330 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



make the stand altogether for an American cause ; and that 

 at the same time, the answer to be given to the Russian com- 

 munications should be used as the means of answering also 

 the proposals of Mr. George Canning, and of assuming the 

 attitude to be maintained by the United States with ref- 

 erence to the designs of the Holy Alliance upon South 

 America." At this point their relative positions were re- 

 versed, the President assuming a bold and defiant attitude, 

 and his Secretary counselling him to follow a more conserva- 

 tive course. Mr. Wirt did not believe that the people of 

 the United States sympathized with the South Americans 

 sufficiently to fight for their cause, in which case he ques- 

 tioned the propriety of issuing any menace whatever, at 

 least he thought the temper of our own people should first 

 be ascertained by consulting Congress. Calhoun supported 

 the President ; the people would fight, he believed, and 

 should fight rather than permit the Spanish colonies to be 

 reduced by the allies ; but lie objected to Adams' plan of 

 manifesto to Baron Tuyll, to which, on the other hand, 

 Southard and, strangely enough, the cautious Wirt gave 

 full approval. 



All of this wrangling seems now to have been quite need- 

 less, for it really made but little difference whether the prin- 

 ciples the administration wished to proclaim to the world 

 should find expression in a letter to the Russian Ambassador 

 or should be embodied in the President's message to Con- 

 gress. Almost at the very last moment, President Monroe 

 seems to have adopted the changes in the draft of message 

 so urgently insisted upon by Mr. Adams. The message, as 

 finally prepared, expressed sympathy with the constitutional 

 manifestos of Spain and Greece ; but it disclaimed all in- 

 tention of interfering abroad, and refrained from censuring 

 either France or the Holy allies. 



The protest against interference on the part of the allies 

 in South America constitutes, however, only one part of 

 the "Monroe Doctrine. "\ In the same message, though in 

 a preceding part of the document, occurs another exposition 

 of a foreign policy, which the President took occasion to 



