OUR INCONSISTENT MONROE DOCTRINE
"If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most
frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject, because
doctrines get inside of a man's own reason and betray him
against himself."
_William Graham Sumner_, "_War and Other Essays_."
A doctrine is a creed, usually mandatory, framed by one person or set of
persons, for the belief or conduct of another person or set of persons.
A doctrine is not necessarily based upon principles of right, equity,
justice, or even expediency.
Doctrines are directions written on the guide-boards of fanaticism. An
exact truth is never proclaimed as a doctrine: there is no doctrine of
mathematics.
The Monroe Doctrine, which pledged the United States to defend American
republican institutions, north and south, against monarchical
encroachments from the Old World, with the dependable support of
England, was proclaimed in 1823, mainly in response to a Continental
doctrine called the Holy Alliance, formed in 1815 by and between
Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France. The Holy Alliance was in effect a
system of mutual political monarchical insurance, under which the
forces of the allied Powers could be used to subdue revolution against
the institution of kingship.
The French Revolution, followed by the democratic empire of Napoleon,
had severely shaken the old intolerant and intolerable order of things.
The Holy Alliance was an expedient of the old order to insure itself
against democratic institutions.
A revolution in Spain in 1820 was promptly suppressed by the Holy
Alliance, and the Spanish people, who had raised their heads and begun
to look around for freedom, were again bowed under the yoke of the
detested Bourbons. The Holy Alliance was surely a most unholy alliance.
Russia, by a ukase in 1821, claimed the right to keep the vessels of all
other Powers out of the North Pacific Ocean. That was a Russian "Monroe
Doctrine" which helped to make Monroe a doctrinaire.
In 1823 Spain lost, through revolutions, all of her American possessions
except Cuba and Porto Rico, and Portugal had lost Brazil. France had
lost the island of Haiti.
The United States naturally sympathized with the newly-formed states
built on the ruins of the Spanish and Portuguese empires. They had
mostly adopted republican institutions, becoming sisters of the great
northern republic.
James Monroe was not the father of the child named for him, for the
actual formulator of the Monroe Doctrine was John Quincy Adams, at that
time Secretary of State, who got the cue from George Canning.
England wanted unrestricted trade with the Spanish-American countries;
she had no need of additional territory on the American continent, but
she saw danger in its acquisition by other nations. George Canning tried
four times in 1823 to get the United States to join England in her
declaration of the open-door policy. Monroe favored the proposal, but
finally Adams convinced the President that it would be better to avoid
any entangling arrangement with England, and to stand alone.
On the second of December, 1823, in his annual message to Congress,
President Monroe made the following declaration on behalf of the United
States:
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"_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 European powers.... 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._"
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Such was the birth of the famous Monroe Doctrine. Its recognition by
England made it effective. The Monroe Doctrine has nothing whatever to
do with international law. It is simply an expression of British
national policy for the United States.
Our diplomacy, being a branch of our politics, is often inconsistent
with our national policy. American justification for the doctrine
appears to have been mainly dependent upon the fact that we had no
intentions of encroaching upon the spheres of influence of any of the
nations of the Old World, but that we intended to safeguard what we
conceived to be our legitimate sphere of influence.
The American Republic was very young when the Monroe Doctrine was
proclaimed--a doctrine which, as one writer has said, is "the most
magnificent bluff in all history, and so far the most successful."
During the American Civil War, France, with the connivance of England,
conceived the plan of establishing in Mexico the empire of Maximilian.
We were too busy at the time, settling some little differences of
opinion within our family of states, to exact recognition of our
protest. After the memorable exchange of compliments and courtesies
between Grant and Lee at Appomattox, however, Uncle Sam indicated to
Napoleon the Little that the Imperialists must be kicked out. Lacking
the support of France, they were kicked out by the Mexicans.
While through the Monroe Doctrine the United States served notice on the
nations of the Old World to keep hands off the American continent, the
doctrine at the same time constituted an implied promise on our part to
keep hands off any territory beyond the confines of America. So long as
the policies of Great Britain did not run counter to our Monroe
Doctrine, it was destined to be quite effective in preventing
land-grabbing on the American continent by other European Powers. But
the Monroe Doctrine possesses an innate dog-in-the-manger aspect,
certain some day to bring trouble, for the great nations of the world
have far outgrown the expectations of our forefathers; their commerce
has become an inseparable part of the commerce of South American
countries, and their interests in like measure have become identified
with the interests of those countries. Just to the extent that their
welfare and the welfare of the South American republics become mutual
are they likely to be brought into collision with the Monroe Doctrine,
and, when the collision comes, it means war, unless the United States
abandons that doctrine.
[Illustration: The Vast Territory That Our Inflated Monroe Doctrine
Obligates Us to Defend]
Our self-assumed protectorate over the South American republics is not
welcomed by those countries. They resent our arrogance. We have never
cultivated trade with them, nor joined them in the development of their
industries, and have never financed their enterprises. Even when an
American citizen has paid a visit to a South American country, he has
first found it necessary to go to England and take ship from there.
The European countries, on the other hand, have promoted business
relations with the South American republics, have supplied them with
working capital and cultivated their friendship, confidence, and
respect, while we have done nothing of the sort.
The citizens of the United States whom the South Americans have seen in
their dominions have usually been adventurous, irresponsible
fortune-hunters. Their trouble-breeding propensities have not tended to
foster amicable feeling between the great Republic of the North and her
Southern sisters.
