officer secured a concession from the Nicaragua government, on the condition that work should be commenced within two years. De Lesseps, realizing the great importance of propitiating the Government of the United States and securing the good will of its people, visited New York and Washington in March, 1880. He was treated as a distinguished guest and cordially received by President Hayes, but the latter shortly afterwards sent a message to the Senate in which he gave it as his opinion that an interoceanic canal by any route should properly be controlled by the United States, and that the United States could not consent to the surrender of the control of such a waterway to any European power. This was a direct slap at De Lesseps' programme, which involved a canal whose neutrality should be guaranteed by a concert of European nations. The Frenchman was shrewd enough to yield on this point with seeming cordiality, but he set about trying to secure his ends by less direct processes. An American board was created, with prominent men composing its personnel, and some of the leading banking houses of the United States were engaged as fiscal agents. Large sums of money were placed at the disposal of these agen cies for the purpose of influencing public opinion through the medium of subsidized newspapers. The immediate result was a campaign against the adoption of the policy advocated by President Hayes and an organized opposition to the Nicaraguan project. UNIL OF MIRAFLORES UPPER LOCKS, LOOKING NORTH FROM BERM CRANE, SHOWING FOREBAY AND CONSTRUCTION CHAPTER III 66 THE PANAMA RAILROAD WITH the sack and abandonment of the old city of Panama, which is described elsewhere in this volume, its once great commerce expired. The new site enjoyed no such facility as the paved road," which had connected Panama Viejo with its Atlantic port. The need of convenient interoceanic communication was recognized before the discovery of gold in California made it urgently desirable. In 1848, John L. Stephens, W. H. Aspinwall, and Henry Chauncey applied to the government of New Granada for a concession to operate a transit line. It was granted two years later, by which time developments in the newly acquired territory of the United States upon the Pacific coast had created a promising outlook for what, at the time of its inception, was generally regarded as a wild enterprise. At best the undertaking was a hazardous one, fraught with enormous difficulties and beset by innumerable uncertainties. |