The new Ministry decided to open a dialogue as to the sell and purchase of the islands. For the next several years the United States and Denmark worked out the logistics of the sell and transfer of the islands. All of the work of the previous years became somewhat in vane when, in 1870, the U.S. senate failed to ratify the Treaty of 1867. The United States immediately became the subject of European criticism. The United States was criticized by European countries and many Americans for dealing in bad faith in its foreign relations and policies because it had refused to assent to a treaty which it initiated. .
By 1896 and the election of President William McKinley there were new reasons to spark an interest in the purchase of the Danish West Indies. The construction of a canal through the isthmus of Central America to the Pacific Ocean, along with Germany's interest in purchasing the Danish West Indies spurred the United States interest. With a canal the United States would need a mid-Atlantic coaling station for ships. America would also need a location that would enable them to trade and defend the canal from any hostile forces as Willocks states: The location of the Danish West Indies made them valuable commercially and militarily. Control of the Virgin Islands would enable the United States to defend the Panama Canal from hostile countries. Further, with the establishment of the Panama Canal, the need for a central coaling depot in the mid-Atlantic became paramount. Yet another treaty was not made until 1902, which was after the Spanish- American war, in which, Denmark was considered neutral. With Cuba being supervised under the Platt amendment and Puerto Rico ceded to the United States it appeared as if the Danish West Indies would finally become a part of the United States. This time it was the Danes who would not seal the deal. The Danish legislative body returned with a tied vote, which vetoed the treaty.
