This Day in History

November 18, 1903: "Big Stick" Diplomacy and The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty
 

On November 3, 1903, the secretary of state in Washington, D.C. cabled the U.S. consul in Panama: "Uprising on Isthmus reported. Keep Department promptly and fully informed."

The consul cabled back: "No uprising yet. Reported will be in the night." 

That evening, again the consul cabled the secretary of state: "Uprising occurred tonight 6; no blood-shed. Government will be organized tonight."

So it began and ended - the U.S.-backed revolution that won Panama her independence and secured for the United States the stretch of land across which the Panama Canal would cut. On November 18, 1903, the new government of Panama ceded the canal zone to the U.S. in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, subsequently accepted by the U.S. Senate on February 23, 1904 and ratified by President Theodore Roosevelt two days later.

The account below of the interesting events culminating in the treaty comes from our high school text, Lands of Hope and Promise: A History of North America.

In his second inaugural address, Roosevelt developed his ideas about the place of the United States in the world. "Much has been given us," he said, "and much will rightfully be expected from us ... We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Towards all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights."

However, the president continued, justice and generosity required strength. "While ever careful to refrain from wrong-doing others," he said, "we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged our-selves. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression."

Roosevelt had said about the same thing many times before but in fewer words: "There is a homely adage which runs: 'Speak softly, and carry a big stick; you will go far'" .... 

READ MORE about the events that gave Roosevelt the Panama Canal Zone.