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expedition would constitute an important factor in aiding President Monroe to form a judgment as to the nature of the attempt. The language employed by Gual convinced the minister of the United States that the Colombian secretary would have been much pleased to receive assurances that the United States would consider any attempt of Spain against her former colonies as "in truth an effort of the Allies."

Early in 1824 the notion that the Holy Alliance actually entertained designs against the autonomy of the Spanish-American republics was strengthened by reports of the movements of an agent of Louis XVIII, Benedict Chasseriau, who had been sent on a secret mission to South America. Chasseriau visited several towns in northern Colombia, but was ordered to leave Colombian soil before he could approach the government at Bogotá. Reports of the actions and words of Chasseriau made some Colombians suspect that he was the precursor of a French army of invasion.2

In a short time rumors of the mysterious mission of Chasseriau reached José María Salazar, who had been sent as minister plenipotentiary of Colombia to the United States. That minister accordingly expressed his fears in regard to the fate of his country to Secretary Adams. In a conference at the Department of State on July 1, 1824, Salazar suggested to Adams that the independence of Spanish America was in danger. Salazar affirmed that Chasseriau was on the way to Bogotá; he declared that France had proposed to recognize the independence of Colombia if that state would substitute a monarchy for her republican form of government, and he suggested that a proposal had actually been made by France that Bolívar should be crowned king of Colombia. Salazar gave Adams the impression that Colombia would not agree to these proposals. In view of the message of President Monroe of December 2, 1823, a grave question arose between these two diplomats in regard

1 Anderson to Adams, March 18, 1824, State Department MSS., Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Letters from Colombia, iii.

2 Inventaire Sommaire des Archives du Département des Affaires Étrangères, Correspondance Politique, ii, part i, 188, 189; Villanueva, C. A., La Monarquía en América, La Santa Alianza, 20-37.

to the policy which the United States would' pursue towards the alleged intrigues of France against the republics of Spanish America. The result of the conference was that Adams asked. the minister of Colombia to present his views fully in writing.'

Salazar's views in regard to the political fortunes of his native land were accordingly set forth in a note to Adams on July 2, 1824. In the beginning of this note Salazar spoke hopefully of a material improvement in Colombia because of the establishment of independence. He expressed a belief, however, that the Holy Alliance had not renounced the doctrine of interference in the internal affairs of independent states. He maintained that the Allies particularly objected to the republican form of government which the Spanish-American states had adopted. The Colombian minister now attributed to Chasseriau statements like those which he had made verbally to Adams in regard to the policy of France towards the independence of Colombia. The doctrine of Monroe was invoked in the following words:

My government has received with the greatest pleasure the message of the president of the United States, a work very worthy of its author, which expresses the public sentiment of the people over whom he presides. By virtue of this document it cannot be doubted that the government of the United States has undertaken to oppose the policy and the ulterior designs of the Holy Alliance. To judge by the sentiments of the English people, some acts of the English ministry, and the language of the English envoys at Bogotá, this appears to be also the decision of Great Britain.

In such circumstances the government of Colombia desires to know in what manner the government of the United States intends to resist any interference of the Holy Alliance for the purpose of subjugating the new republics or of interfering with their form of government: Colombia desires to know if the United States will enter into a treaty of alliance with her to save America from the calamities of a despotic system; and finally, Colombia desires to know if the government of Washington interprets foreign intervention to mean the employment of Spanish forces against America at a juncture when Spain is occupied by

1Adams, C. F., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vi, 396; Salazar to Adams, July 2, 1824, State Department MSS., Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Notes from Colombian Legation, i.

a French army, and when the government of Spain is under the influence of France and her Allies.

It appears that affairs are already in the condition depicted in the declaration of President Monroe, for it is generally asserted that an expedition composed of the ship "Asia" and of several frigates and brigs has sailed from Cadiz for the coasts of Peru. It is beyond doubt that Spain alone does not equip this expedition in her present condition of despotism and anarchy, without an army, without a navy, and without money. Notwithstanding her spirit of domination, that nation would ere now have decided for peace had she not been aided to wage

war.

