mately was conveyed in my conference with P. de Polignac; and while I was more doubtful as to the effect of that protest and declaration, I sounded Mr. Rush (the American minister here) as to his powers and disposition, to join in any step which we might take, to prevent a hostile enterprise on the part of the European powers against Spanish America. He had no powers; but he would have taken upon himself to join with us, if we would have begun by recognizing the Spanish-American States. This we could not do, and so we went on without. But I have no doubt that his report to his Government of this sounding (which he probably represented as an overture) had a great share in producing the explicit declarations of the President." As Stapleton remarks, Canning's position was simply that Great Britain would not permit other European powers to interfere on behalf of Spain in her contest with her American colonies. So far from assenting to the position that the " unoccupied parts of America are no longer open to colonization from Europe," he held that United States had no right to take umbrage at the establishment of new colonies from Europe on any such unoccupied parts of the American continent." the The message of President Monroe was received in England "not only with satisfaction but with enthusiasm. Mr. Brougham said: 'The question with regard to Spanish America is now, I believe, disposed of, or nearly so; for an event has recently happened than which none has ever dispersed greater joy, exultation, and gratitude over all the free men of Europe; that event, which is decisive on the subject, is the language held with respect to Spanish America in the message of the President of the United States.' Sir James Mackintosh said: This coincidence of the two great English commonwealths (for so I delight to call them; and I heartily pray that they may be forever united in the cause of justice and liberty) can not be contemplated without the utmost pleasure by every enlightened citizen of the earth.' This attitude of the American Government gave a decisive support to that of Great Britain, and effectually put an end to the designs of the absolutist powers of the Continent to interfere with the affairs of Spanish America. Those dynasties had no disposition to hazard a war with such a power, moral and material, as Great Britain and the United States would have presented, when united, in the defense of independent constitutional governments." R. H. Dana, jr., Dana's Wheaton, § 67, note 36. "The French troops continuing to occupy Spain after the time. stipulated by treaty, Canning sought an explanation from France, but without satisfactory results. He therefore determined at a cabinet meeting held December 14, 1824, to recognize Mexico and Colombia forthwith. On January 1, 1825, after the ministers had left England with instructions and full powers, the fact of recognition was communicated officially to the diplomatic corps, and two days later it was ma made public.' Latané, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Spanish VIII. THE NONCOLONIZATION PRINCIPLE. 1. CONTROVERSY WITH RUSSIA. $ 939. The announcement, made in the seventh paragraph of President Monroe's message of Dec. 2, 1823, of the principle that the American continents were "henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers," was occasioned by the discussions with Russia as to territorial rights on the northwest coast of America. In 1821 the Emperor of Russia issued a ukase by which he assumed, as owner of the shore, to exclude foreigners from carrying on commerce and from navigating and fishing within a hundred Italian miles of the northwest coast of America, from Bering Straits down to the 51st parallel of north latitude. As this assertion of title embraced territory which was claimed by the United States as well as by Great Britain, both those governments protested against it. In consequence, the Russian Government proposed to adjust the matter by amicable negotiation; and instructions to that end were prepared for Mr. Middleton, then our minister to Russia, and for Mr. Rush, our minister to England, in the summer of 1823. John Quincy Adams was then Secretary of State. At a meeting of the Cabinet on June 28 the subject of Mr. Middleton's instructions was discussed. and Mr. Adams expressed the opinion that the claim of the Russians could not be admitted, because they appeared to have no “settlement" upon the territory in dispute. On July 17 he informed Baron Tuyl, the Russian minister, at a conference at the Department of State, "that we [the United States] should contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, VI. 163. See 82 N. Am. Rev. 494; See Foster, A Century of Am. Diplomacy, 442; Moore, American Diplo- "It is not imaginable that, in the present condition of the world, any European nation should entertain the project of settling a colony on the northwest coast of America. That the United States should form establishments there, with views of absolute territorial right and inland communication, is not only to be expected, but is pointed out by the finger of nature, and has been for many years a subject of serious deliberation in Congress. A plan has, for several sessions, been before them for establishing a territorial government on the borders of the Columbia River. It will undoubtedly be resumed at their next session, and even if then again postponed