Albany, Feb. 18, 1900

'I hesitated long before I said anything about the treaty through
sheer dread of two moments--that in which I should receive your
note, and that in which I should receive Cabot's.* But I made up
my mind that at least I wished to be on record; for to my mind
this step is one backward, and it may be fraught with very great
mischief. You have been the greatest Secretary of State I have
seen in my time--Olney comes second--but at this moment I can
not, try as I may, see that you are right. Understand me. When
the treaty is adopted, as I suppose it will be, I shall put the
best face possible on it, and shall back the Administration as
heartily as ever, but oh, how I wish you and the President would
drop the treaty and push through a bill to build AND FORTIFY our
own canal.

* Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who also opposed the first treaty.


'My objections are twofold. First, as to naval policy. If the
proposed canal had been in existence in '98, the Oregon could
have come more quickly through to the Atlantic; but this fact
would have been far outweighed by the fact that Cervera's fleet
would have had open to it the chance of itself going through the
canal, and thence sailing to attack Dewey or to menace our
stripped Pacific Coast. If that canal is open to the warships of
an enemy, it is a menace to us in time of war; it is an added
burden, an additional strategic point to be guarded by our fleet.
If fortified by us, it becomes one of the most potent sources of
our possible sea strength. Unless so fortified it strengthens