370 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



should bind themselves to discountenance all attempts to- 

 that effect. 



President Fillmore's attitude toward Cuba was made 

 known in his annual message of 1852, in which he gave 

 assurance that the United States not only contemplated no 

 designs against Cuba, but that he " should regard its incor- 

 poration into the Union at the present time as fraught with 

 serious peril." Its acquisition by the United States against 

 Spanish opposition he regarded "as a hazardous measure. ' v 

 Notwithstanding these views, the invitation of France and 

 Great Britain was declined by the President for several 

 good reasons. While it might have been reassuring to know 

 that both England and France stood pledged to keep their 

 hands off Cuba, a pledge falling quite in line with the 

 Monroe Doctrine, yet it was considered improper to admit 

 European nations into the councils of the United States 

 upon an equal footing relative to the affairs of a territory so 

 essentially connected with American interests. 



The Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, had already given 

 the Spanish Minister little hope to expect the President .to- 

 consent to the desired arrangement with Great Britain and 

 France. His objections to the measure lay principally in 

 the direction of avoiding entangling alliances, and in the 

 desire of the United States " to keep itself free from national 

 obligations, except such as affect directly the interests of the 

 I'nited States themselves." The death of Mr. Webster, in 

 the summer of 1852, transferred the entire subject to his suc- 

 cessor, Mr. Everett. The latter, in a communication to 

 Comte de Sartiges (December 1, 1852), reviewed the atti- 

 tude of the United States in this matter, and although he 

 made no mention of the Monroe Doctrine as such, his refer- 

 ence is clear when he says : " The President does not covet 

 the acquisition of Cuba for the United States. At the same 

 time he considers the condition of Cuba as mainly an Ameri- 

 can question. The proposed convention proceeds on a differ- 

 ent principle. It assumes that the United States have no- 

 other or greater interest in the question than France or Eng- 

 land, whereas, it is only necessary to cast one's eye on the 



