During the McKinley administration the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was negotiated. Before it was signed Roosevelt had become President. His first public utterance as President was to the effect that he would keep unbroken the policies of William McKinley. Roosevelt kept the faith. The McKinley-Hay canal policy was kept unbroken.

Observe Roosevelt's own statement in its proper setting:

Mr. Hay, in transmitting the Hay-Pauncefote treaty to the President, writes:

"I submit for your consideration * * * a convention * * * to remove any objection which may arise out of the *** Clayton-Bulwer treaty *** without impairing the 'general principle' of neutralization established in Article 8 of that convention."

President Roosevelt, in transmitting the treaty to the Senate, says:

"I transmit, for the advice and consent of the Senate to its ratification, a convention signed November 18, 1901, *** to remove any objection which may arise out of the convention of April 19, 1850, * * * to the construction of such canal under the auspices of the Government of the United States without impairing the 'general principle' of neutralization established in Article 8 of that convention."

The following is the “general principle" as understood at that time by those who negotiated the treaty:

"It is always understood by the United States and Great Britain that the parties constructing or owning the same-the interoceanic communication---shall impose no

other charges or conditions of traffic thereupon than are just and equitable, and that the same canals or railways, being open to the citizens and subjects of the United States and Great Britain on equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the citizens and subjects of every other state."

The "general principle" had the unqualified approval of President McKinley. Note the following by Secretary of State Hay:

"The President was, however, not only willing but desirous that 'the general principle' of neutralization referred to in the preamble of this treaty should be applicable to this canal now intended to be built, notwithstanding any change of sovereignty or of international relations of the territory through which it should pass. This 'general principle' of neutralization had always in fact been insisted upon by the United States."

President Roosevelt kept the faith as stated above. Note the following:

President Roosevelt, in submitting the second HayPauncefote treaty, said:

"It specifically provides that the United States alone shall do the work of building and assume the responsibility of safeguarding the canal and shall regulate its neutral use by all nations on terms of equality without the guaranty of interference of any outside nation from any quarter.'

***

Again, he says, on January 4, 1904, in a special

message:

*** Under the Hay-Pauncefote treaty it was explicitly provided that the United States should control,

police and protect the canal which was to be built, keeping it open for the vessels of all nations on equal terms. The United States thus assumes the position of guarantor of the canal and of its peaceful use by all the world."

In a note by Secretary Hay on the following day, he states:

“*** The Clayton-Bulwer treaty was conceived to form an obstacle, and the British Government therefore agreed to abrogate it, the United States only promising in return to protect the canal and keep it open on equal terms to all nations, in accordance with our traditional policy."

The meaning of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty is made clear in the following by Secretary Hay:

"More direct and convincing is the evidence of Willis Fletcher Johnson, a journalist of the highest standing, who recalls distinctly a conversation with Secretary Hay in 1904 to this effect:

"I asked Colonel Hay plumply if the treaty meant what it appeared to mean on its face, and whether the phrase, 'vessels of all nations,' was intended to include our own shipping, or was to be interpreted as meaning 'all other nations.' The Secretary smiled, half indulgently, half quizzically, as he replied:

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"All means all. The treaty was not so long that we could not have made room for the word 'other' if we had understood that it belonged there. 'All nations' means all nations, and the United States is certainly a nation.' "That was the understanding between yourself and Lord Pauncefote when you and he made the treaty?' I pursued.

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"It certainly was,' he replied. It was the understanding of both Governments, and I have no doubt that the Senate realized that in ratifying the second treaty without such an amendment it was committing us to the principle of giving all friendly nations equal privileges in the canal with ourselves. That is our Golden Rule.'"-Harvey.

Ambassador Choate confirms this construction of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty in the following:

"It is true that I had something to do with the negotiation of this treaty. In the summer of 1901-you will remember that the treaty was ratified by the Senate in November, 1901-I was in England until October and was in almost daily contact with Lord Pauncefote and was also in very frequent correspondence with Mr. Hay, our Secretary of State, under whom I was acting.

"As the lips of both of these diplomatists and great patriots, who were each true to his own country, and each regardful of the rights of others, are sealed in death, I think it is quite proper that I should say what I believe both of them, if they were here, would say today, that the clause in the Panama Canal bill exempting coastwise American shipping from the payment of tolls is in direct violation of the treaty. I venture to say now that in the whole course of the negotiation of this particular treaty, no claim, no suggestion, was made that there should be any exemption of anybody."

It is evident that Roosevelt as President, John Hay as Secretary of State and Joseph H. Choate as Ambassador to Great Britain gave Great Britain to understand and Great Britain did understand when the Hay-Paunce

fote treaty was prepared and proclaimed that the "general principle" found in Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was preserved unimpaired.

The Roosevelt administration gave Great Britain to understand that the United States would construct and operate the canal "for the benefit of mankind on equal terms to all" as the mandatory of civilization. The Taft administration sought to deprive Great Britain of the foregoing right by the tolls-exemption clause of the Panama Canal act. The Wilson administration restored to Great Britain, in the repeal of the tolls-exemption clause of the Panama Canal act, her rights under the HayPauncefote treaty.

President Wilson asked this of Congress in the following message, worthy of the occasion:

"Gentlemen of the Congress: I have come to you upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. No communication I have addressed to the Congress carried with it graver or more far-reaching implications as to the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon a matter with regard to which I am charged in a particular degree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsibility.

"I have come to ask you for the repeal of that provision of the Panama Canal act of August 24, 1912, which exempts vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the justice, the wisdom, and the large policy of such a repeal with the utmost earnestness of which I am capable.