MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING, IN RESPONSE TO A RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE OF JANUARY 23, 1900, A REPORT FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE WITH ACCOMPANYING PAPERS, COPIES OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, IN RELATION TO THE PANAMA CANAL AND TO THE TREATY BETWEEN THIS GOVERNMENT AND NEW GRANADA, CONCLUDED DECEMBER 12, 1846. MARCH 21, 1900.-Read, referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and ordered to be printed. To the Senate: In response to the resolution of the Senate of January 23, 1900, requesting the President" if, in his opinion, it is not incompatible with the public interest, to furnish the Senate with copies of the correspondence with the Republic of Colombia, in relation to the Panama Canal and to the treaty between this Government and New Granada, concluded December twelfth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, not heretofore communicated," I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State with accompanying papers. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 21, 1900. WILLIAM MCKINLEY. To the PRESIDENT: The undersigned, the Secretary of State, to whom the President referred for consideration and report a resolution adopted in the Senate of the United States on the 23d of January last, reading as follows: Resolved, That the President be, and he is hereby, requested, if in his opinion it is not incompatible with the public interest, to furnish the Senate with copies of the correspondence with the Republic of Colombia, in relation to the Panama Canal, and to the treaty between this Government and New Granada, concluded December twelfth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, not heretofore communicated; Has the honor to submit to the President the following report and collected copies of correspondence, which appear to meet the intent of the resolution, to the end that, in the President's discretion, they may be communicated to the Senate in response to its call. The correspondence which has been heretofore communicated to the Senate, and to which the resolution is believed to refer specifically, is fully contained in Senate Executive Documents No. 112, Forty-sixth Congress, second session; No. 194, Forty-seventh Congress, first session; No. 26, Forty-eighth Congress, first session, and Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 12, Forty-eighth Congress, second session. The first three of these documents are conveniently reprinted in a volume entitled "Correspondence in relation to the proposed interoceanic canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine," which compilation, besides containing much correspondence with other governments in relation to the subjects mentioned in its title, is believed to reproduce substantially the correspondence had with the Republic of Colombia as defined in the resolution. A copy of that reprint is annexed hereto for convenient reference. The Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 12, Forty-eighth Congress, second session, which gives extracts from the few dispatches received from Mr. George Maney, then minister resident in Colombia, bearing on the general subjects of the canal and the treaty of 1846, has not been so reprinted. A copy thereof is annexed. Since the date of these two Senate documents the annual volumes giving a selection of the diplomatic correspondence of this Government, under the title of "Foreign Relations of the United States," have contained nearly all the correspondence had with the Government of Colombia and with the United States minister at Bogota in relation to the transisthmian project and to the obligations and stipulations of the treaty of 1846 between the United States and Colombia. Indeed, so full has been the publication in this regard that a careful search through the archives since 1878 shows only a few unpublished papers which might even remotely be deemed to relate to the subjects of the present Senate resolution. All the correspondence printed in those volumes and not contained in or appearing subsequently to the two Senate executive documents above mentioned have been collected as an accompaniment to this report, adding thereto all such pertinent documents as have not heretofore been printed by authority of either House of the Congress. This collection is herewith submitted as a full and substantial response to the request of the resolution. Respectfully submitted. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, JOHN HAY. Washington, March 19, 1900. LIST OF PAPERS. Correspondence in relation to the proposed interoceanic canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine, being a reprint of Senate Ex. Docs. No. 112, Forty-sixth Congress, second session; No. 194, Forty-seventh Congress, first session, and No. 26, Forty-eighth Congress, first session. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 12, Forty-eighth Congress, second session. Mr. Dichman to Mr. Evarts, August 14, 1878. Mr. Dichman to Mr. Evarts, No. 17, October 30, 1878. Mr. Dichman to Mr. Evarts, No. 48, February 15, 1879. Mr. Evarts to General Santo Domingo, February 15, 1881. General Santo Domingo to Mr. Evarts, February 18, 1881. Mr. Becerra to Mr. Blaine, May 7, 1881. Project of protocol submitted by Colombian minister, General Santo DomingoVila. Counter-project from the Department. Memorandum of the Department of State on the Colombian project and counterproject. Translation of papers published by authority of the Colombian Government in Diario Oficial, Bogotá, May 27, 1881. Mr. Blaine to Mr. Maney, No. 3, July 25, 1881. Mr. Scruggs to Mr. Frelinghuysen, No. 80, April 9, 1883. Mr. Becerra to Mr. Bayard, April 2, 1885. Mr. Becerra to Mr. Bayard, April 4, 1885. Mr. Becerra to Mr. Bayard, April 4, 1885. Mr. Bayard to Mr. Becerra, April 6, 1885. Mr. Scruggs to Mr. Bayard, No. 201, April 16, 1885. |