Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
power of self-government and vested it in Columbia. The _coup d'etat_
of Maroquin took away from Colombia herself the power of government and
vested it in an irresponsible dictator.
Consideration of the above facts ought to be enough to show any human
being that we were not dealing with normal conditions on the Isthmus
and in Colombia. We were dealing with the government of an irresponsible
alien dictator, and with a condition of affairs on the Isthmus
itself which was marked by one uninterrupted series of outbreaks
and revolutions. As for the "consent of the governed" theory, that
absolutely justified our action; the people on the Isthmus were the
"governed"; they were governed by Colombia, without their consent, and
they unanimously repudiated the Colombian government, and demanded that
the United States build the canal.
I had done everything possible, personally and through Secretary Hay,
to persuade the Colombian Government to keep faith. Under the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, it was explicitly provided that the United States
should build the canal, should control, police and protect it, and keep
it open to the vessels of all nations on equal terms. We had assumed the
position of guarantor of the canal, including, of course, the building
of the canal, and of its peaceful use by all the world. The enterprise
was recognized everywhere as responding to an international need. It was
a mere travesty on justice to treat the government in possession of
the Isthmus as having the right--which Secretary Cass forty-five years
before had so emphatically repudiated--to close the gates of intercourse
on one of the great highways of the world. When we submitted to Colombia
the Hay-Herran Treaty, it had been settled that the time for delay,
the time for permitting any government of anti-social character, or of
imperfect development, to bar the work, had passed. The United States
had assumed in connection with the canal certain responsibilities not
only to its own people but to the civilized world, which imperatively
demanded that there should be no further delay in beginning the work.
The Hay-Herran Treaty, if it erred at all, erred in being overgenerous
toward Colombia. The people of Panama were delighted with the treaty,
and the President of Colombia, who embodied in his own person the entire
government of Colombia, had authorized the treaty to be made. But after
the treaty had been made the Colombia Government thought it had the
matter in its own hands; and the further thought, equally wicked and
foolish, came into the heads of the people in control at Bogota that
they would seize the French Company at the end of another year and take
for themselves the forty million dollars which the United States had
agreed to pay the Panama Canal Company.
President Maroquin, through his Minister, had agreed to the
Hay-Herran Treaty in January, 1903. He had the absolute power of an
unconstitutional dictator to keep his promise or break it. He determined
to break it. To furnish himself an excuse for breaking it he devised
the plan of summoning a Congress especially called to reject the canal
treaty. This the Congress--a Congress of mere puppets--did, without a
dissenting vote; and the puppets adjourned forthwith without legislating
on any other subject. The fact that this was a mere sham, and that the
President had entire power to confirm his own treaty and act on it if he
desired, was shown as soon as the revolution took place, for on November
6 General Reyes of Colombia addressed the American Minister at Bogota,
on behalf of President Maroquin, saying that "if the Government of the
United States would land troops and restore the Colombian sovereignty"
the Colombian President would "declare martial law; and, by virtue of
vested constitutional authority, when public order is disturbed, would
approve by decree the ratification of the canal treaty as signed; or, if
the Government of the United States prefers, would call an extra session
of the Congress--with new and friendly members--next May to approve the
treaty." This, of course, is proof positive that the Colombian dictator
had used his Congress as a mere shield, and a sham shield at that, and
it shows how utterly useless it would have been further to trust his
good faith in the matter.
When, in August, 1903, I became convinced that Colombia intended to
repudiate the treaty made the preceding January, under cover of securing
its rejection by the Colombian Legislature, I began carefully to
consider what should be done. By my direction, Secretary Hay, personally
and through the Minister at Bogota, repeatedly warned Colombia that
grave consequences might follow her rejection of the treaty. The
possibility of ratification did not wholly pass away until the close of
the session of the Colombian Congress on the last day of October. There
would then be two possibilities. One was that Panama would remain quiet.
In that case I was prepared to recommend to Congress that we should at
once occupy the Isthmus anyhow, and proceed to dig the canal; and I
had drawn out a draft of my message to this effect.[*] But from the
information I received, I deemed it likely that there would be a
revolution in Panama as soon as the Colombian Congress adjourned without
ratifying the treaty, for the entire population of Panama felt that
the immediate building of the canal was of vital concern to their
well-being. Correspondents of the different newspapers on the Isthmus
had sent to their respective papers widely published forecasts
indicating that there would be a revolution in such event.
[*] See appendix at end of this chapter.
