350 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



those possessions would be to usurp to the exclusion of others a 

 commercial intercourse which was the common possession of all. 

 It could not be done without encroaching upon existing rights of 

 the United States. The Government of Russia has never dis- 

 puted these positions nor manifested the slightest dissatisfaction 

 at their having been taken. Most of the new American Republics 

 have declared their entire assent to them, and they now propose, 

 among the subjects of consultation at Panama, to take into con- 

 sideration the means of making effectual the assertion of that 

 principle, as well as the means of resisting interference from 

 abroad with the domestic concerns of the American Governments. 



In alluding to these means it would obviously be premature at 

 this time to anticipate that which is offered merely as matter for 

 consultation, or to pronounce upon those measures which have 

 been or may be suggested. The purpose of this Government is to 

 concur in none which would import hostility to Europe or justly 

 excite resentment in any of her States. Should it be deemed 

 advisable to contract any conventional engagement on this topic, 

 our views would extend no further than to a mutual pledge of the 

 parties to the compact to maintain the principle in application to 

 its own territory, and to permit no colonial lodgments or establish- 

 ment of European jurisdiction upon its own soil ; and with respect 

 to the obtrusive interference from abroad if its future charac- 

 ter may be inferred from that which has been and perhaps still is 

 exercised in more than one of the new States a joint declaration 

 of its character and exposure of it to the world may be probably 

 all that the occasion would require. . . . 



The condition of the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico is of 

 deeper import and more immediate bearing upon the present in-* 

 terests and future prospects of our Union. The correspondence 

 herewith transmitted will show how earnestly it has engaged the 

 attention of this Government. The invasion of both those islands 

 by the united forces of Mexico and Colombia is avowedly among 

 the objects to be matured by the belligerent States at Panama. 

 The convulsions to which, from the peculiar composition of their 

 population, they would be liable in the event of such an invasion, 

 and the danger therefrom resulting of their falling ultimately 

 into the hands of some European power other than Spain, will 

 not admit of our looking at the consequences to which the Con- 

 gress at Panama may lead with indifference. 



After giving assurances that the "assembly will be in its 

 nature diplomatic and not legislative merely consultative," 



