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”

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 written…It 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”. Ammen’s 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 the delay of Gen’l Grant in reaching home. Knowing his very great personal interest in the Inter-Oceanic Canal question I hoped that if he found his name an important and especially as President of the Company if desired, that he would allow himself to be named as one of the corporators”. At this time, Grant and his wife were finishing a two-year post-presidency world tour. Ammen then summarizes the arguments he has made in his previous letters before concluding with: “as the readiest way of enabling Gen’l Grant to see what I think of the situation please send him the long letter of explanation I sent you concerning the Paris Congress”, which would have been the first letter in this archive.

e) ALS. 4 pg. 8” x 10”. July 14. 1879. Willard Hotel. An autograph letter signed “Wm. Trautwine” to “Mr. Kean” discussing the Public Ledger’s reporting on the canal proposals: “I enclose small clip from Wednesday’s Ledger, & longer do. from Engineering & Mining Journal of July 5^th. Also Map Isthmus of Darien showing various proposed canal routes. My father spent many years on surveys on and about the Isthmus”. After summarizing his father’s experience and qualifications, Trautwine writes: “I asked my father a few days ago what he thought of…which has been suggested that the R.R. already existing along the Panama route - for the transporting of men & materials – must make a canal there cheaper than elsewhere. He said the shortest route should still be preferred for a canal which would cost several millions per mile, & that, in comparison with the canal’s total cost, the construction of a railroad or two, as preliminary, along the route settled upon, would be but a flea bite. The Panama R.R. cost about $10,000,000”. Later criticisms in the letter mirror arguments made in the Ledger articles pasted on this letter. William Trautwine was the son of John Trautwine, the engineer who built Canal del Pique in Columbia and made surveys for the Panama Railroad concerning the feasibility of a Panamanian canal. Here, Trautwine uses his and his father’s insights to support the growing international support for a Panamanian canal.

f) A printed map of the Isthmus of Darien; it was printed in 1870 in Philadelphia.  The map is hand-colored and had manuscript additions, likely in the handwriting of Trautwine; the handwriting lists such areas of “Panama RR” and “San Blas route”.  The map measures 19” x 12”; it is missing the lower right corner (not affecting the actual map) and has minor waterstaining and professional tape to the verso to reinforce the folds.  According to one map expert I consulted with, he has never seen this map previously, and this one deals directly with the construction of the canal.

As we know, it took several more decades, a major French failure, and American economic and military intervention for the canal project in Panama to actually begin. These letters not only highlight some of the major issues that would plague the Panama Canal project, but highlight an often-forgotten alternative and reveal America’s role decades before the Twentieth Century and the rise of  America as a global superpower.