Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/57

 Rh significance for the American secretary and is by no means one of the least of his titles to fame.

A treaty relating to an interoceanic canal was drafted by Secretary Hay and forwarded to the senate February 5, 1900. This was known as the Hay-Pauncefote treaty and specified the relations which England and the United States should hold regarding the projected canal. The tenor of this treaty was quite generally misunderstood at the time and led to attacks on Mr. Hay for what was termed his excessive friendship for England. But the history and purpose of the proposed treaty were grievously misinterpreted. Instead of being an unfair concession to Great Britain it was a distinct surrender on her part of undue advantage conceded to her by the impracticable Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850, which for half a century had steadily blocked the way to the building of a canal. The measure, with some amendments, was ratified by the senate on December 20, 1900, by the decisive vote of fifty-five to eighteen. It failed to become operative, however, through the neglect of the British Government to respond within the time specified.

Not discouraged by this bit of ill fortune Mr. Hay at once began negotiations with Lord Pauncefote for a new treaty on the same lines, which was signed November 18, 1901, and ratified by the senate on the sixteenth of December of the same year by an almost unanimous vote.

A treaty was then made by Mr. Hay with the Colombian Legation in Washington which the Bogota Government refused to ratify. The consequence of this action was a revolution in Panama by which that state gained its independence. The final treaty, by virtue of which the United States acquired the right to build a canal across the Isthmus, was negotiated by Mr. Hay with the Minister of Panama, Mr. Bunau-Varilla, signed on November 18,1903, and ratified by the senate February 23,1904.

Meanwhile the "open-door" policy with China had been announced by Secretary Hay in a letter to the powers maintaining spheres of influence in that country, bearing date September 6, 1899, and inviting expressions as to their intentions and views concerning the desirability of measures to secure equal facilities for all nations in foreign trade throughout the empire. This formal announcement of a common policy, which could not be legitimately denied by the powers, since it demanded nothing but simple justice