Another historical fact, with which few are familiar, and which shows
the animus of this treaty, is this: In 1849 Mr. Hise, our minister at
Nicaragua, reported to the Honorable Secretary of State that Nicaragua
had offered to the United States, through him, "the exclusive right to
build, maintain, and forever control an inter-oceanic canal across that
republic; and offered to enter into treaty stipulations to that effect."
Mr. Hise strongly urged the acceptance of this offer, and prepared and
forwarded to the State Department a treaty, accepted by the government
of Nicargagua, which confirmed in specified terms the offer of full and
complete control and government of said canal. For reasons best known to
the Department of State, this treaty, called the Hise treaty, was never
accepted or presented to the Senate for ratification and adoption, but
was somehow quietly smothered, and the Clayton-Bulwer co-partnership
treaty reported and adopted in its stead.
It will be seen at a glance, by even the most careless political tyro,
that the Hise treaty was directly in line and accord with the express
principles of the "Munroe Doctrine;" and that it would have given to
this country the exclusive rights, which under the treaty adopted it
must share with its co-partner, Great Britain.
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