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The Wilson Administration and Panama, 1913-1921

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

George W. Baker Jr.
George W. Baker Jr.*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Political Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
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Extract

“One of the chief objects of my administration,” Woodrow Wilson stated on March 11, 1913, after learning of political unrest in the Caribbean, “will be to cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence of our sister republics of Central and South America, and to promote in every proper and honorable way the interests which are common to the peoples of the two continents.” Believing, however, that “cooperation is possible only when supported at every turn by the orderly processes of just government based upon law, not upon arbitrary or irregular force,” he wanted the Latin American nations to build their governments upon the same foundation of law and order as that of the United States. On the part of his own nation, he renounced, in his Mobile Address of October 27, 1913, the “Dollar Diplomacy” of his predecessors Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, and proposed instead a Pan American Pact to provide mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1966 , pp. 279 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1966

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References

1 Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920), 1913, p. 7, hereafter cited as Foreign Relations; “Address before the Southern Commercial Congress, October 27, 1913,” in Baker, Ray Stannard and Dodd, William E. (eds.) The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1925-1927), III, 64–66 Google Scholar; Seymour, Charles, The Intimate Papers of Colonel House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926), I, 208–218 Google Scholar; Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Page and Co., 1927-1939), IV, 85 Google Scholar; Link, Arthur S., Wilson, the New Freedom (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1956), pp. 324–325.Google Scholar

2 For further background, see Diplomatic History of the Panama Canal, Senate Document, No. 474, 63d Congress, 2d Session; McCain, William D., The United States and the Republic of Panama (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1937)Google Scholar; and Buell, Raymond L., “Panama and the United States,” Foreign Policy Reports, VII, No. 23 (New York, 1932)Google Scholar; for text of Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, see William Malloy, Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers (1910-1923), II, 1349; for the text of the Constitution, see Senate Document, No. 208, 58th Congress, 2d Session.

3 Foreign Relations, 1913, pp. 8-9; Bryan to Wilson, August 1, 1913, The Bryan Papers, Library of Congress; The New York Times, August 14, 1914, 12:2.

4 State Department Memorandum by Rutherfurd [sic] Bingham, May 15, 1914, State Department Papers, Decimal File, hereafter cited as D. S. File, 819.74/91, National Archives; Bryan to Minister William J. Price, January 29, 1914, Bryan to Price, April 29, 1914, Josephus Daniels to Bryan, August 12, 1914, Bryan to Price, August 13, 1914, Foreign Relations, 1914, pp. 1041-1046.

5 Bryan to Price, April 16, 1914, Price to Bryan, April 25, 1914, Price to Bryan, May 23, 1914, Foreign Relations, 1914, pp. 986-992; Price to Bryan, January 25, 1915. Bryan to Price, February 18, 1915, Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 1163-65; de Rappard to Lansing, October 20, 1916, Price to Lansing, December 12, 1916, Foreign Relations, 1916, pp. 918-923; Price to Narciso Garay, August 20, 1917, Garay to Price, September 28, 1917, República de Panamá, Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1918 (Panama, annual numbers and supplements), pp. 105-122; McCain, The United States and the Republic of Panama, pp. 82-84.

6 The New York Times, February 14, 1915, II, 1:2 and April 3, 1915, 1:2; Price to Bryan, April 8, 1915, Garrison to Bryan, May 11, 1915, Price to Lansing, July 26, 1915, Lansing to Price, August 25, 1915, Price to Lansing, November 17, 1915, Lansing to Price, December 7, 1915, Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 1191-1192, 1222-1223, 1226-1228, 1233-1234, 1238; Lansing to Price, April 15, 1916 and Price to Lansing, May 13, 1916, Foreign Relations, 1916, pp. 940-942; further correspondence is in Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1916, pp. 174-210, 412-414 and 1918, pp. 237-241; Narciso Garay, Panamá y las Guerras de los Estados Unidos (Panamá: Imprenta Nacional, 1930), p. 61.

