352 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



Congress and Administration of that day consulted their rights 

 and duties and not their fears. Fully determined to give no 

 needless displeasure to, any foreign power, the United States can 

 estimate the probability of their giving it only by the right which 

 any foreign state could have to take it from their measures. 

 Neither the representation of the United States at Panama nor 

 any measure to which their assent may be yielded there will give 

 to the holy league or any of its members, nor to Spain, the right 

 to take offence ; for the rest the United States must still, as here- 

 tofore, take counsel from their duties rather than their fears. 



Considering the lukewarmness with which Mr. Adams, as 

 Secretary of State, had approached the subject of acknowl- 

 edging the independence of the South American states, and 

 considering his extreme caution and reserve as President in 

 accepting the invitation to participate in the Panama Con- 

 gress, one may wonder at the zeal displayed in his appeals 

 to Congress to send representatives to the isthmus. He 

 threw himself against the opposition of Congress with all his 

 strength ; he made the matter a personal one, as though the 

 refusal of Congress to approve his scheme amounted to no 

 less than an insult, and a personal affront to him. Whatever 

 may have induced him to experience so decided a change of 

 heart, suspicion will remain that a reason of some weight 

 is to be found in the very obstacle itself, the opposition of 

 Congress. Thoroughly aroused by the thrusts of his polit- 

 ical enemies, now considered his personal enemies, the Presi- 

 dent was moved to great earnestness as he penned this 

 message. Seemingly in a spirit of inspiration he concluded 

 the paper. 



That the Congress at Panama will accomplish all, or even any, 

 of the transcendent benefits to the human race which warmed 

 the conceptions of its first proposer it were perhaps indulging too 

 sanguine a forecast of events to promise. It is in its nature a 

 measure speculative and experimental. The blessing of heaven 

 may turn it to the account of human improvement ; accidents 

 unforeseen and mischances not to be anticipated may baffle all its 

 high purposes and disappoint its fairest expectations. But the 

 design is great, is benevolent, is humane. 



