Thus it came about that the House and Senate, divided only upon the issue of the proper method of building the Nicaragua Canal, reopened the whole question, and gave to the Panama Canal advocates a chance to make a fight in favor of that route. The advocates of the Nicaragua Canal were not satisfied, however, to await the discoveries of the commission Congress had created. On May 2, 1900, before the commission made its report, the House voted 234 to 36 in favor of the Nicaragua route. The bill went to the Senate, where it was favorably reported by the Committee on Interoceanic Canals. Senator Morgan made a formal motion for the immediate consideration of the measure, but it was lost by a vote of 28 to 21. He then had the 2nd day of December following fixed as the date for again taking up the matter. His committee made a report roundly scoring the representatives of the New Panama Canal Company for their activities in favor of the Panama route. In December, 1900, Secretary Hay signed protocols with the ministers of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, by which those Governments undertook to negotiate treaties as soon as the President of the United States should be authorized by Congress to acquire the Nicaragua route. In the following February, Senator Morgan offered an amendment to the sundry civil appropriation bill authorizing the President to go ahead with the construction of the canal. When Theodore Roosevelt became President in September, 1901, he recommended the building of the Nicaragua Canal in his official statement of policy. In the meantime the Isthmian Canal Commission had been repeatedly attempting to get the New Panama Canal Company to state for what sum it would sell its holdings to the United States. The figures finally presented placed a value of $109,000,000 upon the property. After this, the Isthmian Canal Commission unanimously recommended the adoption of the Nicaragua route. Congress again took up the matter, upon a bill introduced by Representative Hepburn, making an appropriation of $180,000,000 for the construction of the canal. This measure was favorably reported by the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, and also secured the approval of the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals. A few days later a formal convention was signed in Nicaragua by the minister of foreign affairs and the American minister, looking to the construction of the canal through Nicaraguan territory. A week later the Senate ratified the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with Great Britain. On January 7 the House of Representatives again took up the matter and, in spite of the fact that the New Panama Canal Company had decided to accept $40,000,000 for its property, this offer was rejected by the House of Representatives, which passed the bill authorizing the construction of the Nicaragua Canal by the overwhelming vote of 309 to 2.