In this treaty, the old Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, so long recognized as inadequate to supply the base for the
construction and maintenance of a necessarily American ship canal, is
abrogated. 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 or interference of any outside nation from
any quarter. The signed treaty will at once be laid before the Senate,
and if approved the Congress can then proceed to give effect to the
advantages it secures us by providing for the building of the canal.
The true end of every great and free people should be self-respecting
peace; and this Nation most earnestly desires sincere and cordial
friendship with all others. Over the entire world, of recent years, wars
between the great civilized powers have become less and less frequent.
Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous peoples come in an entirely
different category, being merely a most regrettable but necessary
international police duty which must be performed for the sake of the
welfare of mankind. Peace can only be kept with certainty where both
sides wish to keep it; but more and more the civilized peoples are
realizing the wicked folly of war and are attaining that condition of
just and intelligent regard for the rights of others which will in the
end, as we hope and believe, make world-wide peace possible.
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