Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [144]
Roosevelt, flattered, promised to oblige.
THE COLOMBIAN MINISTER for Foreign Affairs was mystified by Hay’s cable. What was this threatened “action” by the United States—something directly aggressive, or just reversion to a Nicaragua Canal? Beaupré did not know, and the State Department sent no clarification. Thirty years of foreign-policy experience had taught Hay to keep his opponents guessing. “There are three species of creature,” he liked to quip, “who when they seem coming, are going: diplomats, women, and crabs.”
That same day, 13 June, Roosevelt sat in private conference with William Nelson Cromwell. It was not his habit to receive lobbyists. But Mark Hanna had strongly urged the meeting, and after Walla Walla he wanted to be accommodating. The glossy little lawyer had made himself indispensable in all canal matters, darting with bright-eyed, bumblebee quickness among every possible source of pollen. Cromwell had spies in Bogotá, paid agents in Colón and Panama City, political supporters in Washington, and financial backers in Paris and New York. Every infusion of news, every fresh pledge of funds was more honey in his hive. Roosevelt’s stiff petals yielded to his fervor.
For a half hour before lunch, and two hours that afternoon, they went over every aspect of the canal situation. Cromwell thought that President Marroquín favored the treaty, but did not have enough political strength to oppose the will of the Colombian Congress. If Marroquín recommended ratification, there might be a coup by antitreaty forces; if he advised against, he risked the secession of Panama.
Roosevelt told Cromwell that he was “determined” to build a Panama Canal, and would tolerate no trickery by Colombia; if the treaty was rejected, and Panama seceded, he would “strongly favor” dealing with the new republic.
This was all the lobbyist needed to hear. He walked out into the fresh June evening. White sails crept down the Potomac; somewhere a baseball crowd was roaring. Washington had shut for the summer. Only its insatiable press corps lingered. Cromwell felt that pleasant loosening of the lips known to all Executive Office visitors, particularly those who think they have prevailed on the President. Full as he was of news, he did not dare to leak it directly. Instead, he briefed an aide who had close connections to the New York World. Overnight, an uncannily prophetic article ground out of the Pulitzer press:
NEW REPUBLIC MAY ARISE TO GRANT CANAL
The State of Panama Ready to Secede
if the Treaty is Rejected by the Colombian Congress
ROOSEVELT IS SAID TO ENCOURAGE THE IDEA
Washington, June 13—President Roosevelt is determined to have the Panama Canal route. He has no intention of beginning negotiations for the Nicaragua route.
The view of the President is known to be that as the United States has spent millions of dollars in ascertaining which route is most feasible; as three different Ministers from Colombia have declared their Government willing to grant every concession for the construction of a canal, and as two treaties have been signed granting rights of way across the Isthmus of Panama, it would be unfair to the United States if the best route be not obtained.
Advices received here daily indicate great opposition to the canal treaty at Bogotá. Its defeat seems probable.… Information has also reached this city that the State of Panama, which embraces all the proposed canal zone, stands ready to secede from Colombia and enter into a canal treaty with the United States … giving this Government the equivalent of absolute sovereignty over the canal zone. The city of Panama alone will be exempted.… In return the President of the United States should promptly recognize the new Government, when established,