Either the Congress should immediately provide for the construction of
a Government cable, or else an arrangement should be made by which like
advantages to those accruing from a Government cable may be secured to
the Government by contract with a private cable company.

No single great material work which remains to be undertaken on this
continent is of such consequence to the American people as the building
of a canal across the Isthmus connecting North and South America. Its
importance to the Nation is by no means limited merely to its material
effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with view to these effects
alone it would be to the last degree important for us immediately to
begin it. While its beneficial effects would perhaps be most marked upon
the Pacific Coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic States, it would also
greatly benefit other sections. It is emphatically a work which it is
for the interest of the entire country to begin and complete as soon as
possible; it is one of those great works which only a great nation can
undertake with prospects of success, and which when done are not only
permanent assets in the nation's material interests, but standing
monuments to its constructive ability.

I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this
subject with Great Britain, conducted on both sides in a spirit of
friendliness and mutual good will and respect, have resulted in my being
able to lay before the Senate a treaty which if ratified will enable
us to begin preparations for an Isthmian canal at any time, and which
guarantees to this Nation every right that it has ever asked in
connection with the canal. In this treaty, the old Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, so long recognized as inadequate to supply the base for the
construction and maintenance of a necessarily American ship canal, is