COPYRIGHT, 1890, 1891; BY THE FORUM PUBLISHING CO. ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 80 & 82 WEST 13TH STREET NEW YORK The Forum. MARCH, 1891. THE NICARAGUA CANAL. No other measure of public policy now submitted to the people of the United States is of such wide-reaching importance as the proposed construction of the Nicaragua Canal, and it is the duty of the organs of public opinion to state the elements of the problem that it offers, so that their readers may intelligently judge whether the United States should aid in its execution, and, if so, to what extent and in what manner. Hitherto such questions as this have been hidden under the cloak of diplomacy; but now, by the action of the Senate in removing the injunction of secrecy from negotiations with foreign powers, this great measure is open to the inspection of the American people, and is submitted to their judgment. By a treaty, signed on December 1, 1884, between the United States and the republic of Nicaragua, provision was made for the construction by the United States of an inter-oceanic canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the territory of that republic. It was sent to the Senate on December 10, 1884, accompanied bya message from President Arthur recommending its ratification in strong and earnest language; but it was not formally acted upon prior to the inauguration of President Cleveland, on March 4, 1885. Mr. Cleveland, a few days thereafter, formally withdrew the treaty from the consideration of the Senate, and, in his Copyright, 1890, by the Forum Publishing Company. |