In the name of my government, therefore, and relying on the sympathy of the United States, I request these explanations which may serve Colombia for guidance in her policy and in her system of defense.1

On July 7 Salazar's note was considered at a meeting of Monroe's cabinet. Adams made this brief entry in his diary in regard to the answer: "The Colombian republic to maintain its own independence. Hope that France and the Holy Allies will not resort to force against it. If they should, the power to determine our resistance is in Congress. The movements of the Executive will be as heretofore expressed. I am to draft an answer."2 Before the answer was sent, Monroe expressed his views in regard to the query of Colombia in letters to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In a letter to Jefferson on July 12, 1824, Monroe declared that this question was one which might be repeated by some of the other new states in the south: "surely none can be of higher importance to ourselves. . . . The attitude which we have to maintain, in this great crisis, is in the highest degree important to the whole civilized world, since we stand alone, with every power beyond the Atlantic against us, and with those on this side. yielding us a very feeble, if any, support." 3 On August 2, 1824, Monroe wrote to Madison: "The subject will of course be weighed thoroughly in giving the answer. The Executive

1 State Department MSS., Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Notes from Colombian Legation, i.

2

Adams, C. F., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vi, 399.

3 Hamilton, S. M., Writings of James Monroe, vii, 29, 30.

has no right to compromit the nation in any question of war, nor ought we to presume that the people of Colombia [sic] will hesitate as to the answer to be given to any proposition which touches so vitally their liberties. ""

It was, therefore, after the appeal of Colombia had been carefully considered by both the president and the secretary of state that Adams replied to Salazar on August 6, 1824. In this communication Adams expressed the hope that the language of Chasseriau in regard to the attitude of France towards the independence of the republic of Colombia had been misunderstood. He scouted the idea that France entertained a design to aid Spain by force of arms to recover her former dominions in America. The request for an interpretation of Monroe's message was answered in these words:

With respect to the question "in what manner the Government of the United States intends to resist on its part any interference of the Holy Alliance for the purpose of subjugating the new Republics or interfering in their political forms," you understand that by the constitution of the United States, the ultimate decision of this question belongs to the Legislative Department of the Government. The probability of such interference of the Holy Alliance having in a great measure disappeared, the occasion for recurring to the dispositions of the Legislature did not occur during the late Session of Congress.

The Sentiments of the president remain as they were expressed in his last annual message to Congress. Should the crisis which appeared then to be approaching, and which gave rise to the remarks then made, hereafter recur, he will be ready to give them effect by recommending to the Legislature the adoption of the measures exclusively of their resort, and by which the principles asserted by him, would with the concurrence if given, be on the part of the United States, efficaciously maintained.

As however the occasion for this resort could arise only by a deliberate and concerted system of the Allied Powers to exercise force against the freedom and Independence of your Republic; so it is obvious that the United States could not undertake resistance to them by force of Arms, without a previous understanding with those European Powers, whose Interests and whose principles would secure from them an active

Hamilton, op. cit., 31.

and efficient coöperation in the cause. This there is no reason to doubt could be obtained, but it could only be effected by a negotiation preliminary to that of any alliance between the United States and the Colombian republic, or in any event coeval with it.

The employment of Spanish force in America, while Spain is occupied by a French army and its Government under the influence of France and her allies, does not constitute a case upon which the United States would feel themselves justified in departing from the neutrality which they have hitherto observed the force itself being necessarily small; and in no wise changing the nature of the contest in the American Hemisphere.'

The relations between the United States and Colombia in 1824 illustrate the fact that there was in northern South America a widespread fear of the designs of the Holy Alliance upon the autonomy of South America. It is clear that contemporaries of Monroe in Colombia associated the principles announced in his message with the policy of opposition to intervention in Spanish America which had been announced to Prince de Polignac by the great English minister, George Canning. In 1824 prominent Colombian statesmen praised the message of Monroe, which seemed to be a guarantee of their independence from Europe. Almost immediately the government of Colombia asked the United States to translate that message into terms of action. It is noteworthy that this appeal evoked an exposition of Monroe's message which contained a declaration that definite action by Congress was necessary to enforce the principles of that message. The view that the United States would have to secure the active coöperation of certain European powers to enforce the Monroe doctrine by force of arms against an attack by the Holy Alliance upon Colombia was a startling interpretation to come from the virile pen of John Quincy Adams, who, in 1823, had declared that he did not wish the United States "to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of a British man-of-war.”

While the states of Spanish America were trying to establish their independence upon a firm footing, the state of Brazil was

1 State Department MSS., Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Notes to Foreign Legations, iii.

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