THE MONROE DOCTRINE 349 



On the 15th of March (1826), Mr. Adams, still undismayed, 

 sent a special message to the House of Representatives, in 

 which he sought to demonstrate to that body the great im- 

 portance of the Panama mission. The message is too redo- 

 lent of the flowers of rhetoric, but it is a remarkably vigorous 

 paper. Here and there occur expressions that throw con- 

 siderable light upon Adams' conception of the extent and 

 scope of the Monroe Doctrine, and which, coming from a 

 joint author of the doctrine itself, are of great value : 



But objects of the highest importance, not only to the future 

 welfare of the whole human race, but bearing directly upon the 

 special interests of this Union, will engage the deliberations of the 

 Congress of Panama whether we are represented there or not. 

 Others, if we are represented, may be offered by our plenipotenti- 

 aries for consideration having in view both these great results 

 our own interests and the improvement of the condition of man 

 upon earth. It may be that in the lapse of many centuries no 

 other opportunity so favorable will be presented to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States to subserve the benevolent purposes 

 of Divine Providence; to dispense the promised blessings of the 

 Redeemer of Mankind ; to promote the prevalence in future ages of* 

 peace on earth and good will to man, as will now be placed in their 

 power by participating in the deliberations of this congress. . . . 



The late President of the United States, in his message to 

 Congress of the 2d December, 1823, while announcing the nego- 

 tiation then pending with Russia, relating to the northwest coast 

 of this continent, observed that the occasion of the discussions to 

 which that incident had given rise had been taken for asserting 

 as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United 

 States were involved that the American continents, by the free 

 and independent condition which they had assumed and main-/ 

 tained, were thenceforward not to be considered as subjects for/ 

 future colonization by any European power. The principle had 1 

 first been assumed in that negotiation with Russia. It rested 

 upon a course of reasoning equally simple and conclusive. With 

 the exception of the existing European colonies, which it was in 

 nowise intended to disturb, the two continents consisted of several 

 sovereign and independent nations, whose territories covered their 

 whole surface. By this their independent condition the United 

 States enjoyed the right of commercial intercourse with every part 

 of their possessions. To attempt the establishment of a colony in 