7 Price to Lansing, February 19, 1917, Lansing to Price, May 2, 1917, Price to Lansing, October 15, 1917, Foreign Relations, 1917, pp. 1157-1159, 1168-1179; Price to Lansing, April 29, 1918, Lansing to Price, September 3, 1918, Foreign Relations, 1918, pp. 853-854, 856-859; further correspondence is in Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1920, pp. 119-129.

8 Bryan to Wilson, February 21, 1914, Wilson to Bryan, March 20, 1914, Bryan to Wilson, April 7, 1914, Bryan-Wilson Correspondence, National Archives; Wilson to Bryan, April 16, 1914, The Wilson Papers, Library of Congress; Bryan to Price, June 29, 1914, Foreign Relations, 1914, p. 1032; The New York Times, April 8, 1914, 4:2; State Department Memorandum by Bingham, June 23, 1914, D. S. File 819.51/103; McCain, The United States and the Republic of Panama, pp. 105-106.

9 Panama published the various awards and presented its case in Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Controversia de límites entre Panamá y Costa Rica (Panamá: Imprenta Nacional, 1914); Price to Bryan, October 7, 1914, Eusebio Morales (Minister of Panama in United States) to Bryan, October 20, 1914, R. Breñes Mesen (Minister of Costa Rica in the United States) to Bryan, November 7, 1914, Foreign Relations, 1914, pp. 994-1015; McCain, The United States and the Republic of Panama, pp. 134-135.

10 Anderson to Bryan, March 9, 1915, The Anderson Papers, Library of Congress;; Bryan to Wilson, March 23, 1915, Wilson to Bryan, March 24, 1915, Bryan- Wilson Correspondence; Bryan to Price, April 28, 1915, Price to Bryan, June 3, 1915, Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 1147, 1149-1150.

11 Robert Lansing, Notes on Sovereignty from the Standpoint of the State and the World (Washington, 1921), pp. 56-60; Lansing, “Consideration and Outline of Policies, July 11, 1915,” The Lansing Papers, Library of Congress; Julius W. Pratt, “Robert Lansing,” in Samuel Flagg Bemis (ed.), The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1929), X, 47-175; Daniel M. Smith, “Robert Lansing,” in Norman Graebner (ed.). An Uncertain Tradition (New York: McGraw Hill, 1961), pp. 101-127.

12 Price to Lansing, August 23, 1915, D. S. File 819.00/487; Charge d'Affaires Willing Spencer to Lansing, December 21, 1915, D. S. File 819.00/491; State Department Memorandum by Wright, January 8, 1916, D. S. File 819.51/92; Entry of January 13, 1916, Lansing Desk Diary; Spencer to Lansing, February 16, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/515; Price to Lansing, March 4, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/519.

13 The New York Times, March 5, 1916, I, 3:2; Wilson to Lansing, April 13, 1916, Lansing to Wilson, April 14, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/530; Wilson to Lansing, April 21, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/539; Lansing to Price, May 5, 1916, Price to Lansing, May 8, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/539a; Wilson to Lansing, May 8, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/542; Wilson to Lansing, May 11, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/546; Price to Lefevre, May 6, 1916, Lefevre to Price, May 7, 1916, Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1916, pp. 221-223.

14 Lansing to Wilson, May 15, 1916, Wilson to Lansing, May 15, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/546.

15 Dulles to Lansing, May 17, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/553.

16 Lansing to Wilson, July 3, 1916, Wilson to Lansing, July 3, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/581.

17 Lansing to Price, July 6, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/584; Entry of May 23, 1916, Frank Polk Diary, Yale University Library; Wright to Polk, May 19, 1916, Polk Papers; Price to Lansing, June 25, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/576; Price to Lansing, July 8, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/589; Polk to Wilson, August 4, 1916, Wilson to Polk, August 8, 1916, D. S. Fue 819.00/619a; Price to Lansing, August 28, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/634; Price to Lansing, October 1, 1916, D. S. File 819.00/639; República de Panamá, Memoria, Gobierno y Justicia, 1916 (Panama, annual numbers and supplements), xviii.

18 Eusebio Morales to Lansing, July 28, 1916, Lansing to Porras', December 22, 1916, and further correspondence in Foreign Relations, 1917, pp. 1179-1184; Jordan Stabler to Wright, August 2, 1916, D. S. Fue 819.77/264.

