Carnegie Endowment for International Peace DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION Publication No. 17 AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY Based upon Statements of Presidents and Secretaries of State of the United States STANFORD LIBRARY WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER SECOND EDITION WASHINGTON, D. C. 1920 COPYRIGHT 1920 BY THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 2 JACKSON PLACE WASHINGTON, D. C. 273835 The public discussions which preceded and attended the entry of the United States into the great war and, more particularly, the discussions in the Senate and in the public press concerning the terms and conditions of peace, have served to awaken new and widespread interest in matters of foreign policy. There have been frequent clashes of opinion as to what are the principles and traditions of American foreign policy. As a result many persons find themselves confused and uncertain in regard to those principles and purposes which have been announced and accepted as controlling the administration of the foreign policy of the government of the United States. The present Publication has been planned by the Division of Intercourse. and Education for the purpose of meeting a clear and obvious need for exact information. There are here brought together those official statements by successive Presidents and Secretaries of State which, having been formally or tacitly accepted by the American people, do in effect constitute the foundation of American foreign policy. As Mr. Root has pointed out, not everything said or written by Secretaries of State or even by Presidents, constitutes a national policy. It is the substance of the thing to which the nation holds which constitutes its policy. The declarations contained in this Publication constitute the substance of the thing to which the American nation holds. They are the classic declarations of policy which, taken together, present a record of which the American people may well be proud. It is quite customary to overlook or to minimize the important constructive work of the two Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 and the important part played therein by the United States. It is true that the great war appeared to brush rudely aside the definite assurances and the high hopes which were the result of those two conferences; but as that war itself recedes into the distance it will be seen that the work of the Hague Conferences remains as the surest foundation for any new plan of international cooperation that is really practicable. A re-study by Americans of the work of the two Hague Conferences is vitally important, since it is from that work that the new task of construction must start. Fortunately, in the Recommendations of Habana concerning international organization, adopted by the American Institute of International Law after the great war had been in progress more than two and a half years, there is provided a platform upon which all American governments and peoples can stand. Representative jurists from many different American republics united in formulating and in publishing this impressive Declaration. It may now be offered to the peoples of Europe and of Asia as America's positive contribution to the solution of the problem of providing a form of international cooperation which will avoid the creation of a super-government and rest international cooperation upon respect and reverence for law. This is the path of progress to which the traditions of American foreign policy point and this is the path upon which the Government of the United States may well invite other nations speedily to enter. The Division of Intercourse and Education is indebted for the compilation of the material included in this publication to the Director of the Division of International Law, Mr. James Brown Scott, whose luminous commentary on the Recommendations of Habana (pages 105-119), is a marked addition to the value of the present Publication. April 15, 1920. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, |