make more sugar than we can consume, and the Red river, on its north, is the most luxuriant country on earth. Florida, moreover, is ours. Every nation in Europe considers it such a

... 9

STRUGGLE

a. The Missouri Enabling Act, and Slavery Amendments: Missouri Enabling Act (Dec. 9, 1819). "Be it enacted That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri territory included within the boundaries hereinafter designated, be, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they shall think proper. . .”

Slavery Restriction. Jan. 26, 1820, Taylor (N. Y.), proposed to amend by inserting "And shall ordain and establish, that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said State. . . ."

The Compromise Line. Febr. 17, 1820, Thomas (Ill.) moved "And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name Louisiana, which lies north of 36° 30′ north latitude, excepting [Missouri], slavery and involuntary servitude . . . shall be and is hereby forever prohibited: . . ." 27

b. Debate in Congress:

66

Arguments for restriction. Taylor, (N. Y.), Febr. 15, 1819. I [now] come directly to the points in issue. First. Has Congress power to require of Missouri a constitutional prohibition against the further introduction of slavery, as a condition of her admission into the Union? Second. If the power exists, is it wise to exercise it? 'New states may be admitted into this Union.' This grant of power is evidently alternative; its exercise is committed to the sound discretion of Congress: . . . But if Congress has the power of altogether refusing to admit new States, much more has it the power of

26. A. A. Lipscomb, Writings of Jefferson, XV, 251.

27. Cited in MacDonald, Select Documents, 222.

Tallmadge (N. Y.), Febr. 16, 1819. “Sir, if a dissolution of the Union must take place, let it be so! If civil war, which gentlemen so much threaten, must come, I can only say, let it come. . . . If blood is necessary to extinguish any fire which I have assisted to kindle, I can assure gentlemen, while I regret the necessity, I shall not forbear to contribute my mite.

I know the will of my constituents, and, regardless of consequences, I will proclaim their hatred to slavery in every shape; as their representative, here will I hold my stand until this floor, with the constitution of my country which supports it, shall sink beneath me.

19 28

Arguments against restriction. Wm. Pinkney (Md.), Febr. 15, 1820. '. . . What is that Union [into which new states may be admitted?] A confederation of States equal in sovereignty-capable of everything which the constitution does not forbid, or authorize Congress to forbid. It is an equal union, between parties equally sovereign. . . . By acceding to it, the new State is placed on the same footing with the original States. . . . Is the right to hold slaves a right which Massachusetts enjoys? If it is, Massachusetts is under this Union in a different character from Missouri [if restriction passed]." 29

Walker (Ga.), Jan. 19, 1820. ". . . Mr. President, unless these men [of Missouri] are composed of different materials from what I presume they are, I fear-much do I fear-that the imposition of restrictions, or the refusal to admit them unconditionally into the Union, will excite a tempest, whose fury will not be easily allayed..

99 30

Archer (Va.), Dec. 11, 1820. "He was not unaware, that the language he had been holding of guarded respect for States rights, had been for some time going out of fashion. It was but too obvious to remark, that the essential defences of the States were rapidly giving way before the steady and powerful current of Federal authority. . .

" 31

28. T. H. Benton, Abridgment of Debates of Congress, VI, 334-335, 357. 29. T. H. Benton, Abridgment of Debates of Congress, VI, 439-440. 30. Gales and Seaton, Annals of Congress, 35, p. 175.

31. Benton, Abridgment of Debates, VII, 35.

C, Expressions of Public Sentiment:

Resolutions of a Missouri Grand Jury (July, 1819). "The grand jurors. . . view the restrictions attempted to be imposed on the people of the Missouri territory in the formation of a state constitution, unlawful, unconstitutional, and oppressive. They hope those restrictions will never more be attempted; and if they should, they hope by the assistance of the genius of '76... to find means to protect their rights.” 32

Jefferson to Wm. Short (April 13, 1820). "Although I had laid it down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore had ceased to read the newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord.

"33

4. THE UNITED STATES ASSERTS ITS DOMINANCE IN THE AMERICAS

a. Clay's American Political System:

66

It

A means to secure liberty (Clay, May 10, 1820). is in our power to create a system of which we shall be the centre and in which all South America will act with us. In respect to commerce we should be most benefited; this country would become the place of deposit of the commerce of the world. . . . We should become the centre of a system which would constitute the rallying point of human wisdom against all the despotism of the Old World. . . . Our institutions now make us free; but how long shall we continue so, if we mould our opinions on those of Europe? Let us break these commercial and political fetters; let us no longer watch the nod of

32. Niles, Register, 17, p. 71.

33. A. A. Lipscomb, Writings of Jefferson, XV, 247.

any European politician; let us become real and true Arericans, and place ourselves at the head of the American system. . .

34

Congress passes bill to provide for Ambassadors (April 29, 1822). "The Senate . . . took up . . . the bill from the House of Representatives making an appropriation of $100,000, to defray the expenses of missions to the independent nations on the American continent. Carried, 39 to 3." 30

b. The Monroe Doctrine Asserted:

"35

J. Q. Adams to the Russian Minister (July 17, 1823). “I told him specially that we should contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." "36

Richard Rush, American Ambassador in England, to George Canning, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Sept. 19, 1823). "I [R. Rush] said, 'The United States would view any attempt on the part of France and the Continental Alliance to resubjugate those new [So. American] states, as a transcendent act of national injustice, and indicative of alarming ambition; . . He [G. Canning] replied: "They [the United States] were the first Power established . . [in America]. They were connected with Spanish America by their position, as with Europe by their relation. Was it possible they could see with indifference their fate decided upon by Europe?' . . . He had the strongest reason for believing that the cooperation of the United States with England . . . would ward off altogether the meditated jurisdiction of the European Powers over the new world. "The complication of the subject,' said I, 'may be cured at once, and by Great Britain. Let Great Britain immediately acknowledge the Independence of the new States. This will put an end to all difficulty. "The ques

9" 37

Jefferson to President Madison (Oct. 24, 1823).

34. Gales and Seaton, Annals of Congress, vol. 36, 2226, 2227-28.

35. Gales and Seaton, Annals of Congress, vol. 38, 429, 431.

36. Adams, Memoirs, VI, 163.

37. R. Rush, The Court of London, 430-432.

tion presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most momentous . . . since that of independence. That made us a nation, this .. points the course we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. . . . Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cisAtlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should, therefore, have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, [England] most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her proposition we . . . bring her mighty power into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.

C. The Monroe Doctrine Formulated:

"38

Monroe's Message to Congress (Dec. 2, 1823). "... In the discussions [with Russia] . . . the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent position which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part. . . . With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected. . . . The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that in America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments: . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. . . .Our policy in regard to Europe . . . is, not to interfere in the in

38. A. A. Lipscomb, The Writings of Thos. Jefferson, XV, 477-478.