The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY, signed
18 Nov. 1901, which replaced the ../Clayton-Bulwer Treaty/
(q.v.) as an Anglo-American agreement
of policy regarding an isthmian canal,
then supposed to be fixed as across Nicaragua.
It was drawn up by John Hay, Secretary of
State, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, ambassador
from Great Britain. Public feeling for some
years had been growing so sore over the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty's restriction on the
independent action of the United States, that there
was grave fear lest Congress might abrogate
it by open violence, a great blow to future
amicable action. President McKinley voiced
the feeling by the declaration, in his annual
message for 1898, that the canal had become a
national necessity. Fresh negotiations were
opened with Great Britain; that country had
no wish beyond that of neutralizing the canal,
and sent one of her best diplomats with very
liberal instructions, to concede whatever did
not nullify that essential principle. The draft
treaty was sent to the Senate by the President
5 Feb. 1900. It provided that a canal might be
constructed by the United States, or under its
direction; should be permanently neutralized on
the basis of the Suez Canal agreement — to be
kept open at all times, either of war or peace,
to all vessels, without discrimination, and no
fortifications to be constructed commanding the
canal or the waters adjacent, and that other
powers should be invited to join in this
guaranty of neutrality. The provisions excited
intense hostility, and Senator Davis offered an
amendment adopted by the committee on
foreign affairs, canceling the very features for

which it was drawn up, and which made the
spirit of the previous one. It provided that
the neutralization clause should not prevent the
United States from any measures it thought
needful for its own defense or the preservation
of order, declared the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
specifically abrogated, and struck out the third
clause inviting the concurrence of other powers.
In this form it was ratified by the Senate 20
Dec. 1900, but Great Britain refused to accept
the transformed treaty, and it expired by
limitation on 5 March 1901. Undiscouraged, the
two diplomats set to work on a compromise,
which was signed by them 18 Nov. 1901, sent
to the Senate by President Roosevelt, and
ratified by them 16 December. The chief
differences were in dropping as far as possible
all specific guaranties, requirements or prohibitions,
leaving its interpretation and application
to the chapter of fate and the certainty that the
strong hand would decide in any event. The
neutrality of the canal is not guaranteed at all
except by the terms of the agreement, the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty is abrogated by name, and
the United States is not forbidden to construct
fortifications, nor required to keep the canal
open in time of war.

Prior to the opening of the Panama Canal
to traffic on 15 Aug. 1914, a controversy with
Great Britain respecting the interpretation of the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty had arisen. Under the
Panama Canal Act of 1912, passed by
Congress; American vessels engaged in the coastwise
trade were to be exempted from canal
tolls. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign
Secretary, lodged a protest against the passing
of the measure, and claimed that the act was
a discrimination against British and other
foreign vessels in contravention of the treaty,
and requested that the bill be held in abeyance
in the Senate in order that a detailed statement
might be sent; but President Taft signed the
act on 24 Aug. In the formal protest subsequently
lodged (9 Dec), Sir Edward Grey
declared that “while the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
left the United States free to build and
protect the canal, it expressly maintained the
principle of Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty of 1850, guaranteeing to England
the use of the canal on a complete equality
with the United States of America”; and he
later (27 Feb. 1913) pressed for arbitration. In
the United States the British contention was
generally regarded as an attempt to interfere
with that country's sovereign rights to deal
with its own commerce, and to use the canal
in whatsoever manner it saw fit — though a
minority, led by Senator Root, stoutly held that
the British objection was based on solid
grounds. All the correspondence on the
subject had passed before President Wilson came
into office. On 5 March 1914 he sent a message
to Congress strongly urging the repeal of the
exemption. He regarded the exemption as a
plain breach of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty,
and declared that it was only in the United
States that there was any doubt as to its
language. He proposed a “voluntary withdrawal
from a position everywhere questioned and
misunderstood.” In spite of strong opposition,
repeal of the exemption was finally accepted,
but not before a proviso had been inserted in
the bill expressly reserving to the United States
the right to exempt ships in the future.