Moreover, on October 16, at the request of Lieutenant-General Young,
Captain Humphrey, and Lieutenant Murphy, two army officers who
had returned from the Isthmus, saw me and told me that there would
unquestionably be a revolution on the Isthmus, that the people were
unanimous in their criticism of the Bogota Government and their disgust
over the failure of that Government to ratify the treaty; and that the
revolution would probably take place immediately after the adjournment
of the Colombian Congress. They did not believe that it would be before
October 20, but they were confident that it would certainly come at the
end of October or immediately afterwards, when the Colombian Congress
had adjourned. Accordingly I directed the Navy Department to station
various ships within easy reach of the Isthmus, to be ready to act in
the event of need arising.
These ships were barely in time. On November 3 the revolution occurred.
Practically everybody on the Isthmus, including all the Colombian troops
that were already stationed there, joined in the revolution, and there
was no bloodshed. But on that same day four hundred new Colombian
troops were landed at Colon. Fortunately, the gunboat _Nashville_, under
Commander Hubbard, reached Colon almost immediately afterwards, and when
the commander of the Colombian forces threatened the lives and property
of the American citizens, including women and children, in Colon,
Commander Hubbard landed a few score sailors and marines to protect
them. By a mixture of firmness and tact he not only prevented any
assault on our citizens, but persuaded the Colombian commander to
reembark his troops for Cartagena. On the Pacific side a Colombian
gunboat shelled the City of Panama, with the result of killing one
Chinaman--the only life lost in the whole affair.
No one connected with the American Government had any part in preparing,
inciting, or encouraging the revolution, and except for the reports of
our military and naval officers, which I forwarded to Congress, no one
connected with the Government had any previous knowledge concerning the
proposed revolution, except such as was accessible to any person who
read the newspapers and kept abreast of current questions and current
affairs. By the unanimous action of its people, and without the firing
of a shot, the state of Panama declared themselves an independent
republic. The time for hesitation on our part had passed.
My belief then was, and the events that have occurred since have more
than justified it, that from the standpoint of the United States it
was imperative, not only for civil but for military reasons, that there
should be the immediate establishment of easy and speedy communication
by sea between the Atlantic and the Pacific. These reasons were not
of convenience only, but of vital necessity, and did not admit of
indefinite delay. The action of Colombia had shown not only that the
delay would be indefinite, but that she intended to confiscate the
property and rights of the French Panama Canal Company. The report of
the Panama Canal Committee of the Colombian Senate on October 14,
1903, on the proposed treaty with the United States, proposed that all
consideration of the matter should be postponed until October 31, 1904,
when the next Colombian Congress would have convened, because by that
time the new Congress would be in condition to determine whether through
lapse of time the French company had not forfeited its property and
rights. "When that time arrives," the report significantly declared,
"the Republic, without any impediment, will be able to contract and will
be in more clear, more definite and more advantageous possession, both
legally and materially." The naked meaning of this was that Colombia
proposed to wait a year, and then enforce a forfeiture of the rights and
property of the French Panama Company, so as to secure the forty million
dollars our Government had authorized as payment to this company. If we
had sat supine, this would doubtless have meant that France would have
interfered to protect the company, and we should then have had on the
Isthmus, not the company, but France; and the gravest international
complications might have ensued. Every consideration of international
morality and expediency, of duty to the Panama people, and of
satisfaction of our own national interests and honor, bade us take
immediate action. I recognized Panama forthwith on behalf of the United
States, and practically all the countries of the world immediately
followed suit. The State Department immediately negotiated a canal
treaty with the new Republic. One of the foremost men in securing the
independence of Panama, and the treaty which authorized the United
States forthwith to build the canal, was M. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, an
eminent French engineer formerly associated with De Lesseps and then
living on the Isthmus; his services to civilization were notable, and
deserve the fullest recognition.
From the beginning to the end our course was straightforward and in
absolute accord with the highest of standards of international morality.
Criticism of it can come only from misinformation, or else from a
sentimentality which represents both mental weakness and a moral twist.
To have acted otherwise than I did would have been on my part betrayal
of the interests of the United States, indifference to the interests of
Panama, and recreancy to the interests of the world at large. Colombia
had forfeited every claim to consideration; indeed, this is not stating
the case strongly enough: she had so acted that yielding to her would
have meant on our part that culpable form of weakness which stands on a
level with wickedness. As for me personally, if I had hesitated to act,
and had not in advance discounted the clamor of those Americans who have
made a fetish of disloyalty to their country, I should have esteemed
myself as deserving a place in Dante's inferno beside the faint-hearted
cleric who was guilty of "il gran rifiuto." The facts I have given
above are mere bald statements from the record. They show that from
the beginning there had been acceptance of our right to insist on free