19 For correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1917, pp. 1194-1204.

20 For correspondence, see ibid., pp. 1185-1194.

21 Wilson to Lansing, March 27, 1917, The Lansing Papers, 1914-1920 (Washington, 1939-1940), I, 632; Price to Narciso Garay, February 3, 1917, Garay to Price, February 7, 1917, Price to Garay, April 6, 1917, Garay to Price, April 6, 1917, Valdés to Wilson, April 6, 1917, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Documentos relacionados con la actual guerra europea (Panamá, 1917), pp. 6-14; Garay, Panamá y las guerras de los Estados Unidos, pp. 33-38, 139; Price to Lansing, April 10, 1917, Lansing to Price, December 5, 1917, Foreign Relations, 1917, Supplement I, pp. 248-249, 380; Percy Martin, Latin America and the War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1925), 487-489; Ricardo Miró, “La actitud de la República de Panamá en la guerra y después de la guerra”, in Frank H. Simonds, Historia de la Guerra del Mundo (New York: Doubleday Page, 1920), V, 419-442.

22 Memoria, Gobierno y Justicia, 1918, pp. 305-307; Charge ó” Affaires Elbridge Greene to Lansing, June 4, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/651; Greene to Lansing, June 23, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/661; Lansing to Greene, June 26, 1918, 0 . S. File 819.00/661a.

23 Urriola to Wilson, June 28, 1918, Lansing to Greene, July 9, 1918, Wilson to Lansing, July 9, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/680.

24 Lansing to Greene, July 1, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/667; Greene to Lansing, July 7, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/674; Entry of August 1, 1918, Polk Diary; Lansing to Greene, August 28, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/735; Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1918, pp. xxxviii-xxxix, 38-52; Memoria, Gobierno y Justicia, 1918, pp. 307-308.

25 The commission heard only vague and inadequate rumors of unfairness in Chiriqui; for their detailed reports on the various provinces, see ibid., pp. 308-322; Price to Lansing, September 11, 1918, D. S. File 819.00/753.

26 Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1920, p. 42; Entries of January 2 and February 20, 1919, Polk Diary; Garay; Panamá y las guerras de los Estados Unidos, pp. 59-60; State Department Memorandum by Stabler, January 30, 1919, Polk Papers; ¿¡bridge Colby, “Panamanian-American Relations in Chiriqufi,” Current History Magazine, XII (July 1920), 682-685.

27 Entry of May 8, 1919, Polk Diary; Leyes, Asamblea Nacional de Panamá, 1918-1919 (Panamá, 1919), pp. 412-413; Ruan was aided by Dr. Clarence J. Owens who made an economic survey of Panama's needs, The New York Times, July 7, 1919, 21:2; C. H. Calhoun, “How Panama Paid Off Its Debts,” Current History, XIV (1921), 298-299; McCain, The United States and Panama, pp. 106-107.

28 Daniel M. Smith, “Bainbridge Colby and the Good Neighbor Policy, 1920-1921,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, L, No. 1 (June 1963), 56-78.

29 Price to Lansing, January 26, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/878; Price to Colby, July 12, 1920, Colby to Price, July 21, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/959; Price to Colby, August 1, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/976; Price to Colby, August 4, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/978.

30 Colby to Newton Baker, August 9, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/1041a; Memoria, Relaciones Exteriores, 1920, p. xxiii.

31 Porras to Acting Secretary Norman Davis, August 30, 1920, D. S. File 819.00/999a.

32 Price to Colby, January 3, 1921, D. S. File 819.00/1034.

33 The New York Times, February 25, 1921, 1:3 and March 1, 1921, 1:1; Colby to Price, February 28, 1921, Foreign Relations, 1921, I, 175-176; Narciso Garay to Price, March 18, 1921, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Controversia de limites entre Panama y Costa Rica, Respuesta de Panama a Los Estados Unidos (Panamá, 1921); “Flareup on the Isthmus,” Literary Digest, 68 (March 19, 1921), 19-20.