sat in London. It was doubtful whether
the three American adjudicators, Root, Lodge, and Turner, were all
"jurists of repute," as the treaty provided, but the arguments of the
American counsel convinced Lord Chief Justice Alverstone, one of the
British adjudicators, and his vote, added to the American three, gave a
verdict that sustained most of the claims of the United States.

In Cuba and Venezuela, at The Hague, and in the Alaskan matter,
Roosevelt and Hay showed at once a firmness and a reasonableness that
attracted European attention to American diplomacy as never before. The
subject of American diplomacy became a common study in American
universities. England and Germany appeared to be desirous of
conciliating the United States. The German Emperor bought a steam yacht
in the United States, sent his brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, to
attend the launching, and sent as Ambassador a German nobleman who had
long been a personal friend of the President. The reputation for
firmness was enhanced, but that for fairness was lessened by the next
episode, which involved the Colombian State of Panama.

The dangerous voyage of the Oregon in 1898 completed the conviction of
the United States that an isthmian canal must be constructed, and that
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was no longer adequate. The activity of De
Lesseps and his French company at Panama had raised the question about
1880, but nothing had been done to weaken the treaty that obstructed
American construction and control until Hay undertook a negotiation
under the direction of McKinley in the fall of 1899. Congress was in the
midst of a debate over a Nicaragua canal scheme when it was announced
that on February 5, 1900, Hay and Lord Pauncefote had signed a treaty
opening the canal to American construction, but providing for its
neutralization. The treaty forbade the fortification of the canal or its
use as an instrument of war. It was killed by amendment in the Senate,
but on November 18, 1901, Lord Pauncefote signed a second treaty, by
which Great Britain waived all her old rights save that of equal
treatment for all users of the canal, and left the future waterway to
the discretion of the United States. With the way thus opened,--for the
Senate promptly confirmed this treaty,--a new study of routes and
methods was hurried to completion.

An Isthmian Commission, created by the United States in 1899, was ready
to report upon a route when the second Hay-Pauncefote