charles V was the ablest ruler of his century. The power of Spain under him and his successor included Cuba and Porto Rico, territories on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, and the isthmus of Darien and the Philippine Islands. His knowledge of geography was limited because of the meagre discoveries of his period, but he did see that here was an opportunity for an eastern and western empire by connecting the two oceans, and he set about energetically to accomplish the task.

Before his plans had matured he was succeeded by his son, that phenomenal bigot and tyrant, Philip II. He declared that it was sacrilege to undo what God had created, and therefore wicked to cut through the mountains for a canal. For three hundred years the wall of superstition built by this monarch pre vented the union of the oceans. The initiative was with the United States, whose people are opposed to the opinions of King Philip, and believe the duty of man is to exploit, develop, utilize, and improve the waste places of the world — the air, the water, and the earth. As early as the administration of John Quincy Adams, our statesmen saw the necessity for this work, and it was encouraged by almost every succeeding administration. It originated the American idea of Henry Clay and has always been a bulwark of the Monroe Doctrine.

In the past fifty years our Government has repeatedly asserted the necessity for the canal, and that it would look with extreme hostility upon its being built or owned or dominated by a foreign Power. The discovery of gold in California and the rush of our people to the Pacific coast in 1849 opened the eyes of all Americans to the necessity of the United States controlling this highway between our eastern and western States. We made treaties with Great Britain to encourage private enterprise to do this work, and to prevent any European Power from undertaking it. Our necessity was so great that we permitted without protest the French canal company of De Lesseps to proceed with their work. After the failure of that company and of private enterprises on the Nicaragua route, the duty of our Government became clear.

When we succeeded to the inheritance of Charles V, by the possession of California, by the acquisition of Porto Rico, by the establishment of a friendly republic in Cuba, and by the acquisition of Hawaii midway and the Philippines at the gates of the Orient, the responsibility upon us to construct this canal was as much greater than it was upon that monarch as has been the growth of commerce and civilization from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. For national defense, as well as national unity, there must be an unbroken line of coast from the northern most limits of Maine to the northernmost limits of Alaska. For the employment of our capital and our labor in the ever – increasing surplus of our productions, we must reach, with the advantages which the canal would give us, the republics of South America and the countless millions in the countries across the Pacific.

The Republic of Colombia, recognizing this need, sent here a diplomatic representative carrying a proposition. With scarcely any modification on our part this tentative agreement presented by Colombia was embodied in the Hay-Herran Treaty. In that instrument was the most generous treatment of all interests to be acquired. We were to buy the plant and the properties of the French company for forty million dollars. We were to give to Colombia ten million dollars for a franchise which would be of in calculable benefit to that country. While we were permitted to exercise certain powers within a zone six miles wide for the protection of the canal, yet the sovereignty over that strip was recognized in every line of the treaty as remaining with Colombia. This concession was a weakness in the treaty for our interests.

The excuse for this concession was that our power was so great our interests could never be imperiled. There is no enlightened government in the world, whose financial condition is not strong enough to construct through its territories a public improvement of such vast moment to its people, which would not grant freely the right to build to any company or government that would spend their millions to confer upon its citizens commerce, trade, industries, and development. This Colombian treaty, agreed to by the President, approved by the Secretary of State, and ratified by the Senate of the United States, was carried back to Bogota by the Colombian Minister. Then began upon the stage of that capital a drama of unequalled interest, whether we look upon it as tragedy, comedy, or opera bouffe. Marroquin, the Vice-President, had three years before, by a revolution, imprisoned the President, suspended the constitution, established martial law, and begun ruling as dictator.

A. Maurice Low began here.

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