EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, December 10, 1884_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit herewith to the Senate, for consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty signed on the 1st of December with the Republic
of Nicaragua, providing for the construction of an interoceanic canal
across the territory of that State.
The negotiation of this treaty was entered upon under a conviction that
it was imperatively demanded by the present and future political and
material interests of the United States.
The establishment of water communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of the Union is a necessity, the accomplishment of which,
however, within the territory of the United States is a physical
impossibility. While the enterprise of our citizens has responded to the
duty of creating means of speedy transit by rail between the two oceans,
these great achievements are inadequate to supply a most important
requisite of national union and prosperity.
For all maritime purposes the States upon the Pacific are more distant
from those upon the Atlantic than if separated by either ocean alone.
Europe and Africa are nearer to New York, and Asia nearer to California,
than are these two great States to each other by sea. Weeks of steam
voyage or months under sail are consumed in the passage around the Horn,
with the disadvantage of traversing tempestuous waters or risking the
navigation of the Straits of Magellan.
A nation like ours can not rest satisfied with such a separation of its
mutually dependent members. We possess an ocean border of considerably
over 10,000 miles on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and, including
Alaska, of some 10,000 miles on the Pacific. Within a generation the
western coast has developed into an empire, with a large and rapidly
growing population, with vast, but partially developed, resources.
At the present rate of increase the end of the century will see us a
commonwealth of perhaps nearly 100,000,000 inhabitants, of which the
West should have a considerably larger and richer proportion than now.
Forming one nation in interests and aims, the East and the West are more
widely disjoined for all purposes of direct and economical intercourse
by water and of national defense against maritime aggression than are
most of the colonies of other powers from their mother country.
The problem of establishing such water communication has long attracted
attention. Many projects have been formed and surveys have been made of
all possible available routes. As a knowledge of the true topical
conditions of the Isthmus was gained, insuperable difficulties in one
case and another became evident, until by a process of elimination only
two routes remained within range of profitable achievement, one by way
of Panama and the other across Nicaragua.
The treaty now laid before you provides for such a waterway through the
friendly territory of Nicaragua.
I invite your special attention to the provisions of the convention
itself as best evidencing its scope.
From respect to the independent sovereignty of the Republic, through
whose cooperation the project can alone be realized, the stipulations of
the treaty look to the fullest recognition and protection of Nicaraguan
rights in the premises. The United States have no motive or desire for
territorial acquisition or political control beyond the present borders,
and none such is contemplated by this treaty. The two Governments unite
in framing this scheme as the sole means by which the work, as
indispensable to the one as to the other, can be accomplished under such
circumstances as to prevent alike the possibility of conflict between
them and of interference from without.
The canal is primarily a domestic means of water communication
between the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the two countries which unite
for its construction, the one contributing the territory and the other
furnishing the money therefor. Recognizing the advantages which the
world's commerce must derive from the work, appreciating the benefit of
enlarged use to the canal itself by contributing to its maintenance and
by yielding an interest return on the capital invested therein, and
inspired by the belief that any great enterprise which inures to the
general benefit of the world is in some sort a trust for the common
advancement of mankind, the two Governments have by this treaty provided
for its peaceable use by all nations on equal terms, while reserving to
the coasting trade of both countries (in which none but the contracting
parties are interested) the privilege of favoring tolls.
The treaty provides for the construction of a railway and telegraph
line, if deemed advisable, as accessories to the canal, as both may be
necessary for the economical construction of the work and probably in
its operation when completed.
The terms of the treaty as to the protection of the canal, while
scrupulously confirming the sovereignty of Nicaragua, amply secure that
State and the work itself from possible contingencies of the future
which it may not be within the sole power of Nicaragua to meet.
From a purely commercial point of view the completion of such a waterway
opens a most favorable prospect for the future of our country. The
nations of the Pacific coast of South America will by its means be
brought into close connection with our Gulf States. The relation of
those American countries to the United States is that of a natural
market, from which the want of direct communication has hitherto
practically excluded us. By piercing the Isthmus the heretofore
insuperable obstacles of time and sea distance disappear, and our
vessels and productions will enter upon the world's competitive field
with a decided advantage, of which they will avail themselves.
