standard of comparison, therefore, is the Holy Alliance of sovereigns in Europe, and to this body the various declarations or intimations in the state papers of the South American ministers obviously and habitually allude.

This republic has had no connexion, in war or peace, with the South American States, nor any points in discussion of a general nature, nor has she entered into alliances of any sort. The congress could not be held, therefore, for the purpose of settling past differences;-there were none such, nor did any special symptoms or grounds of alarm or uneasiness appear, that should make it necessary to send ministers for the purpose of invoking the contingent aid of the American States. This country was never in a sounder or more secure position, free and remote from danger or assault on every border. The congress of Panama was then designed to be a great confederacy of the American nations in imitation of the great confederacy of European sovereigns, convened and organized solely for general and indefinite objects, with this wide difference, that the European was a league for the protection of the throne against the subject, whereas this government, at least, was not required to enter into alliances to preserve itself from similar casualties.

"Wherein consists our objections to the Holy Alliance? Because they confederate to maintain governments similar to their own, by force of arms, instead of the force of reason and the will of the governed. If we too confederate to sustain by the same means, governments similar to our own, wherein consists the difference except the superiority of our cause? What is their avowed motive? Self-preservation and the peace of Europe. What would be ours? Selfpreservation and the peace of America. I wish to be understood. I detest as much as any man the principles of the Holy Alliance. I yield to no man in my anxious wishes for the success of the Spanish American States. I will go as far as I think any American citizen ought to go to secure to them the blessings of free government. I commend the solicitude, which has been manifested by our government upon this subject, and have, of course, no desire to discourage it. But I am against all alliances, against all armed confederacies, or confederacies of any sort. 1 care not how specious or how dis

guised; come in what shape they may, I oppose them. The States in question have the power and the means, if united and true to their principles, to resist any force that Europe can send against them. It is only by being recreant to the principles, upon which their resolution is founded, by suffering foreign influence to distract and divide them that their independence can be endangered."

A resolution was moved in the Senate, declaring that this government possessed under the constitution no power to enter into such an association, but unfortunately it was drifted, by the political current of the moment, into the same channel, that had swept down the rapids other similar abstract questions.

The South American States proposed this confederacy for the obvious and legitimate purpose of resisting the coalition of Spain, Russia, France, Prussia and Austria, the object of which was, on the invitation of Spain in December 1823 to reestablish that power in authority over her colonies, the same coalition having, within the year, restored the Spanish king to his own throne. It was proposed to hold a conference at Paris on this subject, and the doctrines of the congress of Laybach having been already successfully applied to Naples and Spain, the Holy Alliance conceived the splendid project of embracing, in their wide ambitious control, the new world, and of extending their healing, purifying influence to the disorderly States in South America. But the progress of this business was arrested by the declaration of the British minister. In October of the same year Mr. Canning signified in direct terms to the French minister in London, that any attempt of the Holy Alliance to interfere, either by force or menace, in the dispute between Spain and the Colonies would be considered by his Britannic majesty's government as a sufficient motive and reason for immediate acknowledgment.

We are at a loss to perceive any analogy between the mission to Panama and the missions to Europe, during the Continental Congress, and to which a reference has been made. The individuals, employed on those occasions, were furnished with special credential letters to certain courts with instructions to enter into negotiations for treaties of commerce.

They were not sent to meet a congress, or to take part in the discussions or deliberations on general political subjects of a confederacy, but like other diplomatic functionaries, were directed to proceed to certain capitals for the purpose of extending in a defined, specific form, the commercial relations of the country, a matter always acknowledged harmless, as not involving the nation in troublesome alliances.

