MONROE DOCTRINE MONROE DOCTRINE
alarmed if any of them fall into industrial or political
chaos. We do not wish to see any Old World military
power grow up on this continent, or to be compelled to
become a military power ourselves. The peoples of the
Americas can prosper best if left to work out their own
salvation in their own way. (First Annual Message,
Washington, December 3, 1901.) Mem. Ed. XVII, 135;
Nat. Ed. XV, 117.
____________. We can not permanently adhere to the
Monroe Doctrine unless we succeed in making it
evident in the first place that we do not intend to treat it
in any shape or way as an excuse for aggrandizement
on our part at the expense of the republics to the south
of us; second, that we do not intend to permit it to be
used by any of these republics as a shield to protect that
republic from the consequences of its own misdeeds
against foreign nations; third, that inasmuch as by this
doctrine we prevent other nations from interfering on
this side of the water, we shall ourselves in good faith
try to help those of our sister republics, which need
such help, upward toward peace and order. (At
Chautauqua, N. Y., August II, 1905.) Presidential
Addresses and State Papers IV, 440.
____________. Foolish people say that the Monroe
Doctrine is outworn, without taking the trouble to
understand what the Monroe Doctrine is. As a matter of
fact, to abandon the Monroe Doctrine would be to
invite overwhelming disaster. In its essence the Monroe
Doctrine amounts to saying that we shall not permit the
American lands around us to be made footholds for
foreign military powers who would in all probability
create out of them points of armed aggression against
us. We must therefore make up our mind that we will
police and defend the Panama Canal and its approaches,
preserve order and safeguard civilization in the
territories adjacent to the Caribbean Sea, and see that
none of these territories great or small, are seized by
any military empire of the Old World which can use
them to our disadvantage. (Metropolitan, February
1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 280; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 240.
MONROE DOCTRINE-JUSTIFICATION OF. The
Monroe Doctrine should not be considered from any
purely academic standpoint, but as a broad, general
principle of living policy. It is to be justified not by
precedent merely, but by the needs of the nation and the
true interests of Western civilization. (The Bachelor of
Arts, March 1896.) Mem. Ed. XV, 224; Nat. Ed. XIII,
MONROE DOCTRINE – OPPOSITION TO. There
are many upright and honorable men who take the
wrong side, that is, the anti-American side, of the
Monroe Doctrine because they are too short-sighted or
too unimaginative to realize the hurt to the nation that
would be caused by the adoption of their views. There
are other men who take the wrong view simply because
they have not thought much of the matter, or are in
unfortunate surroundings, by which they have been
influenced to their own moral hurt. There are yet other
men in whom the mainspring of the opposition to that
branch of American policy known as the Monroe
Doctrine is sheer timidity. This is sometimes the
ordinary timidity of wealth. Sometimes, however, it is
peculiarly developed among educated men whose
education has tended to make them overcultivated and
oversensitive to foreign opinion. They are generally
men who undervalue the great fighting qualities,
without which no nation can ever rise to the first rank. .
. . Those wealthy men who wish the abandonment of
the Monroe Doctrine because its assertion may damage
their business, bring discredit to themselves, and, so far
as they are able, discredit to the nation of which they
are a part. (The Bachelor of Arts, March 1896.) Mem.
Ed. XV, 235; Nat. Ed. XIII, 177.
MONROE DOCTRINE - ROOSEVELT’S VIEW
OF. I regard the Monroe Doctrine as being equivalent
to open door in South America. That is, I do not want
the United States or any European power to get
territorial possessions in South America but to let South
America gradually develop on its own lines, with an
open door to all outside nations, save as the individual
countries enter into individual treaties with one another.
(To Baron H. S. von Sternberg, October II, 1901.)
Mem. Ed. XXIII, 184; Bishop I, 158.
____________. I am having my hands full . . . in
endeavoring to make our people act on a rational
interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. No such policy
as that of the Monroe Doctrine can remain fossilized
while the nation grows. Either it must be abandoned or
it must be modified to meet the changing needs of
national life. I believe with all my heart in the Monroe
Doctrine and have, for instance, formally notified
Germany to that effect. But I also believe that we must
make it evident on the one hand that we do not intend to
use the Monroe Doctrine as a pretence for self-
aggrandizement at the expense of the Latin-American
republics, and on the other hand
168.
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