When to this is joined the large coasting trade between the Atlantic
and Pacific States, which must necessarily spring up, it is evident that
this canal affords, even alone, an efficient means of restoring our flag
to its former place on the seas.
Such a domestic coasting trade would arise immediately, for even the
fishing vessels of both seaboards, which now lie idle in the winter
months, could then profitably carry goods between the Eastern and the
Western States.
The political effect of the canal will be to knit closer the States now
depending upon railway corporations for all commercial and personal
intercourse, and it will not only cheapen the cost of transportation,
but will free individuals from the possibility of unjust
discriminations.
It will bring the European grain markets of demand within easy distance
of our Pacific States, and will give to the manufacturers on the
Atlantic seaboard economical access to the cities of China, thus
breaking down the barrier which separates the principal manufacturing
centers of the United States from the markets of the vast population of
Asia, and placing the Eastern States of the Union for all purposes of
trade midway between Europe and Asia. In point of time the gain for
sailing vessels would be great, amounting from New York to San Francisco
to a saving of seventy-five days; to Hongkong, of twenty-seven days;
to Shanghai, of thirty-four days, and to Callao, of fifty-two days.
Lake Nicaragua is about 90 miles long and 40 miles in greatest width.
The water is fresh, and affords abundant depth for vessels of the
deepest draft. Several islands give facilities for establishing coaling
stations, supply depots, harbors, and places for repairs. The advantage
of this vast inland harbor is evident.
The lake is 110 feet above tide water. Six locks, or five intermediate
levels, are required for the Pacific end of the canal. On the Atlantic
side but five locks, or four intermediate levels, are proposed. These
locks would in practice no more limit the number of vessels passing
through the canal than would the single tide lock on the Pacific end,
which is necessary to any even or sea-level route.
Seventeen and a half miles of canal lie between the Pacific and the
lake. The distance across the lake is 56 miles, and a dam at the mouth
of the San Carlos (a tributary of the San Juan), raising the water level
49 feet, practically extends the lake 63 miles to that point by a
channel from 600 to 1,200 feet wide, with an abundant depth of water.
From the mouth of the San Carlos (where the canal will leave the San
Juan) to the harbor of Greytown the distance is 36 miles, which it is
hoped may by new surveys be shortened 10 miles.
The total canal excavation would thus be from 43-1/2 to 53-1/2 miles,
and the lake and river navigation, amounting to 119 miles by the present
survey, would be somewhat increased if the new surveys are successful.
From New York to San Francisco by this route for sailing vessels the
time is ten days shorter than by the Panama route.
The purely pecuniary prospects of the canal as an investment are
subordinate to the great national benefits to accrue from it; but it
seems evident that the work, great as its cost may appear, will be a
measure of prudent economy and foresight if undertaken simply to afford
our own vessels a free waterway, for its far-reaching results will, even
within a few years in the life of a nation, amply repay the expenditure
by the increase of national prosperity. Further, the canal would
unquestionably be immediately remunerative. It offers a shorter sea
voyage, with more continuously favoring winds, between the Atlantic
ports of America and Europe and the countries of the East than any other
practicable route, and with lower tolls, by reason of its lesser cost,
the Nicaragua route must be the interoceanic highway for the bulk of the
world's trade between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
So strong is this consideration that it offers an abundant guaranty for
the investment to be made, as well as for the speedy payment of the loan
of four millions which the treaty stipulates shall be made to Nicaragua
for the construction of internal improvements to serve as aids to the
business of the canal.
I might suggest many other considerations in detail, but it seems
unnecessary to do so. Enough has been said to more than justify the
practical utility of the measure. I therefore commit it to the Congress
in the confident expectation that it will receive approval, and that by
appropriate legislation means may be provided for inaugurating the work
without delay after the treaty shall have been ratified.
In conclusion I urge the justice of recognizing the aid which has
recently been rendered in this matter by some of our citizens. The
efforts of certain gentlemen connected with the American company which
received the concession from Nicaragua (now terminated and replaced by
this international compact) accomplished much of the preliminary labors
leading to the conclusion of the treaty.
You may have occasion to examine the matter of their services, when such
further information as you may desire will be furnished you.
I may add that the canal can be constructed by the able Engineer Corps
of our Army, under their thorough system, cheaper and better than any
work of such magnitude can in any other way be built.