re must be
made safe for democracy. It was reserved for our own generation and
for President Wilson to extend the declaration and to say that the
world must be made safe for democracy. President Monroe announced that
we would uphold international law and republican government in this
hemisphere, and as _quid pro quo_ he announced that it was the settled
policy of the United States to refrain from all interference in the
internal affairs of European states. He based his declaration,
therefore, not mainly on right and justice, but on the doctrine of the
separation of the European and American spheres of politics. The
Monroe Doctrine and the policy of isolation thus became linked together
in the public mind as compensating policies, neither one of which could
stand without the other. Even Secretary Olney as late as 1895 declared
that "American non-intervention in Europe implied European
non-intervention in America." It is not strange, therefore, that the
public at large should regard the policy of isolation as the sole
justification for the Monroe Doctrine. There is, however, neither
logic nor justice in basing our right to uphold law and freedom in this
hemisphere on our promise not to interfere with the violation of law
and humanity in Europe. The real difficulty is that the Monroe
Doctrine as interpreted in recent years has developed certain
imperialistic tendencies and that the imperialistic implications of the
policy resemble too closely the imperialistic aims of the European
powers.

For three quarters of a century after Monroe's declaration the policy
of isolation was more rigidly adhered to than ever, the principal
departure from it being the signature and ratification of the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850. By the terms of this treaty we
recognized a joint British interest in any canal that might be built
through the isthmus connecting North and South America, undertook to
establish the general neutralization of such canal, and agreed to
invite other powers, European and American, to unite in protecting the
same. Owing to differences that soon arose between the United States
and England as to the interpretation of the treaty, the clause
providing for the adherence of other powers was never carried out.

For nearly a hundred years we have successfully upheld the Monroe
Doctrine without a resort to force. The policy has never been
favorably regarded by the powers of continental Europe. Bismarck
describe