THE PANAMA CANAL TREATY.--In the spring of 1903, accordingly, a treaty was negotiated with Colombia for the construction of the Panama Canal. Our Senate ratified, but Colombia rejected, the treaty, whereupon the province of Panama (November, 1903) seceded from Colombia and became independent republic. Our government promptly recognized the new republic, and a treaty with it was ratified (February, 1904) by which we secured the right to dig the canal. The property of the French company was then purchased, and a commission appointed to superintend the work of construction. [13] THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY.--By our treaty of purchase of Alaska, its boundaries depended on an old treaty between Russia and Great Britain. When gold was discovered in Canada in 1871, a dispute arose over the boundary, and it became serious when gold was discovered in the Klondike region in 1896. Our claim placed the boundary of southeastern Alaska thirty-five miles inland and parallel to the coast. Canada put it so much farther west as to give her several important ports. The matter was finally submitted to arbitration, and in 1903 the decision divided the land in dispute, but gave us all the ports. [14] PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1904.--The campaign of 1904 was opened by the nomination by the Republican party of Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks. The Democrats presented Alton B. Parker and Henry G. Davis, and in the course of the summer seven other parties--the People's, the Socialist, the Socialist Labor, the Prohibition, the United Christian, the National Liberty, and the Continental--nominated candidates. Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected. [15] OKLAHOMA.--Among the demands of the Democratic party in 1904 was that for the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one state, and of New Mexico and Arizona as separate states. In 1906 Congress authorized the people of Oklahoma [16] and Indian Territory to frame a constitution, and if it were adopted by vote of the people, the President was empowered to proclaim the state of Oklahoma a member of the Union, which was done in 1907. The same act authorized the people of New Mexico and Arizona to vote separately on the question whether the two should form one state to be called Arizona. At the election (in November, 1906) a majority of the people of New Mexico voted for, and a majority of the people of Arizona against, joint statehood, so the two remained separate territories.