to give any possible ground of claim on the part of any foreign power to acquire any rights of ownership, or control over that Island, or its revenues. This Government has made repeated public declarations to this effect. I took occasion therefore in an interview with Sir Edward Thornton, Her Majesty's Envoy &c. this day, to refer to the rumor that had reached me with respect to the contemplated loan, and to express the hope that the British Government will not countenance a loan, which this Government cannot but regard as a transaction of a nature not entitled to ask or to receive the support of any other Government, to interfere in the affairs of Cuba, in behalf of its subjects or citizens, in the event of non payment of the proposed loan. Sir Edward Thornton intimated his intention to communicate the substance of my observations to his Government.

I communicate it to you for your information, and with the expectation that if you are consulted with respect to the proposed loan, you will represent the position of this Government with regard thereto, and that as opportunity offers you will express yourself to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and generally in your conversation with official persons, in the sense in which I have conveyed to Sir Edward Thornton the settled purpose of this Government."

It would seem that the Cuban revenues had been pledged actually, or in effect, by loans which were made by the Spanish Government at a time subsequent to the above date."

Ibid., pp. 329–331.

7 See A Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain (S. Doc. No. 62, pt. 1, 55th Cong., 3d sess.), pp. 49–50.

THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND SOUTH AMERICA

Mr. Webster in his speech of April 14, 1826, on the mission to Panama called attention to the different relationship which existed between the United States and the southern part of South America and the regions of the Gulf of Mexico. He used these words:

It is, doubtless, true, as I took occasion to observe the other day, that this declaration must be considered as founded on our rights, and to spring mainly from a regard to their preservation. It did not commit us, at all events, to take up arms, on any indication of hostile feeling by the Powers of Europe towards South America. If, for example, all the States of Europe had refused to trade with South America, until her States should return to their former allegiance, that would have furnished no cause of interference to us. Or, if an armament had been furnished by the allies to act against Provinces the most remote from us, as Chili or Buenos Ayres, the distance of the scene of action diminishing our apprehension of danger, and diminishing, also, our means of effectual interposition, might still have left us to content ourselves with remonstrance. But a very different case would have arisen, if an army, equipped and maintained by these Powers, had been landed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and commenced the war in our own immediate neighborhood. Such an event might justly be regarded as dangerous to ourselves, and, on that ground, to have called for decided and immediate interference by us. The sentiments and the policy announced by the declaration, thus understood, were, therefore, in strict conformity to our duties and interest.1

In his message of December 6, 1904, President Roosevelt speaking of the application of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine to countries on the Western Hemisphere, intimated a distinction between North and South America by alluding particularly to the countries "washed by the Caribbean Sea " and to "such steps as we have taken in regard to Cuba, Venezuela, and Panama." 2

1

2

J. R. C.

Congressional Debates, 10th Cong., 1st sess., vol. II, pt. 2 (1826), p. 2269. Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1917 ed.), vol. xvi, pp. 7053-7054.

236.

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