Mr. Hay to General Reyes.
Washington, January 9, 1904.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your excellency’s note of the 6th of January, 1904, which I have read with most respectful care.
I find that almost all the propositions brought forward in this communication have been considered and fully answered in advance in the note I had the honor to address you on the 5th day of January. I need, therefore, only briefly refer to a few matters which you have [Page 310] brought forward for the first time in your note of the 6th of January. In the first paragraph of your note you state that your Government regards my note to you of the 30th of December as an intimation that the Colombian forces will be attacked by those of the United States on their entering the territory of Panama. This inference of yours is wholly gratuitous. We have considered it our duty to represent to you the serious responsibility which would have been assumed by Colombia in a hostile demonstration of the character you mention, and, at the same time, you were assured that the United States Government in that event would reserve its liberty of action and be governed by the circumstances of the case.
Your excellency is pleased to assert that if this Government had not intervened to preserve order on the Isthmus you would have been able to put an end to the revolutionary government of Panama in a few hours. This is hardly consistent with your statement that the late insurrection in Panama lasted three years. No human sagacity can decide with certainty what would have been the duration or result of such a conflict as would have ensued, nor what would have been the amount of bloodshed and devastation which would have afflicted the Isthmus, or the sum of the injury which would have resulted to the world at large if this Government had not taken the action of which you complain.
In the third paragraph of your note you repeat your claim that the action of your Government in respect to the canal treaty was not prompted by any desire for additional compensation, but solely by a regard for your constitutional law. In reply to this I can only refer your excellency to the repeated intimations we received during the discussion of the treaty in Bogotá from the highest and most honorable personages in the Republic, that a large increase of the pecuniary consideration would result in the ratification of the convention; to the attempt which was made to induce the French canal company to pay an enormous sum for permission to dispose of their property; and to the report of the canal committee to the Colombian Senate, suggesting the delay of all proceedings until the coming year, when the extension of the concession might be declared invalid and the nation might be in condition to deal with us without regard to the French shareholders. Your reference to the constitutional question I have already answered. The treaty which Colombia made and then rejected contained no cession of sovereignty; but, on the contrary, preserved the sovereignty of Colombia scrupulously intact.
I do not consider that this Government is called upon to take notice of your statement as to the sources from which the revolutionary government obtained its funds. As this Government had no participation in the preparation of the revolution, it has no concern with the details of its history.
I note with regret the continued protest you make in the name of your Government against the events which have taken place in Panama, and the determination of Colombia not to accept the situation to which they have given rise. I am in harmony with the sincere desire of the Government and the people of the United States in hoping that your Government may see its way to conclusions more in accordance with its true interests and those of its sister American Republics, and that it may not reject the friendly assurances I am charged to convey to you.
I will not for a moment accept the imputation of unfriendly motives [Page 311] or sentiments on the part of this country toward Colombia, and, even if Colombia should persist in assuming a hostile attitude toward us, it will only be after the most careful deliberation and with extreme reluctance that this Government would shape its course in accordance with the deplorable conditions thus created.
I am, Mr. Minister, with sentiments of the highest consideration,
Your obedient servant,
Gen. Rafael Reyes,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary on Special
Mission.