THE MONROE DOCTRINE 423 



by international law nor prevent any European power directly 

 interested from enforcing such obligations or from inflicting mer- 

 ited punishment for the breach of them. It does not contemplate 

 any interference in the internal affairs of any American state or 

 in the relations between it and other American states. It does 

 not justify any attempt on our part to change the established 

 form of government of any American state or to prevent the 

 people of such state from altering that form according to their 

 own will and pleasure. The rule in question has but a single 

 purpose and object. It is that no European power or combina-' 

 tion of European powers shall forcibly deprive an American state 

 of the right and power of self-government and of shaping for 

 itself its own political fortunes and destinies. 



That the rule thus defined has been the accepted public law 

 of this country ever since its promulgation cannot fairly be 

 denied. Its pronouncement by the Monroe administration at 

 that particular time was unquestionably due to the inspiration 

 of Great Britain, who at once gave to it an open and unqualified 

 adhesion which has never been withdrawn. But the rule was 

 decided upon and formulated by the Monroe administration as 

 a distinctively American doctrine of great import to the safety 

 and welfare of the United States after the most careful considera- 

 tion by a Cabinet which numbered among its members John Quincy 

 Adams, Calhoun, Crawford, and Wirt, and which before acting took 

 both Jefferson and Madison into its counsels. Its promulgation 

 was received with acclaim by the entire people of the country 

 irrespective of party. Three years after, Webster declared that 

 the doctrine involved the honor of the country. " I look upon 

 it," he said, "as part of its treasures of reputation, and for one 

 I intend to guard it," and he added, 



" I look on the message of December, 1823, as forming a bright 

 page in our history. I will help neither to erase it nor to tear it 

 out ; nor shall it be by any act of mine blurred or blotted. It did 

 honor to the sagacity of the Government, and I will not diminish 

 that honor." 



Though the rule thus highly eulogized by Webster has never 

 been formally affirmed by Congress, the House in 1864 declared 

 against the Mexican monarchy sought to be set up by the French 

 as not in accord with the policy of the United States, and in 1889 

 the Senate expressed its disapproval of the connection of any 

 European power with a canal across the Isthmus of Darien or 

 Central America. It is manifest that, if a rule has been openly 



