The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-05

northwestern frontier, it was undoubtedly
our duty. with an eye to the future, TO fiRht
with England sooner than surrender any of
the Pacific ~seacoast south Of the parallel
OF ga 40; we did, however, surrender all
OF that valuable territory which now con.
stitutes British Columbia. Was there any
arrogance In thatf
We pass to more recent proofs of our
national Indifference to territorial aggran.
diEement. In GRANTS Administration we
might nave annexed Santo Domingo, or the
Spanisb-speaking half Of the island Of
Hispaniola, but the UNIFIED States Senate
refused to sanction q treaty to that effect
or even q subsequent treaty giving us con-
troll Of the SANTANA peninsula, After our
civil war the Copenhagen Government
proposed to cell to us the Danish West
Indies. This offer also we refused. Where,
In this long series Of Incidents, can there
be detected any trace Of an encroaching and
an aggressive spirit such as the European
powers display3
The only possible pretext for the charge
made In BIsMARoK's organ IL, Of course, to
be sought in our assertion Of the Monroe
Doctrine. There Is no doubt that the first
PRONUNCIATION Of that doctrine was received
with disgust and indignation by the pow
ers represented in the Holy Alliance, which
had already cast eyesof greed upon Spanish
and Portuguese America. Those vast and
fruitful regions would have been parti-
toned long ago. as Africa was partitioned
lately, but for the peremptory prohibition
issued by the United States n England.
The earth-hunger Of overpeopled Europe
will be keener in the next century than It
has been In this, and, among all the Eu-
ropean powers, none exhibits already 30 in.
tense q craving for colonial possessions as
does Germany.
It is not to be supposed that NAPOLEON
III. or Frenchmen In general were rejoiced
at the fat Of the Washington Government
which compelled the withdrawal Of French
troops from Mexico. 1t is not to be i'm
agined, either, that Lord SALISBURY
or Englishmen In general were pleased
to discover that the Monroe Doctrine
was as applicable to themselves as
to their neighbors On the European
Continent, and that not even Eng.
land would be suffered by us to
seize American territory, under the guise
Of o boundary dispute. But neither Eng
land nor France can AVE been so deeply
aggrieved by our unfinching assertion Of
the Monroe Doctrine as ls Germany, which
has Jagged far behind her rivals In the race
for t~ransmarine dominion, and which,
now seeking to make up for lost time,
sees in South America alone q field
for desirable acquisitions. There are
German merchants in every 1ourishing
town in South America. There has been
for many years o large German population
In the Brazilian province of Rio Grande Do
Sui; there Is a large number of Germans
settled in Argentina. The Germans,
moreover, have long expected eventu-
ally to acquire Dutch Guiana from
Holland; Dutch Guiana, whose south
ern boundary might have been ex-
tended indefinitely, at the expense of
Brazil, II we had permitted o similar en-
croachment on the part Of British Guiana
against Venezuela. The far-sighted BIS
MARoK is not mistaken when he sees that
q deadly blow wa dealt to German hopes
in South America when WI extorted from
Lord SALISBURY q virtual recognition of
the Monroe Doctrine.
It IL not the arrogance of the United
States that BISMARCK really complains of.
What gals him Is our magnanimity, which,
while refraining from any act of rapacity
or domination directed against other Amer
lean commonwealths, insists, In accents
unmistakable, that they shall remain I'M
molested by any European power, and that,
so far as the aggression of foreign States
is concerned, there shall reign, throughout
the bounds Of the New World, the majestic
counterpart Of the Roman peace.