The United States was then a small nation, but a nation 

 which had been tried in the fire; a nation whose indomitable 

 will had remained unshaken by the dangers through which 

 it had passed. The announcement of the Monroe Doctrine 

 was a manifestation of this will. It was a courageous thing 

 for President Monroe to do. It meant much in those early 

 days, not only to this country but to those nations which were 

 commencing a new life under the standard of liberty. How 

 much it meant we can never know, since for four decades it 

 remained unchallenged. 



During that period the younger Republics of America, 

 giving expression to the virile spirit born of independence 

 and liberal institutions, developed rapidly and set their feet 

 firmly on the path of national progress which has led them 

 to that plane of intellectual and material prosperity which 

 they to-day enjoy. 



Within recent years the Government of the United States 

 has found no occasion, with the exception of the Venezuela 

 boundarj^ incident, to remind Europe that the Monroe Doc- 

 trine continues unaltered a national policy of this Republic. 

 The Republics of America are no longer children in the great 

 family of nations. They have attained maturity. With enter- 

 prise and patriotic fervor they are working out their several 

 destinies. 



During this later time, when the American nations have 

 come into a realization of their nationalitj^ and are fully 

 conscious of the responsibilities and privileges which are 

 theirs as sovereign and independent States, there has grown 

 up a feeling that the Republics of this hemisphere constitute 

 a group separate and apart from the other nations of the 

 world, a group which is united by common ideals and common 

 aspirations. I believe that this feeling is general throughout 



