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Some Contemporary Views of the Monroe Doctrine: The United States Press in 1823
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
RESIDENT James Monroe’s message of December 2, 1823 to the United States Congress was greeted with a national acclaim and approval seldom accorded the pronouncements of the American chief executive. The statement of foreign policy—since become known as the Monroe Doctrine—embodied in this message met with almost unanimous praise. “It would indeed be difficult,” noted Addington, the British chargé in Washington, “in a country composed of elements so various, and liable on all subjects to opinions so conflicting, to find more perfect unanimity than has been displayed on every side on this particular point.”
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1955
References
1 Richardson, J. D. (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1189–1908 (Washington, 1908), II, 207–220.Google Scholar
2 Quoted in Perkins, Dexter, The Monroe Doctrine, 1823–1826 (Cambridge, 1927), p. 144.Google Scholar
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4 Quoted in White, Elizabeth Brett, American Opinion of France (New York, 1927), p. 76.Google Scholar
5 Vermont Gazette (Bennington), Dec. 16, 1823.
6 Quoted in Daily National Intelligencer (Washington), Dec. 8, 1823.
7 The True American, Dec. 13, 1823.
8 American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, Dec. 4, 1823.
9 Quoted in Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 3, 1823.
10 Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser, Dec. 13, 1823.
11 St. Louis Enquirer, Jan. 3, 1824.
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13 Quoted in Mott, Frank Luthor, American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690 to 1940 (New York, 1941), p. 168.Google Scholar
14 “There is scarcely a hamlet which has not its own newspaper,” wrote de Tocqueville a few years later. “All the political journals,” he noted, “attack and defend [the administration] in a thousand different ways.” de Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America (trans, by Reeve, Henry, ed. by Commager, H. S.) (New York, 1947), p. 106 Google Scholar. See also pp. 103–108.
15 New York Evening Post, Dec. 5, 1823.
16 New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette (Concord), Dec. 15, 1823.
17 Richmond Enquirer, Dec. 5, 1823.
18 New York Spectator, Dec. 9, 1823.
19 Vermont Gazette, Dec. 16. 1823; The True American, Dec. 6, 1823.
20 Albany Argus, Dec. 9, 1823.
21 Quoted in White, American Opinion of France, p. 76.
22 Eastern Argus, Dec. 9, 1823.
23 Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 3, 1823.
24 National Journal, Dec. 6, 1823.
25 This and the following comment are quoted in Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 8, 1823. The habit of reprinting editorials from other newspapers, sometimes without crediting the source, was widespread in the United States at this time. Mott, American Journalism, p. 200.
26 St. Louis Enquirer, Jan. 3, 1823.
27 Democratic Press, Dec. 4, 1823.
28 National Gazette and Literary Register, Dec. 11, 1823.
29 Niles’ Weekly Register (Baltimore), Dec. 6, 1823.
30 Richmond Enquirer, Dec. 4, 6, 1823.
31 Quoted in Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 8, 1823.
32 Tansill, Charles C., “The European Background of the Monroe Doctrine,” in Wilgus, A. Curtis (ed.), Modem Hispanic America (Washington, 1939), pp. 497–500.Google Scholar
33 Quoted in Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 8, 1823.
34 The True American, Dec. 13, 1823.
35 Vermont Gazette, Dec. 16, 1823.
36 Eastern Argus, Dec. 9, 1823.
37 National Journal, Dec. 6, 1823.
38 Quoted in White, American Opinion of France, p. 76.
39 Quoted in Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 8, 1823.
40 Quoted in Perkins, The Monroe Doctrine, p. 16.
41 Ibid., p. 146. Actually Monroe had not concerned himself with the form of Latin American governments. He had no wish to see the Holy Alliance extended to this hemisphere, but he did not propose to dictate democracy to the independent states of the Americas.
42 Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 12, 1823.
43 New York Advertiser, Dec. 6, 1823.
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45 Whitaker, Arthur Preston, The United States and the Independence of Latin America, 1800–1830 (Baltimore, 1941), pp. 506–513.Google Scholar
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48 Quoted in Whitaker, The U. S. and the Independence of Latin America, p. 533.
49 New England Palladium and Commercial Advertiser (Boston), Dec. 9, 1823.
50 This and the following comment are quoted in White, American Opinion of France, p. 76.
51 Southern Patriot and Commercial Advertiser, Dec. 8, 1823.
52 Until shortly before Monroe’s famous message the Northern press had distrusted England and been openly hostile to her. The Southern press, by contrast, in general desired friendly relations with that country. By the end of 1823 the Southern view had prevailed and the press of the United States was closer to England than at any time since before the War of 1812. Gerrity, Francis X., “American Editorial Opinion of Great Britain, 1815–1823,” an unpublished M.A. thesis (Georgetown University, 1946), pp. 91–93Google Scholar, and passim.
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55 Niles’ Weekly Register, Dec. 6, 1823.
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57 National Gazette and Literary Register, Dec. 11, 1823.
58 St. Louis Enquirer, Jan. 3, 1824.