322 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer 

 Europe to intermeddle with cis- Atlantic affairs. America, North 

 and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, 

 and peculiarly her own. She should therefore'have a system of 

 her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the 

 last is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our endeavor 

 should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One 

 nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers 

 to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her propo- 

 sition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty 

 weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a con- 

 tinent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt 

 and difficulty. Great Britain is the nation which can do us the 

 most harm of any one, or all on earth ; and with her on our side 

 we need not fear the whole world. With her then, we should 

 most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship ; and nothing would 

 tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, 

 side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even 

 her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war 

 in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be 

 its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to intro-4 

 duce and establish the American system, of keeping out of our 

 land all foreign powers, of never permitting those of Europe to 

 intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our' 

 own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, 

 we can effect a division in the body of the European powers, and 

 draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we should . 

 do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that it will * 

 prevent instead of provoke war. With Great Britain withdrawn 

 from their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all 

 Europe combined would not undertake such a war. For how 

 would they propose to get at either enemy without superior 

 fleets ? Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposi- 

 tion offers, of declaring our protest against the atrocious viola- 

 tions of the rights of nations, by the interference of any one in 

 the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, 

 and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling itself 

 Holy. . 



I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, 

 that we aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, 

 that we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement 

 between them and the mother country ; but that we will oppose, \ 

 with all our means, the forcible interposition of any other power, | 

 as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any other form of pretext, and 



