An Archive Of Letters By Rear Admiral And Chief Of Bureau Of Navigation Daniel Ammen Advocating For A Canal Through Nicaragua - The Precursor To The Panama Canal: I Feel Disposed To Propose To Genl. Grant To Accept The Presidency Of A Nicaragua Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal Company,I Will Say That No Amount Of Money Will Secure The Construction Of A Permanent Ship Canal On The Isthmus Of Panama And The Shortest Route Should Still Be Preferred For A Canal Which Would Cost Several Millions Per Mile

(PANAMA CANAL)

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DANIEL AMMEN (1820-1898). Ammen served in the Navy between 1836 and 1878, achieving the rank of Rear Admiral and running the bureaus of Navigation and Yards and Docks. As a child, he saved his neighbor, Ulysses S. Grant, from drowning. JOHN C. TRAUTWINE (1810-1883). Trautwine was a civil engineer who works on many canal projects; he proclaimed that a Panamanian canal was impossible but did not live to see it accomplished. An archive of five letters and one map, most by Daniel Ammen, soliciting support for an oceanic canal through Nicaragua in the 1870s. They are: a) ALS. 6 pg. 8 x 10. June 16, 1879. Steamer St. Laurent. An autograph letter signed Daniel Ammen to My dear Mr. Childs, with the subject immediately turning to the canal project: No doubt you have read with interest the general proceedings as given in the newspapers of the Inter-Oceanic ship Canal Congress at Paris, and from your knowledge of the subject have in a great measure been able to sift the facts from the errors of statement which always exist, with or without intention or purpose. Ammen had been selected as a representative of the United States at this multinational conference. Ammen spends the next several pages denigrating a Columbian proposal as not worth the blank sheet of paper upon which it is writtenIt is now demonstrated that the Canal a niveau on the Isthmus of Panama if considered as a commercial question, is hopelessly impracticable. Of course, this proposal would later become the Panama Canal (formerly a Columbian territory). On page eight, Ammen composes a message for Childs to pass onto General Grant: I feel disposed to propose to Genl. Grant to accept the Presidency of a Nicaragua Inter-oceanic ship Canal company or rather to be one of the corporators, with a willingness to be the President, and that you should name to me with their consent say twelve or more gentlemen at home and abroad who would be willing to be corporators. Ammens desire to include his friend Grant just years after his scandalous presidency shows his desperation for a big name like Grant to counter international opposition to his Nicaragua proposal. George Childs was a publisher, owner of a Philadelphia newspaper, the Public Ledger, a generous philanthropist, and, like Ammen, a close friend of Ulysses S. Grant. The pages are numbered, though often out-of-sequence within the left and right side of each paper. b) ALS. 2 pg. 8 x 10. June 21, 1879. Washington D.C. An autograph letter signed Daniel Ammen to Mr. Wm. V. McKean, a manager of Mr. Childs newspaper. After expressing support for publishing his letter to Mr. Childs (a) as a proper method of destroying a wild cat scheme and of securing construction of a ship canal that would really be a benefit to commerce, Ammen again lays out the reasons a Panamanian canal would fail: First of all I will say that no amount of money will secure the construction of a permanent ship canal on the Isthmus of Panama and I may add that all their points are still less favorable for a Canal on the surface level of the ocean. He also mentions issues with needing an artificial lake to help the canal run. As he did with Childs, Ammen asks McKean to lobby the government to establish a conference, with only engineers, to put American weight behind the Nicaragua proposal. Once again, the pages are out of order and not numbered, but the letter is easy to follow. c) ALS. 2 pg. 8 x 10. June 22, 1879. Washington D.C. An autograph letter signed Daniel Ammen to My dear Mr. Childs, again about the Nicaragua canal. It notes his letter to McKean and repeats his main points about the infeasibility of a Panama Canal regardless of cost. This letter is a bit more faded than the rest and contains cello tape on the second page. d) ALS. 2 pg. 8 x 10. July 2, 1879. Washington D.C. An autograph letter signed Daniel Ammen to Mr. Wm. V. McKean marked as [Confidential]. The letter begins with an immediate complaint directed against Grant: I feel somewhat disappointed at.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: An Archive Of Letters By Rear Admiral And Chief Of Bureau Of Navigation Daniel Ammen Advocating For A Canal Through Nicaragua - The Precursor To The Panama Canal: I Feel Disposed To Propose To Genl. Grant To Accept The Presidency Of A Nicaragua Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal Company,I Will Say That No Amount Of Money Will Secure The Construction Of A Permanent Ship Canal On The Isthmus Of Panama And The Shortest Route Should Still Be Preferred For A Canal Which Would Cost Several Millions Per Mile
• Binding: Soft cover