ial
effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with view to these effects
alone it would be to the last degree important for us immediately to
begin it. While its beneficial effects would perhaps be most marked upon
the Pacific Coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic States, it would also
greatly benefit other sections. It is emphatically a work which it is
for the interest of the entire country to begin and complete as soon as
possible; it is one of those great works which only a great nation can
undertake with prospects of success, and which when done are not only
permanent assets in the nation's material interests, but standing
monuments to its constructive ability.

I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this
subject with Great Britain, conducted on both sides in a spirit of
friendliness and mutual good will and respect, have resulted in my being
able to lay before the Senate a treaty which if ratified will enable
us to begin preparations for an Isthmian canal at any time, and which
guarantees to this Nation every right that it has ever asked in
connection with the canal. In this treaty, the old Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, so long recognized as inadequate to supply the base for the
construction and maintenance of a necessarily American ship canal, is
abrogated. It specifically provides that the United States alone shall
do the work of building and assume the responsibility of safeguarding
the canal and shall regulate its neutral use by all nations on terms of
equality without the guaranty or interference of any outside nation from
any quarter. The signed treaty will at once be laid before the Senate,
and if approved the Congress can then proceed to give effect to the
advantages it secures us by providing for the building of the canal.

The true end of every great and free people should be self-respecting
peace; and this Nation most earnestly desires sincere and cordial
friendship with all others. Over the entire world, of recent years, wars
between the great civilized powers have become less and less frequent.
Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous peoples come in an entirely
different category, being merely a most regrettable but necessary
international police duty which must be performed for the sake of the
welfare of mankind. Peace can only be kept with certainty where both
sides wish to keep it; but more and more the civilized peoples are
realizing the wicked folly of war and are attaining