This Day in American History October 17
The Library Of Congress
Monroe Doctrine
Shall we entangle ourselves at all, in European politicks, & wars, on the side of any power, against other…?
On October 17, 1823, President James Monroe wrote a letter to his friend and Virginia neighbor Thomas Jefferson seeking advice on foreign policy. The issue at hand was whether to join forces with Britain in a joint-declaration against Spain’s efforts to regain sovereignty in South America.
Both Jefferson and former president James Madison, whom Monroe also consulted, recommended cooperation with Britain. However, Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was more cautious. “It would be more candid,” Adams warned Monroe at a November 7, 1823 cabinet meeting, “as well as more dignified, to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war.”
Heeding Adams’s advice, Monroe chose to pursue a course independent of Great Britain. He outlined his policy, later known as the “Monroe Doctrine,” in an address to Congress on December 2, 1823. “We should consider any attempt [on the part of European nations],” Monroe declared, “to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” Although the United States lacked the power or influence to uphold the Monroe Doctrine, it remained in force largely because it was consistent with Great Britain’s interest in maintaining access to Latin American markets.
As the United States gained military and economic strength, American leaders began to interpret the Monroe Doctrine as justification for U.S. involvement in Latin America. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt, who had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Spanish American War, added the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. In order to prevent European nations from involving themselves in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, the Roosevelt Corollary proclaimed the exclusive right of the United States to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries.
