“Sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse of the great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust relations as would prevent their general use.”

We had again and again been forced to intervene to protect the transit across the Isthmus, and the intervention was frequently at the request of Colombia herself.  The effort to build a canal by private capital had been made under De Lesseps and had resulted in lamentable failure.  Every serious proposal to build the canal in such manner had been abandoned.  The United States had repeatedly announced that we would not permit it to be built or controlled by any old-world government.  Colombia was utterly impotent to build it herself.  Under these circumstances it had become a matter of imperative obligation that we should build it ourselves without further delay.

I took final action in 1903.  During the preceding fifty-three years the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia, had been in a constant state of flux; and the State of Panama had sometimes been treated as almost independent, in a loose Federal league, and sometimes as the mere property of the Government at Bogota; and there had been innumerable appeals to arms, sometimes of adequate, sometimes for inadequate, reasons.  The following is a partial list of the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in question, as reported to us by our consuls.  It is not possible to give a complete list, and some of the reports that speak of “revolutions” must mean unsuccessful revolutions: 

May 22, 1850.—­Outbreak; two Americans killed.  War vessel demanded to quell outbreak.

October, 1850.—­Revolutionary plot to bring about independence of the Isthmus.

July 22, 1851.—­Revolution in four Southern provinces.

November 14, 1851.—­Outbreak at Chagres.  Man-of-war requested for
Chagres.

June 27, 1853.—­Insurrection at Bogota, and consequent disturbance on
Isthmus.  War vessel demanded.

May 23, 1854.—­Political disturbances.  War vessel requested.

June 28, 1854.—­Attempted revolution.

October 24, 1854.—­Independence of Isthmus demanded by provincial legislature.

April, 1856.—­Riot, and massacre of Americans.

May 4, 1856.—­Riot.

May 18, 1856.—­Riot.

June 3, 1856.—­Riot.

October 2, 1856.—­Conflict between two native parties.  United States force landed.

December 18, 1858.—­Attempted secession of Panama.

April, 1859.—­Riots.