The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

140
THE PANAMA CANAL
treaty was perpetual and no method was provided for its
termination, the treaty remained in force until mutually
abrogated.
THE TREATY RATIFIED
Early in the twentieth century a convention was arranged
by Secretary of State John Hay and Lord Pauncefote, British
ambassador at Washington, which resulted in giving the
former sole power and right to construct and control the
Nicaragua Canal. Many delicate questions of interest were
involved on both sides, but all were so wisely adjusted that
both parties ratified the treaty.
On the Qth of January, 1902, the House of Representatives
passed a bill providing for the construction of a canal across
the Isthmus to Nicaragua. The vote was almost unanimous,
being 30S yeas to 2 nays. In the Senate, after some debate,
the Spooner bill giving the preference to the Panama route
was passed June igth, by a vote of 42 yeas to 38 nays. The
substitute was accepted by the House of Representatives June
26th, and signed by the President June 28th.
The action of the United States Congress in passing the
Spooner substitute for the Nicaragua Canal bill adopted by
the House, was the result of a supplementary report made by
the canal commission on the i8th of January, 1902. In its first
report, made November [6, 1901, the commission recommended
the Nicaragua route for the reason that the demands
of the French Panama canal company were too exorbitant.
On the 4th of January, 1902, the French bondholders of the
Panama route offered their rights, interests and plant to the
United States for $40,000,000. The United States then offered
Colombia, Panama being one of the states of that confedera-
tion, $10,000,000 upon the ratification of the Hay-Herran treaty.