THE MONROE DOCTRINE 405 



other on the Mexican frontier, " a time seems to have come 

 when both nations may well consider whether the permanent 

 interests of international peace and friendship do not require 

 the exercise of a thoughtful and serious attention to the politi- 

 cal questions to which I have thus reverted." 



The " political questions " referred to, were that the 

 United States favored republican institutions on the Ameri- 

 can continent, and the French did not. 



The United States refused to recognize Maximilian's Gov- 

 ernment ; and on December 16, 1865, Mr. Seward gave the 

 direct warning to Napoleon that ended the affair, so far as 

 the Monroe Doctrine was concerned. He instructed Mr. 

 Dayton to announce that : 



It has been the President's purpose that France should be 

 respectfully informed upon two points, namely : first, that the 

 United States earnestly desire to continue and to cultivate sin- 

 cere friendship with France ; secondly, that this policy would be 

 brought into imminent jeopardy unless France could deem it 

 consistent with her interests and honor to desist from the prose- 

 cution of armed intervention in Mexiccr'to overthrow the domestic 

 republican government existing there, and to establish upon its 

 ruins the foreign monarchy which has been attempted to be inau- 

 gurated in the capital of thatwiountry. 



With the change of condition in the United States which 

 reunited its strength and gave to it a large veteran army, 

 ready to proceed at once to Mexico, Napoleon saw the down- 

 fall of his scheme. He awoke at last from his dream of 

 Western Empire. 



With the withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico, 

 a movement was begun in Austria to raise an army to pro- 

 ceed to Mexico in support of the deserted Maximilian. Mr. 

 Seward protested, but upon Austria's proposition to despatch 

 a smaller force, Seward replied that the question of military 

 aid for Maximilian was not to be discussed, and should the 

 Austrian Government persist in its determination, the Ameri- 

 can Minister to Vienna would be expected to retire. The 

 Austrian project was accordingly abandoned " in considera- 

 tion of all the . . circumstances." 



