1823.] DECLARATION OF PRESIDENT MONROE. 335 



for similar purposes, was, at the same time, in progress at St. Peters- 

 burg, between the governments of Russia and Great Britain ; the 

 latter power having formally protested against the claims and princi- 

 ples advanced in the ukase of 1821, immediately on its appearance, 

 and subsequently, during the session of the congress of European 

 sovereigns at Verona.* Under these circumstances, a desire was 

 felt, on the part of the government of the United States, that a joint 

 convention should be concluded between the three nations having 

 claims to territories on the north-west side of America; and the 

 envoys of the republic at London and St. Petersburg were severally 

 instructed to propose a stipulation to the effect that no settlement 

 should, during the next ten years, be made, in those territories, by 

 Russians south of the latitude of 55 degrees, by citizens of the 

 United States north of the latitude of 51 degrees, or by British 

 subjects south of the 51st or north of the 55th parallels. 



This proposition for a joint convention was not accepted by 

 either of the governments to which it was addressed ; the principal 

 ground of the refusal by each being the declaration made by Presi- 

 dent Monroe in his message to Congress, at the commencement of 

 the session of 1823, that — in the discussions and arrangements then 

 going on with respect to the north-west coasts — " the occasion had 

 been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights 

 and interests of the United States are involved, that the American 

 continents, by the free and independent condition which they have 

 assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects 

 for colonization by any European power ■." f Against this declaration, 



* Debate in Parliament on the inquiry made by Sir James Mackintosh on this 

 subject, May 21, 1823. 



t The message of December 2d, 1823, containing this declaration, also announced 

 the resolution of the United States to view " as the manifestation of an unfriendly 

 disposition" towards themselves any attempt, on the part of a European power, to 

 oppress or control the destiny of any of the independent states of America. This 

 noble resolution was taken upon the assurance that the United States would, if ne- 

 cessary, be sustained in enforcing it by Great Britain, without whose cooperation it 

 would have been ineffective, certainly as to the prevention of the attempts. The 

 circumstances which induced the American government thus, at the same time, 

 openly to offer a blow at the only nation on whose assistance it could depend, in case 

 the anticipated attempts should be made by the despotic powers of Europe, have not 

 been disclosed. That it is the true policy of the United States, by all lawful means, 

 to resist the extension of European dominion in America, and to confine its limits, 

 and abridge its duration, wherever it may actually exist, is a proposition which no 

 arguments are required to demonstrate, either to American citizens or to European 

 sovereigns ; but this proclamation, by the government of the United States, of its 

 intention to pursue those ends, could have no other effect than to delay the attainment 

 of them, as it has evidently done. 



