Description:

McKinley William 1843 - 1901 Historic Framed Display! President McKinley appoints Col. Peter C. Hains as a "member of the Commission to make investigations and report upon the Isthmus of Panama, with a view to the construction of a canal by the United States to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ‰Û_"
Partly Printed Document Signed "William McKinley" as President, 1p, 16.75" x 12.5" (visible). Washington, June 9, 1899. Countersigned "John Hay" as Secretary of State. Paper Seal of the United States, 3.5" diameter, affixed at lower left. Double matted and framed to 25" x 20.5". Fine condition.


In part, "Know Ye, That reposing special trust and confidence in the Integrity and Ability of Colonel Peter C. Hains of the U.S. Army, I do appoint him a member of the Commission to make investigations and report upon the Isthmus of Panama, with a view to the construction of a canal by the United States to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ‰Û_"

While it seems that, by the wording of this document, President McKinley had already decided on constructing a canal through Panama, the official name of the commission was the Isthmian Canal Commission - It also considered Nicaragua.

On March 3, 1899, Congress authorized an exhaustive series of investigations to determine the most practical route for a canal, which should be owned and controlled by the United States. Like the previous Nicaragua Canal Commission (1897), the Isthmian Canal Commission included Rear Admiral John G. Walker, U.S. Navy, as President, Colonel Peter C. Hains, and engineer Louis M. Haupt. Because of its expanded duties, seven other members were added to the Commission. The chief engineers in Nicaragua and Panama made a special study of the canal routes in those two areas and a complete plan was prepared for each route. In its report of November 1901, the Commission recommended the Nicaragua route but after the liquidator of the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama lowered its selling price, on January 18, 1902, the Commission issued a supplemental report recommending that the French offer be accepted and that the Panama rather than the Nicaragua route be adopted.

John Hay was President Lincoln's Assistant Private Secretary. As Secretary of State (September 20, 1898 to July 1, 1905) under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, Hay negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, and helped arrange for construction of Panama Canal. The Treaty nullified the 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with the British, negotiated at a time when Great Britain held territorial interest in Nicaragua. Under the 1901 Hay-Paunceforte Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, Britain agreed that the U.S. was authorized to construct and manage a Central American canal, was to guarantee the neutrality of the canal, and was authorized to fortify the area, if necessary. The canal was to be open to all nations; rates were to be fair and equal.

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