Page 107 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

88 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

of our people, give warning that our steps, as
a nation, should be governed by some settled
notions, too universally held to be set aside by
a mere change of administration or caprice
of popular will. Reasonable discussion, which
tends, either by its truth or by its evident
errors, to clarify and crystallize public opinion
on so important a matter, never can be amiss.
This question, from an abstract, speculative
phase of the Monroe Doctrine, took on the
concrete and somewhat urgent form of security
for our trans- Isthmian routes against foreign
interference towards the middle of this cen-
tury, when the attempt to settle it was made
by the oft-mentioned Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,
signed April 19, 1850. Great Britain was
found then to be in possession, actual or con-
structive, of certain continental positions, and
of some outlying islands, which would contrib-
ute not only to military control, but to that
kind of political interference which experience
has shown to be the natural consequence of
the proximity of a strong power to a weak one.
These positions depended upon, indeed their
tenure originated in, the possession of Jamaica,
thus justifying Cromwell's forecast. Of them,