President Monroe failing to meet Mr. Jefferson as usual on his spring visit home (the latter being at Poplar Forest), consulted him by letter in regard to the attitude which our country ought to assume on the interference of the Allied Powers in the concerns of Spain. Mr. Jefferson replied (June 11th):

"On the question you propose, whether we can, in any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in favor of liberty, I can give you but commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow's mite, and offered only because requested. The matter which now embroils Europe, the presumption of dictating to an independent nation the form of its government, is so arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as well as moral sentiment, enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our equal execrations against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all nations do not owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their sympathies with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and indeed, for the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or draw on ourselves the power, of this formidable confederacy. I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe."

The reasons for this policy were further and most cogently urged; and he thought all we could do for Spain was to make our "neutrality as partial" to her, "as would be justifiable without giving cause of war to her adversary." He added:

"The foothold which the nations of Europe had in either America, is slipping from under them, so that we shall soon be rid of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at present to hold up a speck of war to us. Its possession by Great Britain would indeed be a great calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us in guaranteeing its independence against all the world except Spain, it would be nearly as valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she take it, I would not immediately go to war for it; because the first war on other accounts will give it to us; or the island will give itself to us, when able to do so."

He believed, from the indications of circumstances, that the English Government was playing false with Spain-enacting a theatrical farce in which the five powers were the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the dupes."

The views above expressed in regard to Cuba were soon retracted. An intelligent inhabitant of that island visited Mr. Jefferson at Monticello, and informed him that the Cubans would be satisfied to remain as they were, but were sensible that could not be; that their next choice would be independence, if they could see a prospect of being supported in it; but failing in this, that they would prefer incorporation either with

CHAP. XII.]

ON ACQUIRING CUBA.

491

the United States or Mexico; that there was not a man in the island who was in favor of its becoming a subordinated colony, for it could be no more, to England. Thereupon, Mr. Jefferson again wrote the President, June 3d:

"I had supposed an English interest there quite as strong as that of the United States, and therefore, that to avoid war, and keep the island open to our own commerce, it would be best to join that power in mutually guaranteeing its independence. But if there is no danger of its falling into the possession of England, I must retract an opinion founded on an error of fact. We are surely under no obligation to give her, gratis, an interest which she has not; and the whole inhabitants being averse to her, and the climate mortal to strangers, its continued military occupation by her would be impracticable. It is better, then, to lie still in readiness to receive that interesting incorporation when solicited by herself. For, certainly, her addition to our confederacy is exactly what is wanting to round our power as a nation to the point of its utmost interest."

In October, the South American question acquired a new and momentous interest. It was rumored and believed, both in England and the United States, that the Holy Alliance, not content with meddling with the affairs of Spain, now proposed to interfere between her and her revolted colonies, and to impose conditions on the latter. Whatever might have been the secret policy of England earlier, this giant stride towards universal domination alarmed her, and Mr. Canning, formerly so fond of showing disrespect to the United States, now invoked their interposition, promising the full support of England. President Monroe at once placed the question before Mr. Jefferson. The reply rings like a battle-shout:

TO THE PRESIDENT.

MONTICELLO, October 24, 1823.

DEAR SIR,-The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our secondnever to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate

a continent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty. Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or all on earth; and with her on our side, we need not fear the whole world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and establish the American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign powers, of never permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can effect a division in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose to get at either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy.

But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being. Yet, as I am sensible that this can never be obtained, even with her own consent, but by war; and its independence, which is our second interest (and especially its independence of England), can be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning my first wish to future chances, and accepting its independence, with peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association, at the expense of war and her enmity.

I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should think it, therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the British government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in these letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as his authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them for consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable aspect in which it is seen by himself.

I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so decisive of our future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce me to the

CHAP. XII.]

THE CUNNINGHAM LETTERS.

493

hazard of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still my mite towards anything which may be useful to our country. And praying you to accept it at only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect. TH. JEFFERSON.

Thus the "Monroe doctrine" was proposed to President Monroe between five and six weeks before he gave it that official promulgation in a message to Congress, which stamped it with his name. The message was dated December 2d, 1823.

It announced that "we owed it to candor to declare . . . that we should consider any attempt" on the part of European nations "to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," etc. The tenor of the reasoning coincides with that of Mr. Jefferson's letter.'

A circumstance occurred this year in the intercourse of Jefferson and the elder Adams, which requires some preliminary explanation. When Mr. Jefferson was generally talked of in 1803, as a candidate for a second Presidential term, William Cunningham applied to Mr. Adams for information to be used in publications, the object of which was to defeat Jefferson's reëlection. Mr. Adams wrote some letters to him, which were more or less free in their tone; and he continued these beyond the immediate occasion, and for a number of succeeding years. All these communications were transmitted to Cunningham under his promise that they should not be made public during Mr. Adams's life. The former died in 1823, and his son, disregarding his father's promise, published the letters that year. Before anything but a few extracts from the "Cunningham Letters" had met Jefferson's eye, he wrote to Mr. Adams (October 12th), and after alluding to his own health, to the University, etc, in the tone of an ordinary friendly letter, he closed in a strain which is well worth attentive examination :

"Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had for some time observed in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that friend or his representative. And now it is said to be actually

'It need scarcely be added, that this maxim of State policy has not been traced home to Mr. Jefferson from any other motive than to truly record a historical fact. No President ever did, or ever can, originate all the important policies or maxims of his Administration. It is the real glory of a ruler to choose wisely from all the plans which come before him, whether they originate in his own mind, or in the minds of others.

published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me, however, no such armor is needed. The circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also; and there might not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to me under yours, and endeavoring to instill into our minds things concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time and reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange indeed, if, at our years, we were to go back an age to hunt up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear sir, that I am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow tares between friends who have been such for near half a century. Beseeching you then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and constant attachment, friendship, and respect."

Unfortunately here the curtain drops on this affair. We cannot but believe Mr. Adams answered in a way befitting his character-and if so, the letter may have contained remarks or concessions which Jefferson's delicacy chose to put beyond the reach of perpetuation. Or, Mr. Adams (in his eighty-ninth year) may have been ill, and their correspondence thus have become interrupted, until the topic could be as appropriately passed over as revived, between friends who understood each other. Only three subsequent letters between them are published in either edition of Mr. Jefferson's works-one from Jefferson to Adams, January 8th, 1825; one from Adams to Jefferson, January 23d, 1825 (entirely taken up with denouncing the laws of different nations against heresy); one from Jefferson to Adams, March 25th, 1826, introducing his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. We have seen no other letters of the period between them, in any collection of Mr. Adams's correspondence.