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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt:... United States guaranteed, "positively and efficaciously, to New Granada the perfect neutrality of the isthmus, with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea may not be interrupted in any future time while this treaty exists; and, in consequence, the United States also guarantee, in the same manner, the rights of sovereignty and property which New Granada has and possesses over the said territory." 'For full teit see Moore, Digest of International Law, iii, 5. Therefore, we had acquired a controlling influence at Panama which enabled us to play so prominent a part that we might begin to make effective plans for the construction of a canal. Whether we should decide to build it ourselves or whether the work should be done by others, it was quite certain that no canal could be made without our consent.... Our attitude was made plain by the message with which the President submitted this treaty to the Senate, in 1847, for its approval and ratification, in which he announced formally the policy of the United States to develop the communication through the isthmus for the benefit of the commerce of the world at large. Mr. Polk declared that the treaty did not "constitute an alliance for any political object, but for a purely commercial purpose, in which all the navigating nations of the world have a common interest. The ultimate object is to secure to all nations the free and equal right of passage over the isthmus. If the United States should first become a party to this guaranty, it cannot be doubted that similar guarantees will be given to New Granada by Great Britain and France." Though if the proposition should be rejected by the Senate, the President said that "we may deprive the United States of the just influen...