THE MONROE DOCTRINE 385 



oua to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or 

 dependencies of any European power we have not interfered 

 and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have 

 declared their independence and maintained it, and whose 

 independence we have, on great consideration and on just 

 principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition 

 for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any 

 other manner their destiny, by any European power in any 

 other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly dis- 

 position toward the United States. In the war between those 

 new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at 

 the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, 

 and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur 

 which, in the judgment of the competent authorities of this 

 Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part 

 of the United States indispensable to their security. 



" The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe 

 is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can 

 be adduced than that the Allied Powers should have thought 

 it proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have 

 interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To 

 what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same 

 principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose 

 governments differ from theirs are interested, even those 

 most remote, and surely none more so than the United 

 States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted 

 at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that 

 quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, 

 not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its Pow- 

 ers ; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate 

 government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, 

 and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly 

 policy, meeting, in all instances, the just claims of every 

 power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to 

 these continents circumstances are eminently and conspicu- 

 ously different. It is impossible that the allied powers 

 should extend their political system to any portion of either 

 continent without endangering our peace and happiness ; nor 



