1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 218 The people have the right to pursue freedom and independence

After Dorothea offered to sell the land in the Panama Canal, Scrooge immediately assigned this task. However, after investigation, Scrooge discovered that, as early as 1848, decades ago, the United States government signed a treaty with the Colombian government and obtained the right to dig a canal in Panama. For various reasons, the United States government has not had time to dig this canal. This year, the treaty is about to expire, and the two countries have initiated a new treaty. According to this new covenant, Colombia leased the Panama Canal excavation rights and the canal area to United States for a term of 100 years and returned to Colombia after the term expires. The United States government cannot transfer the concession rights to other countries, but can only be transferred to private companies. company. Through lobbying, he provided political contributions to several key figures of the two parties and promised to provide them for their relatives. After taking important positions in the future Panama Canal Company, Scrooge believed that the development rights of the Panama Canal were almost in his own hands. It’s a good deal.

However, just a few days ago, the Colombian parliament suddenly rejected this new treaty, and there are rumors that the Colombian government is hooking up with the French. It seems that he wants to change his mind and want to hand over the development rights to the French.

“Do you know which French guys are making trouble with us?” Scrooge asked calmly.

“It is said to be related to the French gang of Suez Canal Company.” Bond replied.

“Suez Canal Company?” Scrooge thought for a while. “The Suez Canal in their hands hasn’t been completed yet? They stretched their hands so far? Well, Bond, the British seem to be dealing with the French. Don’t you like this canal that you dug?”

“Yes, Mr. Scrooge.” Bond said. “The British believe that if this canal is opened, then the strategic position of the Cape of Good Hope under their control will be greatly reduced. And it will also make the British Alexander ——The importance of the Persian Gulf Railway has greatly declined, and it has even become a meaningless investment.”

“Very well, please contact me to see when President Johnson is free. I need to talk to him about some things.”

“Ah, Scrooge, welcome you. And you, my lovely Dorothea. How come you have time to come to the White House to visit my old man.” President Johnson welcomed Scrooge’s visit. However, although he was smiling, Scrooge could see that he was worrying. This is normal. A group of radical Republicans are planning to “rebuild the South” according to their vision. Of course, according to their vision, those who are involved in the rebellion should be deprived of their property. Of course, the national government should not “Compete with the people for profit”, so of course those wealth should be attributed to the decent people they call.

Strictly speaking, Scrooge is also among the decent people they call. But Scrooge knew that it was not easy to completely deprive the original fellows of the South. If you really want to do this, the South will be a mess. And in this way, even if you get something, it will depreciate because of social unrest. Anyway, Scrooge had already got the most important thing, so at this time, of course, he had distanced himself from the radical Republicans. On this issue, more often, he assumes the posture of the Virgin, always likes to talk about forgiveness and reconciliation.

In order to realize their own wishes, this group of decent people has just passed a term of office bill in Parliament, stipulating that the president is not allowed to remove any federal officials appointed after the Senate’s nomination and approval from government agencies. In accordance with the spirit of the United States Constitution, such a bill is of course unconstitutional. However, whether the bill is unconstitutional is not counted by the President or Congress. Only the Supreme Court will count. The highest judges of the Supreme Court are now mostly Republicans. Although they may not make the outrageous judgment that “the bill is fully constitutional,” they can completely delay the discussion of whether it is unconstitutional or not. Before the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional, the bill was effective. However, if a president cannot appoint or remove cabinet members, what kind of president is he? It’s better to call a barrel!

“Mr. President, you are Dorothea’s family. Isn’t it normal for us to visit you?” Scrooge replied with a grin, as if he and President Johnson were really old friends.

However, Johnson would not believe this, and Scrooge knew that Johnson would not believe this. But Johnson still pretended to believe it, and Scrooge naturally pretended to believe that Johnson believed it.

Johnson’s wife naturally knew that Scrooge must have his plan when he came to the door. So she took Dorothea away in the name of taking Dorothea to the White House, leaving Johnson and Scrooge alone in the room.

