time, appeared to signify. He had secured for his policy the moral
co-operation of the New World's greatest power--the Republic of the
United States. It was on the inspiration of Canning that the President
of the United States embodied in a message to Congress that declaration
of principle which has ever since been known as the Monroe doctrine.
President Monroe, who knew well that he was proclaiming no doctrine which
his influence and his authority with his country would not enable him to
carry out, made known to Congress that it was his intention to warn
European sovereigns against the danger of setting up their systems in any
part of the New World. The United States, according to President
Monroe's declaration, had no idea of interfering with existing systems,
but if European sovereigns were to set up governments of their own on any
other part of the American continents and against the wishes of the
populations, the United States must regard any such attempt as a menace
and a danger to the American Republic. This is in substance the meaning
of that Monroe doctrine which has often been criticised unfairly or
ignorantly on this side of the Atlantic, and its proclamation was
undoubtedly due, at the time, to the advice which came from George
Canning. President Monroe never meant to say that the Government of the
United States had any idea of interfering with British North America or
with the Empire of Brazil. The {45} Canadian provinces of Great Britain
were, of course, perfectly free to remain a loyal part of the British
Empire so long as it suited the interests and the inclinations of the
Canadians. If the people of Brazil chose to be governed by an emperor,
the United States Government did not assert any right to interfere with
their choice. But what the Monroe doctrine did declare was that if any
foreign sovereigns attempted to bring liberated American colonies again
under their sway, or to set up by force new subject colonies on American
shores against the wishes of the populations concerned, the United States
must regard such action as a menace and a danger to the American
Republic, and must not be expected to look quietly on without any attempt
at intervention. This was, in the truest sense, the announcement of a
policy of peace, for it frankly made known to the despotic rulers of the
Old World what their risk must be if they ventured on the futile
experiment of setting up despotic states on the shores of the