The Political Price of Panama
When Democratic senators tried to expose the secrets behind the Panama Canal, they inadvertently revealed a web of European intrigue that bolstered the case for American intervention.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Democratic senators, in an attempt to dig a pit for the President, have dug one for themselves. They earnestly pressed a resolution demanding that the President forward to the Senate all the papers in connection with the Panama Canal and the formation of the Panama Republic. The Republicans in the Senate did not seriously resist this application, but insisted that it be couched in courteous language. The Democrats professed to believe that something to the discredit of the administration would be found in the papers.
In response to this Democratic resolution, the papers are now before the Senate and they disclose that there was a foreign intrigue to prevent the ratification of the Panama Canal treaty by Colombia. It is shown that Germany also tried to secure an island that would afford a strategic point of attack against the canal; that it was largely due to foreign intrigue that the canal treaty was rejected by Colombia; and that the Colombian government was secretly trying to sell out the Panama Canal to Germany.
It appears still further that the presence of the large fleet of American warships at Colon was due to the discovery that France was about to send warships to protect the canal. There was also a showing that there was founded apprehension that some European powers had in contemplation the seizure of Colombian territory on account of Colombia's unpaid debts. The correspondence clearly discloses that some European powers were in active readiness to take advantage of any evidences of weakness or vacillation which our government might have shown; that they were extremely desirous to defeat the construction of the isthmian canal and its control by the government of the United States.
Had our government acted with less promptness and decision, there would have been a peace at Panama, and we would have found ourselves with no canal treaty, no rights on the isthmus, and with the Monroe Doctrine annulled by European action. The courage and promptness with which the administration acted secured every American interest and defeated every European intrigue. These facts would all have remained state secrets, but the Democratic senators have persisted in dragging them to light, to their own discomfiture.
“The Democratic senators, in an attempt to dig a pit for the President, have dug one for themselves.”
This report from 1904 captures a quintessential 'own-goal' in American political history, reflecting the intense partisan maneuvering that still defines our relationship with government transparency today. Much like modern debates over classified intelligence, the paper uses the disclosure to frame a narrative of American exceptionalism and geopolitical survival.
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