peace and friendship with the most absolute monarchies, highly appreciating and anxiously desirous of retaining that of the Emperor Alexander; but declaring that, having recognized the independence of the South American states, we could not see with indifference any attempt by European powers, by forcible interposition, either to restore the Spanish dominion on the American continents, or to introduce monarchical principles into those countries, or to transfer any portion of the ancient or present American possessions of Spain to any other European power."

At this time, it appears by a remark of Mr. Adams, the President had already prepared a paragraph of his message relating to this subject, to which his despatch was to be "conformable." The draft of Mr. Adams was the subject of repeated discussions at the meetings of the Cabinet. President Monroe thought it too strong in its expressions. He was cautious, even timid, from fear of offending the Russian emperor, and believed it imprudent to state, as Mr. Adams desired, the principles of our republican government in answer to Count Nesselrode's statement of imperial principles. Messrs. Wirt, Calhoun, and Southard took part in the discussions, and Mr. Gallatin was called in for counsel.

Very soon after the reception of the Can

ning proposals from Mr. Rush, the President had communicated them to the venerable patriot at Monticello for his opinion. Mr. Jefferson had represented his country at Paris and at London, and both as President and as a retired citizen was well advised of the course of European affairs. Nothing had ever shaken his republican faith or his sincere patriotism. Mr. Monroe confided to him the correspondence which contained the germs of such an important feature of American policy, and which possibly involved the independence of the Spanish-American republics, with the fate of liberty itself in the western hemisphere. On the 24th October, 1823, Mr. Jefferson, at the age of eighty years, responds with the vigor and vivacity of youth:

"The question presented by the letters you have sent me is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. .

"Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs.

"Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or all on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship; and nothing

would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and establish the American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign powers of never permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can effect a division in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war."

After speaking of the question of the United States acquiring some Spanish-American domains, and finding it impracticable, he continues:

"I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother

country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible interposition of any other power as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any other form or pretext, and, most especially, their transfer to any power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way."

By desire of the President, Mr. Jefferson transmitted the Rush correspondence to that other experienced statesman of Virginia, Mr. Madison, whose retirement at Montpelier, and his age of seventy-two years, could not prevent patriotic appeals to his wisdom and experience. The junior of Mr. Jefferson by eight years, the response of Mr. Madison indicates a mind by far senior to that of his more vivacious compatriot. His logical mind accepts the situation as portrayed, and sees clearly the necessity "to defeat the meditated crusade" against American independence. Under date of October 30, 1823, he writes to President Monroe:

"It is particularly fortunate that the policy. of Great Britain, though guided by calculations different from ours, has presented a cooperation for an object the same with ours. With that coöperation we have nothing to fear from the rest of Europe, and with it the best assurance of success to our laudable views. There ought not, therefore, to be any backwardness, I think, in meeting her in the way she has proposed; keeping in view, of course,

the spirit and forms of the Constitution in every step taken in the road to war, which must be the last step, if those short of war should be without avail."

In a note to Mr. Jefferson, written a few days later, he gives expression to a sentiment which ran as an undercurrent, and still runs as an undercurrent, of all the policy under discussion. He says: "In the great struggle of the epoch between liberty and despotism, we owe it to ourselves to sustain the former - in this hemisphere, at least."

We now see collected before President Monroe, in anticipation of the final form of his famous declarations, the motive forces and opinions which modified or directed the historical result. Mr. Canning's proposals, sometimes hesitating, sometimes eager, always auxiliary to some unavowed interest of England; Mr. Rush's generous efforts to secure South American independence by British recognition; Russia's bold enunciation of despotic principles and of the right of the Spanish monarch to reclaim his rebellious provinces; Mr. Adams's robust counterblast, declaring the inalienable rights of the people; the vivacious counsels of Jefferson's liberalism, and the sober advice of Madison's trained and logical wisdom, all these contributed to shape the other branch of the Monroe Declaration, as follows: