Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who lobbied for a Panamanian canal, sent every senator a Nicaraguan postage stamp depicting a volcano. It was an effective ploy: Panama had no volcanoes.
National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Nicaragua Mount Momotombo 10 centavos postage stamp, ca. 1900
The Panama Canal
By the 1880s Congress considered a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans necessary for commerce and defense, but disagreements about its location stalled any action. Then the USS Maine exploded in Cuba. The battleship USS Oregon, stationed on the West Coast, took two months to reach the Caribbean to provide support in the Spanish-American War. The long voyage convinced Congress that a canal was imperative. In 1902 Congress authorized the purchase of a project initiated by France on land owned by Colombia, to complete construction of the Panama Canal.
I want . . . a bill to be passed here under which we will get a canal. There never was greater need for it than now. The Oregon demonstrated [that] to our people.
Senator John Spooner of Wisconsin, Speech to the U.S. Senate, June 18, 1902
Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who lobbied for a Panamanian canal, sent every senator a Nicaraguan postage stamp depicting a volcano. It was an effective ploy: Panama had no volcanoes.
National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution
