closed by that land. Means were, indeed, not wanting to obtain this end, but at this juncture the United States began to interfere with England's plans, and henceforth the struggle over the canal route was to be between these two great rivals for western prestige. I' CHAPTER IX. THE CONFLICT ON THE ISTHMUS. T was the strong stand taken by the Democrats in their convention of 1844 which really brought about the annexation of Texas, though Tyler, the Whig President, signed the necessary resolution. Having thus practically courted a war with Mexico, its prosecu- § 72. The tion was left entirely in the hands of Acquisition the incoming Democratic administration, of California President Polk, moreover, proved thor Effect on oughly capable of the immediate task our Transit thus set before him, and received due credit for the victory gained over our American antagonist. and its Problem. Indeed, where Spanish-America alone was concerned, the President appeared more than eager to establish our national prestige. A dispute arose at this time between the Indians and whites in Yucatan, and, though there was no immediate question of European interference on the peninsula, still Polk took occasion to call the attention of Congress to the matter, and indulged in a vigorous expression of the Monroe doctrine to further emphasize his policy towards the Americas. Withal the British kept us down to the fortyninth parallel in the Northwest, in spite of previous Democratic protests to the contrary; and, as for England's endeavors to checkmate us on the isthmus as well,-to these Polk paid not the slightest attention. Later on, when it was too late, he pleaded ignorance of the British plans; but this excuse showed "culpable negligence" at the very least. Our State Department had all along been fully cognizant of the doings of Macdonald and his band, and as early as November 12, 1847, Mr. Buchanan, Polk's Secretary of State, had received notice from the Nicaraguan government, of Lord Palmerston's threat against the San Juan. Receiv ing no reply to this first diplomatic note, the Supreme Director of Nicaragua, Don José Querra, then appealed directly to the President for aid. Still no action was taken in the matter despite the earnest solicitations of our consul in Nicaragua, Mr. J. W. Livingston, who was enabled to furnish his chief at Washington with a detailed exposition of the British plans fully a month before their final execution. Thus Polk lost his signal opportunity of asserting the Monroe doctrine in the face of actual British aggression on the isthmus; and only after matters had gone too far, did the American people begin to appreciate the true significance of such pusillanimity. California was now ours, to be sure, with all its magnificent extent of western seaboard; but was it not after all but an out-post, and extremely difficult to defend? The "great American desert" running through our new lands, and flanked all along by the rugged Rocky Mountain range, was then deemed impossible for ordinary travel; and this difficulty was rendered the more aggravating by the untoward political and economic conditions of the time. Serious trouble was already brewing between the Northern and Southern States of the Union, and it was thus doubly important for the Democratic government at Washington to ally this newly acquired western territory more closely to its strongholds in the South and its late conquests in the Southwest. The discovery of gold in California, furthermore, induced an immense tide of immigration from the East, to these rich fields of new wealth, and the stream continued to increase alarmingly. Inconvenience and danger attended both the toilsome journey across the plains, and the perilous voyage around the Horn; and thus the people, too, began to clamor for some better means of transit to the West. Some visionaries in Congress suggested camels, but, to the practical men of the day, isthmian transit of some kind seemed the only adequate solution of the problem. Thus all eyes were once more turned toward the American isthmus. Capitalists of the North, imbued with the quick commercial instinct, saw in the new conditions an opportunity of reaping rich profits by establishing immediate lines of transit across this narrow strip of land between the seas. Our Democratic statesmen also made haste to renew the country's old-standing friendship for the SpanishAmerican states of the isthmus, in the hopes of securing political control along the routes that were to be adopted. Deeming it best not to test matters on the Central American isthmus, at least until other routes of transit had proved inadequate, both our § 73. American Opera- government and our capitalists turned their first attention toward the Tehuantepec tions in Tehuantepec. route. We had nothing to fear there, at any rate, as we had just defeated Mexico, and, consequently, might well expect to acquire valuable transit rights across her territory under the terms of the treaty of peace we were just about to conclude. The topography of this isthmus had come to be much better known of late through the surveys undertaken by an Italian engineer, Don Gaetano Moro, who had been sent out some time before by a Mexican promoter, Don José de Garay. Garay had received valuable concessions for the construction of an interoceanic railway across Tehuantepec from Santa Anna's government, and in 1842 had proceeded to take advantage of his rights by instituting these surveys. Instruments of precision were used by Moro and his party, and, as a result, a seemingly favorable route was laid out over Tarifa pass, for either a railway as proposed, or for a canal of small dimensions with many locks.1 1 The proposed canal was to be 50 miles long and to have 161 locks. Estimated cost $17,000,000. |