[The Senator’s views on his subject are interesting and pertinent in view of recent events on the Isthmus—Ed.]
Chicago, March 26, 1880.
M. Ferdinand de Lesseps.
Dear Sir:
I have just returned to my office from the house of Mr. Washburn, where I had the honor to meet Madame de Lesseps,—an honor and pleasure wholly unexpected to me.
I went to see Mr. Washburn for the purpose of conferring with him in relation to yourself and the great International Canal through the Isthmus of Panama.
Mr. Washburn was absent. But Mrs. Washburn very kindly invited me to stay and lunch with them. As we had been in Congress twelve years together, he in the House, and I in the Senate from Wisconsin, and as our families were so well acquainted at Washington, I could not decline her invitation, especially as it would give me such an opportunity to make the acquaintance of your excellent wife.
But what I wanted to say to Mr. Washburn and have him join me in saying to you, is thus: I am not satisfied with the Message of President Hayes upon the subject of the Isthmus routes.
While I am, as an American citizen, prepared to stand by the Monroe doctrine, so far as it opposes the control of these routes by Great Britain or any other power, I do not think the Monroe doctrine goes so far as to assert that we as the great Republic of the New World propose to take the control into our hands.
While we may be more interested in that route than any other nation, we cannot assert for ourselves what we are unwilling to allow to other nations,—the domination of the route, which, from its position on the earth, of right belongs to all mankind.