I have had the advantage of cursorily examining the able and
interesting report on this work by Admiral Davis. It is learned and
instructive, and develops the importance of such a canal to the
commerce of the United States. I need not remind you that California
is necessarily interested, because it is across the Isthmus of Darien
that we reach the distant part of our own country. Therefore this is
to increase and extend the facilities of communication with a part of
our own country. Unhappily, we are obliged to go outside of our own
borders, but I do not know that it becomes on that account any the less
important.
The Senate will easily see not only its practical value, but also its
grandeur in an historical aspect. From the time of Charles the Fifth,
one of the aspirations of Spain, and indeed of all adventurers and
navigators in those seas, has been to find what was often called “the
secret of the strait,” being a natural gate by which to pass from ocean
to ocean. The proposition now is, not to find, but to make, a gate by
which this object may be accomplished.
We may well be fascinated by the historic grandeur of the work; but I
am more tempted by its practical value in promoting relations between
distant parts of our own country and in helping the commerce of the
world. But the pending proposition is simply to provide for surveys.
There is no appropriation for the work. We do not bind ourselves in
the future. Such an appropriation, whether regarded in a practical,
scientific, or historic light, is amply commended. I shall gladly vote
for it.
The amendment was agreed to,--Yeas 22, Nays 13.