In 1837 the Congress of the United States authorized canal surveys to be made and a commission was appointed for the purpose of surveying and exploring the Central American country so that data might be secured that would give the American Congress information as to the practicability of the different routes that might be utilized. From that time on, until today, the subject of Panama Canal construction has been almost constantly before the American Congress.
Of course, action in that body was more or less sporadic. The subject would be taken up from time to time when some pressing need for quicker and cheaper transportation to the Pacific Coast made itself apparent.
In 1846 the United States entered into war with Mexico, which engaged the energies of the nation for the time being and canal legislation was forgotten. After the war with Mexico came the discovery of gold in California, and the rush of the argonauts to the Golden State made it necessary that quicker and cheaper routes be established than those around Cape Horn by water, or the long trail over the plains and mountains to the Pacific Slope. A company was organized in New York which established a line of transportation by means of steamers from New York to Greytown, thence through the San Juan River to the lakes of Nicaragua, and thence by the stage lines to the Pacific Coast, where again vessels were taken for San Francisco Bay and for the coasts of Oregon and Puget Sound.
The Panama Railroad
About the same time a railway company was formed in the United States which secured a concession from the Republic of Colombia for the purpose of constructing the railway system across the Isthmus, which is now known as the Panama Railroad. This railroad was completed in 1856, and this addition to the means of transportation to the Pacific Coast again indefinitely postponed the necessity for canal construction.
In 1861 the United States drifted into the Civil War, and once more the subject of canal construction was forgotten. After the close of the Civil War the transcontinental railroads, headed by the Union and Central Pacific Companies, pushed their lines westward until they reached the Pacific Coast, and as soon as the first railroad had crossed the continent active opposition to canal construction began to show itself in the American Congress.
The transcontinental railroads, fearing opposition in transportation, from that day until the Spooner bill was passed, June 28, 1902, maintained an active lobby at Washington, and whenever canal legislation was suggested, having for its object the construction of an Isthmian Canal at any point, this railroad opposition manifested itself in every form, and no doubt canal construction by the United States was postponed for many years by that agency.
However, in 1889, Congress authorized the incorporation of a company known as the Maritime Canal Company of the United States, and under that authority Hiram Hitchcock, of New York, as president, together with Warner Miller and several other capitalists, proceeded to raise about six million dollars, which was actually used in obtaining franchises and concessions from Costa Rica and Nicaragua for a canal route through these countries. Some money was also spent in doing necessary preliminary work.
The Maritime Canal Company was a favorite in the United States for a great many years, principally because it was championed by Senator J. T. Morgan, of Alabama. Senator Morgan made this the dearest project of his later life, and no doubt his last years of public service were embittered by his failure to secure Government co-operation for the building of the canal through Nicaraguan territory.
