Colombia was then under a one-man government, a
dictatorship, founded on usurpation of absolute and irresponsible power.
She eagerly pressed us to enter into an agreement with her, as long
as there was any chance of our going to the alternative route through
Nicaragua. When she thought we were committed, she refused to fulfil the
agreement, with the avowed hope of seizing the French company's property
for nothing and thereby holding us up. This was a bit of pure bandit
morality. It would have achieved its purpose had I possessed as weak
moral fiber as those of my critics who announced that I ought to
have confined my action to feeble scolding and temporizing until the
opportunity for action passed. I did not lift my finger to incite the
revolutionists. The right simile to use is totally different. I simply
ceased to stamp out the different revolutionary fuses that were already
burning. When Colombia committed flagrant wrong against us, I considered
it no part of my duty to aid and abet her in her wrongdoing at our
expense, and also at the expense of Panama, of the French company,
and of the world generally. There had been fifty years of continuous
bloodshed and civil strife in Panama; because of my action Panama has
now known ten years of such peace and prosperity as she never before saw
during the four centuries of her existence--for in Panama, as in Cuba
and Santo Domingo, it was the action of the American people, against the
outcries of the professed apostles of peace, which alone brought peace.
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