The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-29

The Monroe doctrine will be exactly 9 It is an event worthy of national eel ebra tion. On that day MT. Monroe sent his seventh annual message to congress.
 It was a moderately long document, open
 ing with a reference to the vast extent
 of the interests on which have to treat and of their great importance to every
 portion of our union'' Then followed many sentences on the importance and necessity In a government like ours of sovereign, fully informed with respect to the conduct of their affairs. ''Their inter ests in all vital questions are the same" the President said, "and the bond will be approximately strengthened as they are
 better informed of the real state of public affairs. especially In different conjunc- lures. It is by such knowledge that the local prejudices and jealousies are sur mounted, and that a national policy ex- tending its fostering care and protection to all the great interests of our union, is formed and steadily adhered to-" The idea and sentiments clothed in the above quoted words were not quite so trite then as they are now. Under the first second and third presidential administrations 1t was not considered in any way essential that the people should know fully what their representative rulers were doing in the conduct of the government. The mon archial traditions of the old world pre- vailed in all the affairs of state. The masses were expected patiently to trust those in power and meek1y to be guided by their superior wisdom. Not until the fourth administration under Jefferson be- gan was the policy laid down that pub licity was a vital principle, and that the people were entitled to know what their representatives from the highest to the lowest were doing. Madison followed in the footsteps of Jefferson in this new pathway of enlightenment. and after Madison came Monroe, pledging himself to take the people into his confidence, and appealing for their support in the measures he had to submit. From this point of view the preceding excerpts from the message must be regarded in order to appreciate their full significance.
 The Monroe doctrine was closely Exuarded secret until 1t was communicated >o congress. Jefferson and Madison knew about it for they had been consulted re- specting it's expediency. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and the other members of the cabinet were, of course, in the Presidents confidence, and they are probably about all who were The of the day had no advance in- timations on the subject for the purpose of preparing and moulding public opin- ion." and the published correspondence of Monroe does not disclose the name of any senator or representative as sharing in the executive councils. MT. Rush was then our minister at the court of St Jamess. If an Atlantic cable had been in existence at the time he would have known all about it. for 1t was his conver- sations with George Canning, the British foreign minister, and his communication of them to Monroe that led up to the pro- mitigation of the famous policy which has thus far protected the New World form becoming the theater of European mon archical exploitation and agrandizement. Because of these conversations between