see our way clearly. In the improbable event that Cuba should win her independence and the attempt should be made to reduce her again to Spanish subjection, then would be the clearest case for the application of the doctrine. If Spain should propose to sell Cuba to some despotic government, like Russia for instance, it would probably be a case for our interference under the letter, if not the spirit, of the Monroe doctrine. Whether we should buy the island ourselves is another and an outside question. That would depend upon whether we desire territorial expansion like Rome and perhaps to die of our expansion, and riches, and corruption, as Rome did.

I can only have a word to say of the case of Venezuela, although that is the origin and exact point of all the discussion and excitement over this question. The test of our right to interfere in any case is, to use the exact language of President Monroe, that the proposed action of a foreign power "should extend their political system to any portion of either continent," and thus "endanger our peace and happiness." With a mere boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela, or any other South American government, we could have nothing to do unless the claim of Great Britain threatened not only the territorial integrity but the political autonomy of the weaker power. Not even in a case of war over such a dispute could we take sides unless the strong monarchy threatened to subvert the government of the weak and helpless republic, and thus to "extend its political system to this hemisphere." It follows, therefore, that our governmental action must not turn upon sympathy for Venezuela, however natural and well founded that sympathy may

be. We must adhere to that other great unwritten but hallowed law of national policy handed down to us by Washington in his farewell address, not to "intermeddle in the affairs of other nations.”

On the other hand, if our government has discovered through the channels of diplomacy, hid from the public view, a purpose on the part of England to push this claim, or encroachment, to a subversion of the Venezuelan state, and the absorption of her territory,and her persistent refusal to arbitrate lends some countenance to this view, then President Cleveland's ringing and patriotic message was amply justified as a warning shot across her bows. The place to begin the defense of the castle is at the outer gate. We do not need to wait until our assailants have penetrated to the threshold. But the addition of a few acres or miles, more or less, to British Guiana, would not "endanger our safety," so as to be a just cause for war. The Monroe doctrine expressly disclaims any interference with foreign colonial possessions on this hemisphere. British Guiana has never disturbed us in the past, and is not likely to in the future. Nor is Canada, the great colonial dependence of England, herself, on our own borders, regarded as any menace to our future peace and safety. Even with Dom Pedro, the Brazilian emperor, our relations were always unusually peaceful and pleasant. I am not here criticising the administration or Congress. I have the utmost confidence in the sturdy and conscientious patriotism of President Cleveland, and in his courage to do the right thing, as he shall see it. Perhaps, with his wider outlook, he has already seen it in this case, and has done well to call a halt.

HAS SERVED A GREAT PURPOSE.

At all events, this fresh and vigorous announcement of the Monroe doctrine, in all its fullness, will do no harm. This doctrine has already served a great purpose in the past. Under it we have grown to national greatness. We have become so great and powerful, indeed, that the danger which Jefferson and Madison, and Monroe and Adams saw has been greatly lessened if it has not entirely disappeared. England encouraged the announcement of this doctrine at the outset, and her eloquent prime minister, Canning, then uttered his famous boast in Parliament: "I have called the New World to redress the balance of the Old." After the flurry of popular excitement and the delays of diplomacy shall have been passed, she will respect it still. She will arbitrate, or come to an agreement with Venezuela. There will be no war. The very thought of such a catastrophe to the Christian civilization of this age is almost unspeakable. And if England does not, no other nation will, disturb us. There are but two absolute monarchies in Europe to-day, and there is not a king, or queen, or emperor, now left on all this great Western Hemisphere. It will be the crowning consummation and glory of the Monroe doctrine for our great republic to stand guard forever over the New World which Columbus discovered, and maintain it for the chosen home of liberty and free government among men.

APPENDIX.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

UNANIMOUSLY PASSED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, JULY 4, 1776.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right—it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suf

ferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature a right inestimable to them, and formidable

to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into a compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States, for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of land.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.