THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



381 



in silence permit any European interference on the North Ameri- 

 can continent, and should any such interference be attempted, 

 will be ready to resist it at any and all hazards. 



It is well known to the American people and to all nations that 

 this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting 

 between other governments. We have never made ourselves par- 

 ties to their wars or their alliances ; we have not sought their ter- 

 ritories by conquest ; we have not mingled with parties in their 

 domestic struggles; arid believing our own form of government 

 to be the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by in- 

 trigues, by diplomacy, or by force. We may claim on this conti- 

 nent a like exemption from European interference. The nations 

 of America are equally sovereign and independent with those of 

 Europe. They possess the same rights, independent of all foreign 

 interposition, to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their 

 internal affairs. The people of the United States cannot, there- 

 fore, view with indifference, attempts of European powers to 

 interfere with the independent action of the nations on this con- 

 tinent. . . . 



The President had already said in his inaugural address 

 of the previous March : 



None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace, 

 if Texas remains an independent state, or becomes an ally, or de- 

 pendency of some foreign nation more powerful than herself. 



Was it not necessary, therefore, to take Texas, before 

 Europe might intervene between her and Mexico, and, in 

 the confusion of civil war, perhaps gain a foothold in the 

 Lone Star state? 



The scarecrow of European aggression in Texas was so 

 obviously a pretence that it was never seriously considered 

 by the government ; but it disguised the real situation and 

 furnished a soothing balm for the conscience. The acquisi- 

 tion of Texas, sooner or later, both on account of its geo- 

 graphical position and the temper of its people, was a moral 

 certainty ; but to take it in assumed fear that some other 

 nation might do so, was a clear perversion of the Monroe 

 Doctrine. 



