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The legitimate power enchained and itself serving as the instrument for overturning all legal rights and liberties, all classes of the population in turmoil from the revolutionary movement, arbitrariness and oppression exercised under the forms of law, a kingdom delivered over to all kinds of convulsion and disorder, rich colonies justifying their emancipation by the same maxims on which the mother country has founded its public law, and which it tries in vain to condemn in another hemisphere, civil war consuming the last resources of the state-such is the picture which the actual situation in Spain presents to us....

6. EUROPE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SPAIN AND THE LATIN-AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

The foreign ministers of Austria, Prussia and Russia between November 22 and December 14, 1822, during the Congress of Verona, sent notes to Spain indicating their agreement with the proposal that France should intervene in that country, where the "legitimate" ruler was a captive of the republican revolution. The tone of these notes is sufficiently illustrated by Metternich's remarks:

By the eternal decrees of Providence, good can never be secured for states any more than for individuals by forgetting the first duties imposed on man in the social order. . . . Military revolt can never form the basis of a happy and durable government.

On December 25, 1822, the French cabinet sent to Spain a note in which it was announced that France, "intimately united with her allies in the firm purpose of destroying by every means the revolutionary principles and movements," would take effective measures to protect herself and her friends-from the contagion. The ensuing French invasion freed Ferdinand VII in September, 1823, and the revolutionary leaders were executed wholesale.

The next move was perfectly clear to any observer of political events. The Holy Alliance, with the scalps of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese revolutions at its belt, would forthwith crusade against freedom in Spanish America and Greece, and then would be in a position to attack directly the United States, which was

the typical example of freedom from “legitimate” rulers. That the drive against Spanish America was coming is proved by a circular note of the Spanish minister of state to the Holy Alliance which was anticipated by President Monroe's message by just 24 days. In this circular the Count of Ofalia said:

The King, our sovereign, being restored to the throne of his ancestors in the enjoyment of his hereditary rights, has seriously turned his thoughts to the fate of his American dominions, distracted by civil war and brought to the brink of the most dangerous precipice. . . .

These reflections powerfully animate his Majesty to hope that the justice of his cause will meet with a firm support in the influence of the powers of Europe. Accordingly, the king has resolved upon inviting the cabinets of his dear and intimate allies to establish a conference at Paris, to the end that their plenipotentiaries, assembled there along with those of his Catholic Majesty, may aid Spain in adjusting the affairs of the revolted countries of America.... His Majesty, confiding in the sentiments of his allies, hopes that they will assist him in accomplishing the worthy object of upholding the principles of order and legitimacy, the subversion of which, once commenced in America, would presently communicate to Europe; and that they will aid him, at the same time, in re-establishing peace between this division of the globe and its colonies.19...

Great Britain, with George Canning as foreign minister, refused to participate in the French invasion of Spain. The instructions to the Duke of Wellington of September 27, 1822, before the Congress of Verona, said that "the uselessness and danger of any such intereference" in Spain were "so objectionable in principle" that the duke was "at once frankly and peremptorily to declare, that to any such interference, come what may, his Majesty will not be a party." The Duke of Wellington made a categorical statement to this effect on November 22, 1822, in reply to a French questionnaire.20

Canning received a copy of the Count of Ofalia's note of December 26, 1823, to the Holy Alliance and replied to it on Jan

1911 British and Foreign State Papers, 55-57; Parliamentary Papers, 1824, XXIV.

2010 British and Foreign State Papers, 4-5, 11-12.

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uary 30, 1824. He then reviewed Great Britain's attitude toward the Spanish question, and in the course of his statement declared:

In a communication made, in the first instance to France, and afterward to other powers [Austria, Russia, Prussia, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United States], as well as to Spain, the same opinions were repeated."1

The opinions referred to have become famous because they have been held by some to prove that the Monroe Doctrine was originated by Canning. The statement just quoted clearly indicates that Canning's well-known letter to Richard Rush, the American minister at London, was not an exclusive communication to the United States, and that as a consequence the British suggestions were not a special invitation to the United States to associate itself with an attitude assumed to make an appeal solely to the American Republic.

The principles declared by Canning in his letter to Rush of August 20, 1823, were:

1. We conceive the recovery of the colonies by Spain to be hopeless. 2. We conceive the question of the recognition of them, as independent states, to be one of time and circumstances.

3. We are, however, by no means disposed to throw any impediments in the way of an arrangement between them and the mother country by amicable negotiation.

4. We aim not at the possession of any portion of them ourselves.

5. We could not see any portion of them transferred to any other power with indifference.

If these feelings are, as I firmly believe them to be, common to your Government with ours, why should we hesitate mutually to confide them to each other, and to declare them in the face of the world? 22

21 II British and Foreign State Papers, 61-62.

"John Bassett Moore, A Digest of International Law, VI, 389.

II. THE MONROE DOCTRINE.

1. PRESIDENT MONROE'S ANNUAL MESSAGE, DECEMBER 2, 1823."

At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg, to arrange, by amicable negotiation, the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been made by his Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of the United States has been desirous, by this friendly proceeding, of manifesting the great value which they have invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor, and their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, the occasion has 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 future colonization by any European powers. (Paragraph 7.)

24

It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the result has been, so far, very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe with which we have so much intercourse, and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our

23 James Daniel Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages ard Papers of the Presidents, 778, 786-788.

24

"On the Adams-Tuyll correspondence which preceded this declaration see Moore, Digest of International Law, VI, 397–399.

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rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments. And to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between these new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the competent authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security. (Paragraph 48.)

The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed, by force, in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose Governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and surely none more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the Government de facto as the legitimate Government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those