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MEMORANDUM TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE SECRETARY.

Herewith I transmit a Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine, prepared by your direction, given a little over two months ago.

Voluminous as it is, the Memorandum makes no pretense at being either a treatise or a commentary on the Doctrine; the shortness of time available for the work and the urgency for its completion, coupled with the performance of regular Departmental duties assigned to me, forbade such an undertaking.

Obviously the views set out, both herein and in the Memorandum, are not authoritative statements, but merely personal expressions of the writer.

The Memorandum is by design (to the full extent it has been possible so to make it) a mere collection of documents, or glossed authoritative statements and discussions, accompanied by such slight, running comments only as are necessary to identify the incident or situation with which the documents are connected. This is especially true of the correspondence covering the years immediately preceding the announcement of the Doctrine and thereafter, this material being in the main taken from references or quoted documents given in the International Arbitrations and International Law Digest of John Bassett Moore, whose deep learning and exhaustive research in all matters connected with the international relations of this country, can be appreciated by those only who attempt to follow along any road he has already traveled. In common with every person who writes about American international relations, I owe to Mr. Moore (on account of these two great works) a debt which I can pay only by a full and frank admission of my obligation, which I am happy here fully to make.

The Memorandum deals first with such matters and incidents of our history as British colonies and of our history as a nation under the Constitution up to 1823, as had a bearing on the Doctrine, and indicates the relationship between these matters and the course of concurrent events in Europe, including a brief statement of the development of the Holy Alliance with its aims and purposes.

There follows, after this, extracts of the pertinent parts of our diplomatic correspondence which immediately preceded Monroe's declaration, the declaration itself, and then the more important instances, arranged in chronological sequence, in which the principles of the

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Doctrine or the Doctrine itself has come under consideration and application.

Then follows a collection, under classified headings, of various announcements and declarations touching matters and incidents which have been said not to fall within the Doctrine or its underlying principles.

The pertinent parts of the Doctrine as announced by President Monroe (December 2, 1823) are these:

the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, 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.

It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. 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.

. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will pursue the same course.

The Doctrine, thus declared by Monroe, when reduced to its lowest terms, covers—

(1) Future colonization by any European powers of the American continents.

(2) Any attempt by the allied powers to extend their political system to any portion of this hemisphere, or (in its second statement) to any part of either continent.

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