The Panama episode furnishes an even more striking instance of the policy that the United States has adopted toward Latin-American properties that seemed particularly necessary to her welfare. Efforts to build a Panama Canal had covered centuries. When President Roosevelt took the matter in hand he found that the Government of Colombia was not inclined to grant the United States sovereignty over any portion of its territory. The treaty signed in 1846 and ratified in 1848 placed the good faith of the United States behind the guarantee that Colombia should enjoy her sovereign rights over the Isthmus. During November 1902 the United States ejected the representatives of Colombia from what is now the Panama Canal Zone and recognized a revolutionary government which immediately made the concessions necessary to enable the United States to begin its work of constructing the canal. The issue is made clear by a statement of Mr. Roosevelt frequently reiterated by him (see _The Outlook_, October 7, 1911) and appearing in the _Washington Post_ of March 24, 1911, as follows:--"I am interested in the Panama Canal because I started it. If I had followed the traditional conservative methods I would have submitted a dignified state paper of probably two hundred pages to the Congress and the debate would have been going on yet. But I took the Canal Zone and let the Congress debate, and while the debate goes on, the Canal does also." Article 35 of the Treaty of 1846 between the United States and Colombia (then New Grenada) reads as follows,--"The United States guarantees, positively and efficaciously to New Grenada, by the present stipulation, the perfect neutrality of the before mentioned Isthmus ... and the rights of sovereignty which New Grenada has and possesses over said territory." In 1869 another treaty was negotiated between the United States and Colombia which provided for the building of a ship canal across the Isthmus. This treaty was signed by the presidents of both republics and ratified by the Colombian Congress. The United States Senate refused its assent to the treaty. Another treaty negotiated early in 1902 was ratified by the United States Senate but rejected by the Colombian Congress. The Congress of the United States had passed an act (June 28, 1902) "To provide for the construction of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans." Under this act the President was authorized to negotiate for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. If that proved impossible within a reasonable time, the President was to turn to the Nicaragua route. The treaty prepared in accordance with this act provided that the United States would pay Colombia ten millions of dollars in exchange for the sovereignty over the Canal Zone. The Colombian Congress after a lengthy debate rejected the treaty and adjourned on the last day of October, 1902.