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The National Geographic Magazine 



in opposition to the designs of the Holy 

 AlHance, already contemplating the par- 

 tition of the Southern Continent among 

 the great powers of continental Enrope. 

 The famous declaration of Monroe ar- 

 rayed the organized and rapidly increas- 

 ing power of the United States as an 

 obstacle to European interference and 

 made it forever plain that the cost of 

 European aggression would be greater 

 than any advantage which could be won 

 even by successful aggression. 



THi; MONROE DOCTRINE AS SOUND TODAY 

 AS 80 YEARS AGO 



That great declaration was not the 

 chance expression of the opinion or the 

 feeling of the moment ; it crystallized the 

 sentiment for human liberty and human 

 rights which has saved American idealism 

 from the demoralization of narrow sel- 

 fishness, and has given to American 

 democracy its true world power in the 

 virile potency of a great example. It 

 responded to the instinct of self-preser- 

 vation in an intensely practical people. 

 It was the result of conference with Jef- 

 ferson and Madison and John Quincy 

 Adams and John C. Calhoun and William 

 Wirt — a combination of political wisdom, 

 experience, and skill not easily surpassed. 

 The particular circumstances which led 

 to the declaration no longer exist ; no 

 Holy Alliance now threatens to partition 

 South America; no European coloniza- 

 tion of the west coast threatens to exclude 

 us from the Pacific. But those conditions 

 were merely the occasion for the declara- 

 tion of a principle of action. 



Other occasions for the application of 

 the principle have arisen since ; it needs 

 no prophetic vision to see that other occa- 

 sions for its application may arise here- 

 after. The principle declared by Monroe 

 is as wise an expression of sound polit- 

 ical judgment today, as truthful a rep- 

 resentation of the sentiments and instincts 

 of the American people today, as living 

 in its force as an effective rule of conduct 

 whenever occasion shall arise, as it was 

 on the 2d of December, 1823. 



These great political services to South 



American independence, however, did 

 not and could not in the nature of things 

 create any relation between the people of 

 South America and the people of the 

 United States except a relation of political 

 sympathy. 



THE NEW ERA OE AMERICAN RELATIONS 



Twrenty-five years ago Mr Blaine, san- 

 guine, resourceful, and gifted with that 

 imagination which enlarges the histo- 

 rian's understanding of the past into the 

 statesman's comprehension of the future, 

 undertook to inaugurate a new era of 

 American relations which should sup- 

 plement political sympathy by personal 

 acquaintance, by the intercourse of ex- 

 panding trade, and by mutual helpfulness. 

 As Secretary of State under President 

 Arthur, he invited the American nations 

 to a conference to be held on the 24th of 

 November, 1882, for the purpose of con- 

 sidering and discussing the subject of 

 preventing war between the nations of 

 America. That invitation, abandoned by 

 Mr Frelinghuysen, was renewed under 

 Mr Cleveland, and on the 2d of Octo- 

 ber, 1889, Mr Blaine, again Secretary 

 of State under President Harrison, had 

 the singular good fortune to execute his 

 former design and to open the sessions of 

 the first American conference at Wash- 

 ington. In an address of wisdom and 

 lofty spirit, which should ever give honor 

 to his memory, he described the assem- 

 bly as : 



"An honorable, peaceful conference of 

 seventeen independent American powers, 

 in which all shall meet together on terms 

 of absolute equality; a conference in 

 which there can be no attempt to coerce 

 a single delegate against his own concep- 

 tion of the interests of his nation ; a con- 

 ference which will permit no secret un- 

 derstanding on any subject, but will 

 frankly publish to the world all its conclu- 

 sions ; a conference which will tolerate no 

 spirit of conquest, but will aim to culti- 

 vate an American sympathy as broad as 

 both continents ; a conference which will 

 form no selfish alliance against the older 

 nations from which we are proud to claim 



