ntercourse
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