The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1895-12-28
Force OF the Monroe Doctrine.
Chicago Infer-Oraan.

/ Chicago Inter-Ocean.
1t is not at all surprising that some
/ knights of the library should see in the
assertion of the Monroe doctrine the
diciat0rial enunciaticn of an unauthor-
lied dictum Of international law. One
must step outside the domain of the
| bookworm TO appreciate the conditions
I which gave rise to what might well be
called Americas decree Of the Modes
and Persians that altereth not.
I The birth of this Nation was not
merely the adding of one more mem
/ Der to the family Of nations. All other
nations are contiguous in territory and
/ in every other way merge into and lap
over each other as our several states do.
I The three old continents are either
( not divided at all or only by little seas
/ that serve as highways, facilitating in
course, rather than barring it. Inter
national law gradually grew up out of
such conditions. 1t would be unreason-
( able TO expect an international code
J
chain of nations thus interlinked to be
fully adequate to the requirements of
! the new conditions which began with
our independence.
For nearly three centuries America
was kind Of no mans land except a..
the subject of this or that European ma
ton acquired title by separate sover-
eighty. In that way all North and
South America had been parceled out,
subject TO change of ownership at the
lannon's mouth. England was slow in
coming into the field. Spain, Portugal,
| France, Holland, and even far away
Sweden took in the importance of the
new world before England had any
conception of it. But lost time was
soon made up, and by the time our
country began to be restless under the
colonial yoke England had acquired
possession OF nearly all North America,
and Spain possessed ali of South Amer
lea, except great Brazil and little Guia-
ma, besides no inconsiderable part of
Southern North America. France bad
little territory sand wiched ia between
British and Spanish possessions. That
was the situation when our revolution
airy war began.
The declaration of Emerson that the
shot fired at Concord was heard round
the world is something more than a
flash Of poetry. 1t is CLEAN Of history
as well. 1t announced to the old world
the birth of new world idea. 1t was
protest, and a successful one, as it prov
ed, against the three-centurv old theory
that this continent was simply the
spoils of the old world. 1t was the first
enunciation OF the doctrine 0, America
for Americans. 1t was the seed thought
of the Monroe doctrine. 1t was con-
fined in its assertion and vindication to
the thirteen English colonies occupying
the best part of the better of the two
Americas. The principle involved was
confined in its application TO those col
onies and the mother country. But
l77G logically, and by an inevitable Sc
quence of development led to 1923.
What Washington applied to these col
onies Monroe applied to all America, as
an international right and privilege.
The Monroe doctrine is not found in
the message of that year only. That
message was only a part OF 1t. The
formal recognition of the independence
Of the Spanish-American colonies,
which set up the standard of revolt, WAS
an integral part of the doctrine. The
Holy Alliance had undertaken among
other things to perpetuate the colonial
dependence of America, outside Of the
United States. \ new international law
was sought to be added by the great
powers of continental Europe to the
code of nations, under which, if allow
ed to stand, the United States would be
the only real nation in both Americas
To this outrageous attempted new in
ternationaI law Monroe made prompt
response by recognizing the insurgents.
He was as precipitate about it rs Lord
John Russell WAS in 1861 in recognizing
the Corfederates as belligerents. Mon
roe rounded out the defiance and an
nulment by adding to the recognition of
the right and independence the declar-
alton that no European power should
evir add TO its American territory.
Thus, on the one hand, he indicated
the right of American colonies to re-
volt, and on the other he narrowed Eu-
roDesn possessions to existing limits.
In other words he said so all European
powers having colonies in America,
You are liable t. lose what you have
got, and under no circumstances can
you increase your American holdings"
No doubt the Won Holsts of 1923
thought Monroe dictator, and brand
ed as ignorant whoever upheld his doc
trIne, but the doctrine has stood all
the same these seventy odd years. Not
one of all that large group of republics
has lost It's liberties, nor has any Eu-
rOpean power SO much as attempted to
increase it's territory in America, En-
gland alone excepted. Never was a
new law of nations so generally aCqui-
esced in by all whom it concerned. To
allow it now TO be overridden and
tramped in the mud would be the
greatest crime Of the nineteenth CEN
fury.
Hrs Hnr-uI HiuI,nrSS docs Not