So long as the Monroe Doctrine did not circumscribe the ambitions of the
United States the institution possessed some semblance of vitality; but,
when the explosion came that blew up the _Maine_, it also exploded the
Monroe Doctrine, for immediately the United States, abandoning its
time-honored policy of keeping within American confines, and out of
entangling alliances and complications with other nations, reached out a
grasping hand and seized upon the Far Pacific possessions of Spain,
right at the door of China and within the legitimate sphere of influence
of Japan. Yet, curiously enough, we still adhere to the old
proclamation, America for the Americans, oblivious of the equal right of
China and Japan to proclaim, Asia for the Asiatics.
Several years ago, I spoke at a luncheon of the Twentieth Century Club
in Boston. I was seated beside a noted Japanese diplomat. He said, "Mr.
Maxim, you have a Monroe Doctrine--America for the Americans; we also
have a similar doctrine--Asia for the Asiatics; but we are not ready to
enforce ours yet, and you are not ready, and are not likely to be ready,
to enforce yours. A little later, we shall inquire by what logic you can
proclaim America for the Americans, and disclaim our right equally to
proclaim Asia for the Asiatics."
The Japanese are a far-seeing and a patient people. They know how to
wait, but they know also when to strike, and how to strike with the
force of a Jovian thunderbolt. They are no longer merely a cute little
picture-book people. They have risen with stupendous strides into a very
eminent position as a World-Power, a Power to be reckoned with. They are
different from us, but we have no right to consider them our inferiors.
They may very possibly prove to be our superiors. A government of the
people and for the people is a failure if the government does not take
measures for the adequate defense of the people. Self-preservation is
the first law of nature. Consequently, it is a law which must be
observed as the chief element of greatness.
I quote the following from "The Valor of Ignorance," by General Homer
Lea:
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"_How unreasonable is it to expect that the combined nations of Europe,
with all their military strength, shall remain restricted to one-twelfth
of this world's land, burrowed into and hewn over for the last thousand
years, while this Republic, without armies, shall maintain dominion over
one-half the unexploited lands of the world! Or that Japan, possessed of
two-thirds the population of this nation and a military organization
fifty-fold greater, shall continue to exist on her rocky isles that are,
inclusive of Korea, but one-two-hundred-and-fiftieth of the earth's
lands, while an undefended one-half lies under the guns of her
battleships!_
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"_The Monroe Doctrine is Promethean in conception, but not so in
execution. It was proclaimed in order to avoid wars; now it invites
them...._
"_The Monroe Doctrine, if not supported by naval and military power
sufficient to enforce its observance by all nations, singly and in
coalition, becomes a factor more provocative of war than any other
national policy ever attempted in modern or ancient times.... Societies,
religions, unions, business men, and politicians on the one hand, spare
no effort to debase every militant instinct and military efficiency or
preparation necessary for its enforcement, while, on the other, they
demand that the Chief Executive shall assert to the entire world this
Republic's intention to maintain, by the force of arms if necessary,
this most warlike and encompassing policy ever enunciated by man or
nation._"
* * * * *
The Monroe Doctrine did not require that any American possessions of the
European monarchies should be relinquished, but simply that they should
not be extended; and that, if relinquished or lost, they should not be
re-established as monarchical possessions.
England, being in possession of the vast domain of Canada in North
America, British Honduras and British Guiana in South America, and a
goodly number of the West Indian islands, was in a position to look with
favor on the Monroe Doctrine, because in the event of Great Britain
being defeated in war by any of the Great Powers, her victor or victors
would be unable to seize any of her American possessions, for
automatically the United States would become an ally of Great Britain,
and would, in order to defend the Monroe Doctrine, have to defend these
possessions.
When Sir Charles Tupper was High Commissioner of Canada, the writer saw
him in London, and suggested to him that it would be a good idea for the
Canadians to buy some automatic guns. He replied that Canada was very
peculiarly situated; that she could not be attacked successfully by any
Power unless the British fleet were first destroyed, which was not
likely, and, in the possible event of that fleet being destroyed, then
the United States would be obliged to defend Canada in order to defend
the Monroe Doctrine.
The peace sophists often refer to the unfortified border-line between
the United States and Canada as an argument in favor of the abolition of
armaments throughout the world. They fail to perceive that the same
unarmed condition would not work between European countries, as, for
example, between France and Germany. If the people of Canada and the
United States were as different in race, language, ideals, and
ambitions as are the French and Germans; and if, also, the two countries
were as thickly settled and the inhabitants as land-hungry; and if each
had a history as antagonistic as the French and Germans; then
fortifications would be needed on the Canadian border. But the Canadians
and ourselves are of the same race, we speak the same tongue, we have
similar ideals and ambitions, and our history is not antagonistic; on
the contrary, it has been largely a common history--the history of
England, the mother country.
England and France were obligated to defend Belgium against Germany.
Their defenses consisted mainly in bluff, but they were, nevertheless,
far better prepared to support Belgium than we would be to support any
South American country against German aggression.
The navy of England is so far superior to ours that should she at any
time care to ignore the Monroe Doctrine and colonize in South America we
should be absolutely unable to prevent her. She would be able to isolate
us from South America and from the rest of the world, within the
continental territory of the forty-eight states. An impenetrable barrier
of British warships would lie between us and the Panama Canal.
Therefore, it will be seen that our Monroe Doctrine is an Anglo-American
compact, an _entente_, which we are obliged to defend if it should be in
the interest of Great Britain, and which Great Britain would not be
obliged to observe in case she might want to ignore it:
Let us invite Admiral Mahan to conclude this chapter:
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"_In the Monroe Doctrine, as now understood, and viewed in the light of
the Venezuela incident, with the utterances then made by our statesmen
of all parties, we have on hand one of the biggest contracts any modern
state has undertaken._"
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