Blaine was just as much opposed to the peaceful penetration of
European influence in the Western Hemisphere as to its forceful
expression. The project of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama,
to be built and owned by a French company, had already aroused
President Hayes on March 8, 1880, to remark: "The policy of this
country is a canal under American control. The United States
cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European
power or to any combination of European powers." Blaine added
that the passage of hostile troops through such a canal when
either the United States or Colombia was at war, as the terms of
guarantee of the new canal allowed, was "no more admissible than
on the railroad lines joining the Atlantic and Pacific shores of
the United States."

It is characteristic of Blaine that, when he wrote this dispatch,
he was apparently in complete ignorance of the existence of the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in which the United States accepted the
exactly opposite principles--had agreed to a canal under a joint
international guarantee and open to the use of all in time of war
as well as of peace. Discovering this obstacle, he set to work to
demolish it by announcing to Great Britain that the treaty was
antiquated, thirty years old, that the development of the
American Pacific slope had changed conditions, and that, should
the treaty be observed and such a canal remain unfortified, the
superiority of the British fleet would give the nation complete
control. Great Britain, however, could scarcely be expected to
regard a treaty as defunct from old age at thirty years,
especially as she also possessed a developing Pacific coast.
Moreover, if the treaty was to British advantage, at least the