384 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



the Monroe Doctrine was " viewed, as it should have been, as 

 the mere expression of opinion of the executive . . . designed 

 probably to produce an effect upon the councils of the Holy 

 Alliance in relation to their supposed intention to interfere 

 in the war between Spain and her former colonies. The 

 President had no power to bind the nation by such a pledge." 



Had the territory of Oregon been res nulling a domain 

 upon which no claim rested, and therefore open to coloniza- 

 tion by any nation according to the terms of international 

 law, the application of the Monroe Doctrine to the case 

 would be clearer. In such event, a foreign power would 

 actually have been seeking colonization upon the American 

 continent, and that part of Monroe's message dealing with 

 colonization would have been violated, had any such attempt 

 to acquire Oregon gone unchallenged by the United States* 

 As it was, both the United States and Great Britain claimed 

 the territory in question. It was not a domain res nullius. 

 Great Britain did not seek to extend her dominion, but only 

 to retain what she considered properly belonged to her. 

 Obviously, then, the only settlement of such a question was 

 to be found in a minute comparison of claims, the better 

 one to prevail. In case amicable negotiations failed, an 

 appeal to arms could only be made upon the broad principle 

 of the final resort to settle quarrels. 



Happily the controversy was closed by a compromise set- 

 tlement upon the 49th parallel before the rough arbitrament 

 of war became necessary. 



The expressions of President Polk, touching the Monroe 

 Doctrine, as already quoted, modified to some extent the 

 true meaning of the original declaration. The prohibition 

 of European dominion, as well as colonization, would imply 

 that no transfer of territory to European nations could be 

 permitted, even through voluntary conveyance. The acqui- 

 sition of. territory in North America by any means whatso- 

 ever was interdicted to foreign powers. He restricted the 

 principle, however, to the North American continent. By 

 his application of this principle in the case of Oregon, an 

 implication follows that no foreign power claiming territory 



