The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-09-12

Mexico means war with France, and
President johnson is not mad enough
to bring on his hands q very serious
foreign war before he has closed the
accounts of the great internal strife
Still, we can quite understand that the
presence of the new Emperor is tho
roughly hateful to all true Americans;
we can quite believe that Mr.. Seward
would not dissemble his Joy, if some
day Juarez were to rise again into
power and send back to Miramar a
discom6tted and discrowned Emperor.
We can also understand that if, with
out open breach of neutrality, some
thousand Americans crossed the Rio
Grande and helped the Mexican NAL
contents to expel the new Emperor,
Mr.. Seward would heartily rejoice,
however he might express diplomatic
regret at this violation of American
laws and international obligations.
The question is whether the muster
ing out" in Texas will not help OH un-
authorized raids across the river
boundary. A large army actually en-
rolled can be held in hand, but how
can Gen. Sheridan or Mr.. Seward
answer for disbanded soldiers paid out
the day before? The dispersed Con-
federates have swarmed across the line
to help the new Emperor, taking his
side simply because they feel that
Macmillan is anti Yankee by interest
if not by feeling; and dispersed Fedc-
rails may to some extent follow their
track, taking, of course, the opposite
side. But there is this difference the
dlsbanded Federal soldiers have homes
and friends, have offers of employ
ment elsewhere, and affection and in
terest draw them North. So, that
Juarez must be. very tempting indeed
before he can keep the blue-coats from
the ''sweet embraces of their wives"
and sweethearts, or from the glory and
comfort awaiting returned braves,
made much of in the welcoming cities
of the Northern States. OF course, it
is hard to tell how far the love of ad-
venture, and three or four years ha-
bitude in the wild ways of war, may
make men scorn those domestic
delights signified and symbolized by
one wife and two or three cups of tea;
but we are, at all events, convinced
that whatever troubles may arise on
the Rio Grande will spring from reck-
less individuals, and not from any
action authorized by the United
States.
But, then, there is the Monroe doc
trine. True, we had forgotten Mr..
Monroe; our only excuse is that the
Americans themselves had forgotten
hin, first. In 1923, that gentleman
was President of the United States,
and Spain was then trying to recon
quer her revOlted colonies in the New
World. England, led by Canning,
acknowledged the independence of the
colonies calling q new world into
existence" as that minister magnilo-
quently said-and the United States
did the same. At that time, Mr.. Mon
roe declared that attempts on the part
of the European powers to extend
their system to any portion of the
American hemisphere would be consi-
dered by the United States as danger
GUS to their peace and safety. This was
rather ambiguous; but the President
went on to say that if any European
power interposed ''for the purpose of
oppressing' the new States recognized
by the { vernment at Washington,
or interposed "to control their desti
ny IN any other manner" the United
States would-declare war? no-would
consider the act ''the manifestation Of
an upfriendly disposition towards the
United States" Yet at that very
time such case had actually arisen,
and was in course of transaction.
Spain was trying to re-conquer and
"oppress" States whose independence
mad been acknowledged by the United
States, and yet in the next sentence
Mr.. Monroe avows his neutrality in
the current war. What, then, does
this Monroe doctrine mean? It
is, we believe, the poetry of American
politics the glorious, blue, arching,
but inaccessible, sky to the brown bare
earth OF Yankee facts. Every nation