448 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



has become a magic symbol, and an idol for national worship. 

 Thus it comes about in course of time, after that doctrine 

 lias undergone numerous modifications, after it has been dis- 

 torted in various ways -to meet the requirements of party 

 politics, that it has lost, to some extent, its original meaning. 

 The " doctrine ". is supported on other grounds than those 

 of self -protection ; admittedly British occupation of certain 

 tracts of land in Venezuela could not conceivably endanger 

 the peace, safety, and integrity of the United States, yet the 

 Monroe Doctrine seemed to call for action to prevent such 

 occupancy. 



The position may be maintained with considerable force 

 that when a political principle obtains a superstitious hold 

 upon a nation that compels its blind observance regardless 

 of' consequences it is time to cast it aside. To consign the 

 Monroe Doctrine to its appropriate place of political signifi- 

 cance in American history is by no means to deprive the 

 AiiM'rirjiii people of self -protection. It is only to rid the 

 mind of a disturbing factor in the determination of foreign 

 questions to leave the judgment free to measure danger by 

 the exigencies of the present, and not the remembrance of the 

 fears \\liidi arc <t' the past. 



The acquisition of the Philippine Islands necessarily opens 

 new fields of diplomacy to the United States Government. 

 To some extent at least the older policy of political isolation 

 must give way to that of a. more intimate connection with 

 foreign powers; it is. therefore all the more important that 

 every habit of thought should be suppressed which prevents 

 clear and reasonable consideration of all diplomatic questions. 



There need be no apprehension lest the people of the 

 United States will always be alert and watchful of their own 

 interests. A higher principle than devotion to the Monroe 

 Doctrine will guide principles of an organic law upon 

 which the Monroe Doctrine is founded, and of which the 

 Monroe Doctrine was but a single expression. 