As some of the objects of this congress were professedly belligerent, and as Mr. Salazar says in his note, that "eventual alliances may be formed, which shall remain secret," a mission, on the part of the United States, has much the appearance of a breach of neutrality, or affords legitimate ground for such a belief. Unless it was belligerent doctrines, or plans to prevent colonization on the American continent, we know of no subjects for discussion at the congress. It was not ne

cessary to send a special mission to form treaties of commerce, to introduce into general practice in this hemisphere the liberal notions concerning the law of nations, the United States have always professed. We already possessed a treaty of commerce, cast, with one exception, in our own mould, with one of those states, (Colombia) and others could have been negotiated at the respective capitals of the states by our ministers.

We come now to look for a moment at the condition of the states, with whom it is proposed we should enter into. this confederacy. This well constructed and organized, compact and mature government, trained and drilled to all exigencies, whether at home or abroad, that had passed through, in a brilliant, successful manner, the agony of a long and fearful revolution, the dangers and pressures of a foreign war, to unite with nations, not even in the gristle, just emerging from 300 years of servitude, ignorance and bigotry, every thing loose, disjointed and afloat, not an anchor down, menaced with the fleets and armies of the whole Holy Alliance !Upon what terms of equality do we enter into this compact? What reciprocity of assistance or of benefit? If all Europe should come, armed at every point, upon these United States, would the people look round for aid or dread the issue?—Or

would they seek it from South America ? On the other hand, when the armadas of the Holy Alliance pressed upon the shores of the Southern Continent, with what haste and urgent zeal would our contingent be demanded? This is a war the people would never endure, and if the government had given a thousand pledges, there is not one the nation would redeem.

"I will now call the attention of the Senate to a question of the gravest character and most deeply affecting the dearest interests of the country,-a question growing out of considerations, which have heretofore occupied the best minds and interested the purest hearts our country has produced,' would it be wise in us to change an established policy upon the subject of political connexions with the foreign states.'--The President has said that to form alliances' is not among the motives of our attendance at the Congress. But what description of alliance does he mean? They are of various kinds and of different extent. We are at that congress to stipulate in some form, that we will resist any attempt of colonization by the powers of Europe in this hemisphere, (or within our own borders) and that, in the event of any interference on their part in the struggle between Spain and the Spanish American States, we will make common cause with the latter in resisting it. To this end we have been invited, and upon these points we have promised that our ministers shall have full powers. Call it an alliance,' or whatever name you please, it is a political connexion at war with the established policy of our government. When it is proposed to subvert a fundamental system in our foreign policy, in the support of which we stand alone among all the nations of the earth,—— which, commencing with our government, is endeared to the people, and upon whose deep foundations has been erected the magnificent structure of an unequalled prosperity--it surely becomes those, intrusted with the management of affairs, to pause and weigh with scrupulous exactness the importance of the step.

"At this moment the United States are unfettered. No government has a right to demand our aid or interference in any of the changes in the condition of the world-come what may we are now unembarrassed in our choice. Until lately, I had flattered myself that the acknowledged obligation on the part of our gov

ernment to maintain that condition was as firmly fixed as its republican character. I had the best reason to think so, because I knew it to be a principle in our public policy, which had, for its support, all that is instructive in experience, all that is venerable in authority. The authority is no less than the parting admonitions of the Father of his country. The earnest, eloquent and impressive appeals upon this subject, contained in his farewell address, are yet, and will I trust long remain fresh in our recollections, nor were the sentiments, thus avowed, mere speculative opinions founded upon an abstract consideration of the subject. No! they were sentiments, matured by reflection and confirmed by actual experience of the practical results, which had arisen from a connexion of the character, he so ardently and so justly deprecated. The sagacious mind of Washington, and the great men who enjoyed his confidence, traced the multiplied embarrassments of the country at that trying period to the treaty of alliance with France. Had it not been for that, the task of preserving our neutrality would have been comparatively easy. There would then have been wanting those great sources of discord, unsatisfied claims of right on the part of one belligerent, and food for jealousy on the other. It was under a deep conviction of this truth, that that inestimable man was induced to address his countrymen in language like this.

"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexions as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith; -Here let us stop.

666

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations of her friendships or enmities.

"Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external annoyance, when we may take such an attitude, as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations under