68 KANSAS UNIJ^ERSITY QUARTERLY. 



check or suppress it. It was for a time even doubtful whether 

 such an attempt would be made at all. The first conflict of arms 

 took place in April. The President of the United States immedi- 

 ately called for seventy-five thousand volunteers and declared a 

 blockade of the seceded states. A war was immediately prepared, 

 the most regularly equipped, the most regularly conducted and 

 the greatest of modern times. In May and June European states 

 issued proclamations of neutrality, recognizing the fact of war and 

 the belligerency of the parties. We considered these proclama- 

 tions an unjustifiable interference in our internal affairs and an 

 evidence of great unfriendliness and made them for years the 

 subject of a claim for damages against a foreign state. 



In the neighboring colony of a friendly state there has raged for 

 some time an irregular guerilla war. The government of the in- 

 surgents does not approach in completeness the government of the 

 Confederate states. It has not a tenth part of the equipment, of 

 the regularity, or of the prospect of success that the Confederates 

 had. And yet it is seriously proposed that we recognize these 

 insurgents as belligerents and advise Spain to grant them independ- 

 ence, on the ground that she can never conquer them. In what 

 temper would the Union government have received such advice in 

 1861? Interference in the affairs of foreign states, which we resent 

 when applied to ourselves, is an encroachment upon their sove- 

 reignty, a violation of their independence and a denial of their 

 equality. 



According to well settled rules of international law, interference 

 in the affairs of independent states is justified in only two cases: 

 first, when demanded by self preservation and second, when necessa- 

 ry to prevent the commission by a government upon its sulijects 

 of crimes repugnant to humanity. The protest of President Mon- 

 roe came well within the first case. It is difficult for us now to 

 realize the comparative weakness of the United States in 1823. 

 We had at that time a population of less than ten million people 

 sparsely settled over a wide area. Within ten years we had come 

 out of a war with a single European power badly beaten and glad 

 to make peace without mention of the causes of the contest. The 

 establishment by powerful European states of new colonies upon 

 our borders would have been a menace to our peace and safety. 

 The subjugation of South American states by an European alliance 

 acting in the interest of Spain would in principle have justified 

 the conquest of the United States by a similar alliance acting in 

 the interest of Great Britain. The circumstances justified the 

 protest. 



