New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-21
rHE MONROE DOCTRINE.
,,rc HENRYs GRANDFATHER TELLS
u1M OF THE AMERICAN IDEA

Elm OF THE AMERICAN IDEA
grandfather, will you please tell me some
go about the Monroe Doctrine? What is IL
all about" 49,
- Monroe Doctrine my boy, is in Amer
,.,i-ics notice 10 foreign powers to keep
.s.i, fingers out of our pie When James Mon
&c President he said in one of his mes
-. a rongress-that was in December, Isl
-. eo-eien movers had no right to interfere IN
- relating TO the American Continent
IT,. uas aft a time when there was supposed
a. ho q compact on the part of the European
,orers in the interest of Spain in Spanish Amer
40 President Monroe said at that time; we
couis not view an interposiuon for depressing
,be Snanish Americans or controlling IN any
otbe- manner their destiny by any European
mower in any other light than as manIes'a-
SION of an unfriendly disposition toward me
I-;.a5 States, He declared also that the
American continents should nc longer be sub
,ecrs for any new European colonial settle
1nents''
What did all that mean?"
1T meant then and it means STILL that no
European power shall have the right to alter
the constitutions Of American communities III
other words we viii not allow our nelghpors
in Europe to come over here and establish KING
doms or empires on the American Continent
But. grandfather, what about Mexico? I've
heard YOU tell about Macmillan, who was MADE
Emperor Of that country. Was the Monroe DOC
trine overlooked at that time?
when Macmillan was made Emperor he
was the tool of Louis Napoleon, who took ad-
vantage Of the fact that we were in the midst
of q civil war We had all we could do 10 take
care of ourselves. But as soon the war was
o,er William H Seward, who was Secretary Of
State and anxious TO uphold the Monroe Doc
+rine sent word TO Napoleon III that he had
better clear out of Mexico, if he didn't want his
French jacket full Of broken bones, The hint
WAS taken promptly, the French troops We're
hustled off 10 France and poor Macmillan, left
unprotected, too proud to run away like Grim
inal, was taken by the Mexicans and shot"
Have there been any other cases of foreign
roeddling with affairs in our continent since
them
There have been efforts in that direction, but
they always flashed IN the pan, because the
American people, no matter how much they may
differ in other things, are pretty well united
on the subject of the Monroe Doctrine, which
one foreign diplomat once referred to as the
eleventh commandment of the Americans"
How about the sinking of the gunboat in
Hayu the other day by German man-of-war?
Wasn't that On our cohtIiiehl' anu "e9li 1iiAt d
violation Of the Monroe Doctrine, for which we
viii hold the Germans responsible"
BY 10 means. Let me tell you. Hayti nearly
always has q revolution on hand, and there is
one there at this time A gunboat belonging to
the revoluticnist party-her name was Crete-a-
Pierrot-captured ship belonging to the Ham
burg-Anlerican Packet Company, which was
bound for Cape Haytien with arms for the gov
eminent The German consul protested against
this act to no avail So when the German gun
boat Panther came upon the craft in the harbor
Of Gonaives she promptly opened fire upon her
and sunk her That was all right because the
commander Of the Crete-a- Pierrot was nothing
more than pirate"
But what viii Hayti DO about it?'
That's another story. But the Monroe Doc
trine, the injunction the part of the United