Senator Sherman, who as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations has charge of the bill, says that he will present it at the extra session of the Senate, which will be called on March 5th by the new President.
It is said that the Nicaragua Canal Bill has been the real means of preventing the Senate from arriving at any conclusion about the Treaty this session.
Senator Morgan has been working very hard to convince the Senate of the importance of settling the Canal question before the Treaty is ratified, and has at last succeeded.
He has been very clever about it. He announced to the Senate, some days ago, that in consequence of the amount of business that must be got through before the end of the session, he was willing to let his bill stand over till the extra session. He warned the Senate, at the same time, that when the extra session came, he should fight for his bill with all his strength, and do his best to have it made into a law.
This looked as though the Senator had made way for the Treaty, and did not really care so much about his bill being passed before the Treaty was ratified.
But that was not Mr. Morgan's idea at all.
He withdrew his bill because he did not want to have it hurried through, and voted on carelessly, and perhaps lost. He withdrew it the more willingly because he had a nice little scheme in his head, which would easily prevent the Treaty being passed before the extra session, when he would again be on hand with his bill.
His plan was this:
He would unearth the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, confront the Senate with that, and as it deals very directly with matters that concern both arbitration and the canal, Senator Morgan was sure that it would give the Senate enough food for discussion to last it through this session of Congress, without touching the Treaty again.
The Clayton-Bulwer treaty was made between Great Britain and the United States in 1850.