“I heard that the Colombian Congress vetoed the treaty on the Panama Canal.” Scrooge said straightforwardly.

“Yes, Scrooge, I know you have made a lot of preparations for this project, but it is difficult for me to help now. Because no matter what I do now, a lot of people will come out to sing the opposite.” President Johnson Also told the truth.

“I only need your verbal support.” Scrooge said, “It is enough that you need to speak on behalf of United States.”

“What do you want to do, Scrooge?” Johnson clearly felt that Scrooge was going to provoke a big event.

“Mr. President, how much power do you think Colombia has to defend Panama?” Scrooge asked unhurriedly.

“What are you asking for? Do you want me to start a war with Colombia?” Johnson said. “Although Colombia’s military power is a joke even when compared to Mexico, such a war cannot get domestic support. And Starting such a war rashly will also make us passive in the international arena.”

“No, Mr. President, our United States is a peace-loving country. How could we invade a sovereign country casually? However, if a government severely tramples on human rights in a country, which arouses the people’s righteous indignation, When the people rose up against this government, even if America couldn’t directly send troops to support it, wouldn’t it be right to support it morally?” Scrooge stopped and glanced at President John Xun. “It’s like facing an unconstitutional lawsuit. Although I cannot help you directly, but at least I can support you as much as I can.”

The so-called support within the limits of my ability actually means more that if you really need to remove someone from office, which leads to an investigation by Congress, I can use my influence to let you pass the barrier safely.

“Scrooge, do you want to come up with a story like the Lone Star Republic?” John Xun said, “However, you have to pay attention to your own measures. For now, even if you really create a new The lone star of “is coming out, and we can only support it in public opinion.”

The so-called “Lone Star Republic” refers to Texas. In the past, he used to be part of Mexico. In the end, the United States instigated the independence movement in Texas, and then made it independent as the so-called “Lone Star Republic”, and then joined the United States.

The Panama Daily is just a small local newspaper in Panama, but today, it became famous all at once, and even its newspaper had to be printed several times because it was completely out of stock.

All this is due to a piece of news in the newspaper: Many high-ranking officials of the Colombian government accepted bribes from France, intending to lease the Isthmus of Panama to France for a hundred years.

In this piece of news, the reporter has justified and eloquently portrayed the various corruptions of the Colombian government, and revealed that the Colombian government also intends to use most of the revenue for the development of the south with regard to the distribution of the proceeds of the canal. , Very few can be left to Panamanians.

The corruption of the Colombian government is almost universally known. Therefore, the Panamanian people believed the news in the newspapers without even thinking about it. The people became angry. They spontaneously came to the Panama City Government to demonstrate and thwarted the city government. Surrounded.

It happened that this day was Sunday, and the mayor was out for an outing, and he was not there at all. But the police who maintained order didn’t know what was going on, so they fought peacefully with the people who were demonstrating peacefully. According to the Colombian side, someone in the crowd threw a stone and beat a policeman to the head. So the police rushed into the crowd and planned to arrest the criminal who assaulted the police. But unexpectedly, they were obstructed by onlookers who didn’t know the truth. In order to carry out their own mission, the police used some police equipment very restrained, such as batons, revolvers (this is to warn the sky) and so on. However, they were shot by a mob hidden in the crowd. In order to protect the lives of the people, the police had turned off their guns and fired back. At the same time, the garrison in the nearby barracks also came to support, and finally repelled the crazy attack of the gangsters. Ten gangsters died. The police also had five police officers injured in varying degrees. In addition, more than forty innocent citizens were killed because the gangsters shot at the crowd frantically.

However, according to the later Panamanian government, it was completely different. According to them, it was the police and the army that shot the crowd first, causing the deaths of more than fifty demonstrators. Even the five injured policemen were accidentally injured by bullets fired by the army because they were all hit by rifle bullets.

Of course, there are even more unreliable claims that the United States people deliberately wanted to provoke the civil strife in Colombia, so they ambushed snipers here in advance, and secretly shot at both sides to provoke the conflict between the two sides. Of course, this statement has no factual basis, and it is a slander on United States.