Monroe doctrine

A policy adopted, by the United States according to which this government will consider any attempt on the part of a European power to colonize, or to extend Its system of government to, any part of the Western Hemisphere as an act of unfriendliness to the United States. The policy was foreshadowed by Jefferson in 1793, and again In 1801, when the United States express^ to Great Britain its willingness that the Floridas should remain in the hands of Spain, but its unwillingness that they should be transferred to any other power. The doctrine was definitely stated In a message of President Monroe to congress on December 2, 1823, In which he says: “The and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.... We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just ' principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.... ” In another part of the message it is declared that “the American continents, by the free and Independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” This doctrine is now the settled policy of the United States, and while it has not been formally recognized by foreign powers, it has for the most part been generally acquiesced in. The policy vrtth respect to the colonization of America by European powers was occasioned by discussions with Russia as to territorial rights on the northwest coast of America. Existing colonies 6f Great Britain and other countries were not, of course, affected by the declaration. In 1848 President Polk stated that a transfer of the sovereignty of Yucatan to either Spain, Great Britain or any other power could not be consented to by the United States. The same principle was reasserted in 1888 when there were rumors that Haiti might become a protectorate of France, and that the French government might take charge of the work of digging the Panama Canal. The island of Cuba was for a long time a subject for the application of the Monroe Doctrine. As early as 1825 the United States felt that any change in the sovereignty of that Island would be detrimental to its Interests; again in 1848 the position was taken with regard to a possible control by Great Britain over the Island. During the American civil war the emperor of France attempted to establish Prince Maximilian of Austria upon the throne of Mexico. The United States protested, and at the end of the war brought pressure to bear upon France to withdraw her troops, which were in Mexico in support of Maximilian. A boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela gave occasion to President Cleveland to apvirould be likely to press ber claim by force, the United States recommended arbitration between the two countries, and then undertook Itself to appoint a commission, to determine what seemed to be the just boundary line. Finally a commission of arbitration was appointed under treaty between Great Britain and Venezuela, which rendered an award on October 3, 1899. In his annual message of December 8, 1908, President Roosevelt said distinctly: “We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it misconducts Itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any non- American power.” In 1899 the American delegation at the Peace Conference at The Hague made with reference to the convention providing for the new Court of Arbitration the following declaration: “Nothing contained in this convention shall be so construed as to require the United States of America to depart from its traditional policy of not intruding upon, interfering with, or entangling Itself in the political questions or policy or Internal administration of any foreign state; nor shall anything contained in the said convention be construed to imply a relinquishment by the United States of America of its traditional attitude toward purely American questions.” The convention was signed under a reservation in accordance with this declaration. While the United States exercises a sort of wardship over the New World, it recognizes that circumstances may occur in which a foreign power may lawfully exact reparation from an American state; and so long as the reparation does not take the form of territorial occupation, the United States will not interfere. T. J. Lawrence, Int. Law, 4th ed., 282. An International nuisance must be abated, and if European powers are not to be allowed to do so in the case of an American state, the United States must do so. This may lead to a form of intervention, as in the case of San Domingo in 1904-1905, when an American receiver-general was appointed to collect the Dominican customs in order to insure the payment of foreign creditors. It is by an extension of the Monroe Doctrine that the United States justifies its qualified intervention in the domestic affairs of Mexico. If foreign powers are not to be allowed to see to the protection of their citizens and their citizens’ property, then the United States must itself undertake that duty. Moore, Int Law Digest, VI, §§ 927-969. See The Nicaragua Question, by L. M. Keasbey; Reddaway, The Monroe Doctrine; Wharton’s Dig. Int. Law.