If existing
treaties between the United States and other nations or if the rights
of sovereignty or property of other nations stand in the way of this
policy--a contingency which is not apprehended--suitable steps should
be taken by just and liberal negotiations to promote and establish the
American policy on this subject consistently with the rights of the
nations to be affected by it.
The capital invested by corporations or citizens of other countries in
such an enterprise must in a great degree look for protection to
one or more of the great powers of the world. No European power
can intervene for such protection without adopting measures on this
continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If
the protection of the United States is relied upon, the United States
must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect
its national interests and maintain the rights of those whose private
capital is embarked in the work.
An interoceanic canal across the American Isthmus will essentially
change the geographical relations between the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts of the United States and between the United States and the rest
of the world. It would be the great ocean thoroughfare between our
Atlantic and our Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the coast
line of the United States.
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