GATUN MIDDLE LOCK, LOOKING SOUTH FROM EAST BANK.
These four reasons operating, no doubt caused the Colombian Senate to refuse ratification to the Hay-Herran treaty.
But in Panama the people and the authorities were determined not to submit to the action of the Colombian Senate. The Panamanians were aware of the fact that the President of the United States had been authorized by Congress to make a choice between either the French Panama or the Nicaraguan route, and that under that authority he would at once proceed to close a contract with the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua if he could not secure a canal zone. They also realized that if once the American Government began the work of excavating a canal through Nicaraguan and Costa Rican territory, in all human probability, the French Panama Company’s project would be abandoned.
Thus the cities of Colon and Panama, and the territory surrounding, would be relegated to obscurity so far as world’s trade was concerned, for many years. This the Panamanians were determined to prevent if possible, so they took every step necessary to inaugurate and successfully carry out a revolution in case of the refusal of the Colombian Government to ratify the Hay-Herran treaty. They sent Dr. Varilla as their representative to New York and instructed him to remain in close touch with the cable, and should he receive a cablegram that Panama had thrown off her allegiance to Colombia and had resumed her old-time independence, he should proceed at once to Washington, D. C., notify President Roosevelt of the fact, demand recognition of the new Republic of Panama as an independent power, and enter at once into negotiations with the United States for the recognition of that independence and the transfer of a canal zone.
The New Republic of Panama
This program was carried out later on. The Panamanians had very little trouble in overawing the few Colombian officers within their territory. They knew that the Colombian Government had no navy, from the fact that a year before the Colombian navy had been sent to the City of Panama to coerce the authorities there who were disputing with the Colombian Government over some items of revenue which were an issue; and meeting force with force the authorities of the City of Panama had succeeded, with the assistance of a small tug-boat and one piece of cannon, in sweeping the seas of the entire Colombian naval power, and as evidence of their success the two masts of the Colombian navy were sticking up out of the mud-banks of Panama Bay.
Nor were the inhabitants of Panama or Colon much concerned as to a possible attack from a Colombian army. That would entail a long march of hundreds of miles through morass and jungle, and could not be successfully accomplished in less than a year’s time. And so the Panamanians were free to act in their purposes of securing independence without danger of very much interference from the home government.
The result of the revolution was very gratifying to the Panamanians. As soon as they learned that the treaty had been refused ratification, they immediately wired to Dr. Varilla at New York. He apparently was at his post waiting the news, for it was whispered in Washington that he took the night train from New York, reached Washington in the morning, and arrived at the White House early in the forenoon. And from all indications President Roosevelt must have been waiting just inside the door to receive him, for it is said that the President was on hand to grasp Dr. Varilla by the hand and welcome him to the White House, and that when he came out two hours later, Panama was virtually recognized as an independent government. Within a few days a treaty was negotiated between Panama and the United States.
Terms of the Treaty
This treaty, called the Hay-Varilla treaty, was ratified in December, 1903. Its terms provided that the sum of ten millions of dollars be paid by the United States to the Government of Panama, and the further sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year for all time, commencing nine years after the ratification of the treaty by both countries. The Republic of the United States was to have absolute title and sovereignty to a strip of land ten miles wide, five miles on either side of the center of the canal prism, extending from Colon to Panama, and three miles out into the water on either side, but without including either of the cities of Colon or Panama within its area.