As for the "consent of the governed" theory, that absolutely justified our action; the people on the Isthmus were the "governed"; they were governed by Colombia, without their consent, and they unanimously repudiated the Colombian government, and demanded that the United States build the canal.
I had done everything possible, personally and through Secretary Hay, to persuade the Colombian Government to keep faith.

Under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, it was explicitly provided that the United States should build the canal, should control, police and protect it, and keep it open to the vessels of all nations on equal terms.

We had assumed the position of guarantor of the canal, including, of course, the building of the canal, and of its peaceful use by all the world.

The enterprise was recognized everywhere as responding to an international need.

It was a mere travesty on justice to treat the government in possession of the Isthmus as having the right--which Secretary Cass forty-five years before had so emphatically repudiated--to close the gates of intercourse on one of the great highways of the world.