It must have these and other privileges on a long time grant.

For them, it was willing to pay generously.

Negotiations would be affected, one could not say how, by the Treaty of 1846 with Colombia, * by which the United States had received the right of free use of the isthmus, with the right of maintaining the neutrality of the district and in return had guaranteed to Colombia sovereignty over the isthmus.
* Then known as the Republic of New Granada.
Hay took up the negotiations with the Colombian charge d'affaires, Dr.
Herran, and arranged a treaty, which gave the United States a strip of land six miles wide across the isthmus, on a ninety-nine year lease, for which it should pay ten million dollars and, after a period of nine years for construction, a quarter of a million a year.

This treaty, after months of debate in press and Congress, was rejected by the Colombian Senate on August 12, 1903, though the people of Panama, nervously anxious lest this opportunity to sit on the bank of the world's great highway should slip into the hands of their rivals of Nicaragua, had urged earnestly the acceptance of the terms.

The majority of the Colombians probably expected to grant the American requests in time but were determined to force the last penny from the United States.
As Hay wrote: "The Isthmus is looked upon as a financial cow to be milked for the benefit of the country at large.