THE MONROE DOCTRINE 293 



the Monroe Doctrine be examined. Was the United States 

 threatened from abroad in 1823 ? If so, do the dangers 

 which threatened the United States in 1823, and called into 

 being the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, threaten the 

 country now? Would a new colony of European origin in 

 South America be a menace to the best interests of the United 

 States to-day ? If a doctrine that found its origin in a genu- 

 ine call for self-preservation is no longer upheld and sustained 

 by that necessity, is its continuance as a national policy longer 

 justified ? 



The widest divergence of opinion is to be found in the 

 United States upon this subject, no two writers to-day agree- 

 ing precisely upon the propriety, the wisdom, or the value of 

 the Monroe Doctrine as a defensive measure. Indeed, all 

 phases of the doctrine, from its alleged origin in the political 

 conditions of our earlier national existence, its authorship, 

 its applications, in fact, its very meaning, have furnished 

 ground for endless discussion. Suffice it to say, the princi- 

 plesjnvolved grew out of certain conditions of our national 

 growth, and the doctrine was then invoked as a defensive 

 measure to meet what seemed to be a menace to our institu- 

 tions. That which sprang out of an emergency has become 

 a vital principle in the foreign policy of the United States ; 

 indeed, it seems to have become a sort of fetish for national 

 worship, the ignis fatuus of American politics. Created 

 as it was to meet the exigencies of the time, it has been 

 expanded into a national determination that the new world 

 must be kept sacred from all European colonization or use. 

 In the course of changing administrations, and with the conse- 

 quent changes of opinion at the White House and the Capi- 

 .tol, the doctrine has too often been distorted from its original 

 meaning, and sometimes used to serve the ends of party 

 warfare. It has been quoted as authority for constituting 

 the United States Government the guardian and protector 

 of all the nations of the American continents. By some it is 

 limited to defensive measures ; by others its interpretation 

 wou!4 justify all sorts of forcible aggression. From a mere 

 right to protect ourselves, the Monroe Doctrine has been 



