MONROVIA 



3902 



MONTAIGNE 



occupation of Mexico (1861-1867). Secretary 

 Seward did not at that time use the expression 

 "Monroe Doctrine" in his dispatches, but he 

 gave the French plainly to understand that 

 they must leave Mexico or the United States 

 would compel them to go. 



The original Monroe Doctrine has been 

 much altered and enlarged by public statements 

 made by Presidents and Secretaries of State, 

 especially President Polk in 1845; by President 

 Grant in 1869; by Secretary Evarts in 1880, 

 who used the new phrase "the paramount inter- 

 est of the United States." President Cleveland, 

 in 1895, took the extreme position that the 

 Monroe Doctrine was international law binding 

 on Great Britain, and that it was violated when 

 Great Britain refused to arbitrate the boundary 

 question with Venezuela. Secretary Olney went 

 further by the statement that "to-day the 

 United States is practically sovereign on this 

 continent and its fiat is law upon the subjects 

 to which it confines its interposition." 



The delegates of the United States to the 

 Hague Conferences expressly reserved from the 

 operations of the Hague Conventions our "tra- 

 ditional attitude toward purely American ques- 

 tions." President Roosevelt extended the doc- 

 trine to cover the case of a European power 

 which might attempt to seize or occupy the 

 territory of an American state in order to se- 

 cure payment of claims. At the same time he 

 announced that the United States would itself 

 deal with American neighbors which refused to 

 make proper amends to European powers. 

 This is the so-called policy of "the Big Stick." 



The Monroe Doctrine has never been ex- 

 pressed in a treaty or an act of Congress, and it 

 has undergone many changes in the course of a 

 century. Nevertheless its underlying principle 

 is that European powers shall not come in and 

 alter the map of America, which would be to 

 the disadvantage of the United States. The 

 League of Nations covenant (1919) acknowl- 

 edged and emphasized the Doctrine. A.B.H. 



Consult Taft's The United Stales and Peace; 

 Bigelow's American Policy; Kasson's Evolution 

 and History of the Monroe Doctrine. 



MONROVIA, monro'via, the capital of the 

 negro republic of Liberia, in West Africa, situ- 

 ated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the 

 Saint Paul River. It is a port of entry, visited 

 regularly by seven lines of steamers, from 

 Great Britain, Germany and Spain. The prin- 

 cipal exports are rubber, coffee, palm nuts, palm 

 oil and dyewoods. Monrovia is the seat of Li- 

 beria College, was, founded in 1824 and named 



for President James Monroe. See LIBERIA. 

 Population, about 6,000. 



MONSOON, monsoon', the seasonal wind on 

 the Indian Ocean which blows in an almost 

 steady gale from the southwest from April to 

 October. Although this part of the world lies 

 where the trade winds blow from the northeast 

 during the other half of the year, the heat 

 equator moves so far north during the sum- 

 mer that the direction of the wind is forced to 

 change, for cool air, which is heavy, naturally 

 pushes in where the light, warm air is rising. 

 These summer winds generally are accompanied 

 by rain in portions of India and the East In- 

 dies, so sailors have called them the wet mon- 

 soons, while the trade winds are often termed 

 the dry monsoons in this section. When the 

 rain fails to accompany the southwest monsoon, 

 as it did in the years 1895, 1896 and 1899, ter- 

 rible famines occur in India and the East In- 

 dies, causing a great loss of life. See map, 

 WIND. 



MONTAIGNE, montane', MICHEL EYQUEM 

 DE (1533-1592), a French writer who has the 

 honor of having initiated the essay form of 

 literature. He was born at the Castle of Mon- 

 taigne in Perigord, and until the age of six was 

 taught to speak nothing but Latin. After that 

 time he became a pupil at the College de 

 Guyenne at Bordeaux, and when thirteen began 

 the study of law. Little is known of his youth 

 and early manhood, but from 1554 until 1567 

 he was a parliamentary counselor. His first 

 literary work was the translation of the Nat- 

 ural Theology of Raimond Sebond. In 1571 he 

 succeeded to his father's estates, and in 1580 

 traveled extensively in Switzerland, Italy and 

 Germany for health, instruction and pleasure. 



During this life of leisure he began to write 

 the essays for which he is famous, doing this, 

 as he said, because he felt the need of occupa- 

 tion. These essays, which have held the at- 

 tention of readers for over 300 years, were in- 

 spired by the caprice of the moment and 

 touched upon all kinds of subjects, even upon 

 the tastes, habits and thoughts of his own daily 

 life, and have exercised a lasting influence on 

 the world's thought and writing. His Voyages, 

 a diary of his travels, was first published in 

 1774. The translations of Montaigne's essays 

 by Florio, revised by Hazlitt in 1893, are still 

 the standard English version. It was Florio'a 

 version with which Shakespeare was familiar, 

 and this same translation had an influence on 

 the writing of Bacon, the greatest English es- 

 sayist. See ESSAY. 