there can not be a doubt that, in the course of a very few years, it must be carried into effect. "As yet, however, the only useful purpose to which the northwest coast of America has been or can be made subservient to the settlements of civilized men are the fisheries on its adjoining seas and trade with the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These have, hitherto, been enjoyed in common by the people of the United States, and by the British and Russian nations. The Spanish, Portuguese and French nations have also participated in them hitherto, without other annoyance than that which resulted from the exclusive territorial claims of Spain, so long as they were insisted on by her. "The discussion of the Russian pretentions in the negotiation now proposed necessarily involves the interests of the three powers, and renders it manifestly proper that the United States and Great Britain should come to a mutual understanding with respect to their respective pretentions, as well as upon their joint views with reference to those of Russia. Copies of the instructions to Mr. Middleton are, therefore, herewith transmitted to you, and the President wishes you to confer freely with the British Government on the subject. "The principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of October 28, 1790, were "1st. That the rights of fishery in the south seas, of trading with the natives of the northwest coast of America, and of making settlements on the coast itself for the purposes of that trade, north of the actual settlements of Spain, were common to all the European nations, and of course to the United States. "2d. That so far as the actual settlements of Spain had extended, she possessed the exclusive rights, territorial, and of navigation and fishery, extending to the distance of ten miles from the coasts so actually occupied. "3d. That on the coasts of South America, and the adjacent islands south of the parts already occupied by Spain, no settlements should thereafter be made either by British or Spanish subjects, but on both sides should be retained the liberty of landing, and of erecting temporary buildings for the purposes of the fishery. These rights were, also, of course, enjoyed by the people of the United States. "The exclusive rights of Spain to any part of the American continents have ceased. That portion of the convention, therefore, which recognizes the exclusive colonial rights of Spain on these continents, though confirmed as between Great Britain and Spain, by the first additional article to the treaty of the 5th of July, 1814, has been extinguished by the fact of the independence of the South American nations and of Mexico. Those independent nations will possess the rights incident to that condition, and their territories, will, of course, be subject to no exclusive right of navigation in their vicinity, or of access to them by any foreign nation. "A necessary consequence of this state of things will be, that the American continents, henceforth, will no longer be subjects of colonization. Occupied by civilized independent nations, they will be accessible to Europeans and to each other on that footing alone, and the Pacific Ocean in every part of it will remain open to the navigation of all nations, in like manner with the Atlantic. "Incidental to the condition of national independence and sovereignty, the rights of anterior navigation of their rivers will belong to each of the American nations within its own territories. "The application of colonial principles of exclusion, therefore, can not be admitted by the United States as lawful upon any part of the northwest coast of America, or as belonging to any European nation. Their own settlements there, when organized as territorial governments, will be adapted to the freedom of their own institutions, and, as constituent parts of the Union, be subject to the principles and provisions of their constitution." Mr. Adams, Sec. of State, to Mr. Rush, min. to England, July 22, 1823, For the instruction to Mr. Middleton, above referred to, see id. 436. "There can, perhaps, be no better time for saying, frankly and explicitly, to the Russian Government, that the future peace of the world, and the interest of Russia herself, can not be promoted by Russian settlements upon any part of the American continent. With the exception of the British establishments north of the United States, the remainder of both the American continents must henceforth be left to the management of American hands. "It can not possibly be the purpose of Russia to form extensive colonial establishments in America. The new American republics will be as impatient of a Russian neighbor as the United States; and the claim of Russia to territorial possessions extending to the fiftyfirst degree of north latitude is equally compatible with the British pretensions." Observations of Mr. Adams, Sec. of State, accompanying instruction of "January 6. [1824.] In a dispatch to the Secretary of State of this date, I mention Mr. Canning's desire that the negotiation at St. Petersburg, on the Russian ukase of September, 1821, respecting the northwest coast, to which the United States and England had equally objected, should proceed separately, and not conjointly, by the three nations, as proposed by the United States, and my acquiescence in this course. It being a departure from the course my Government had contemplated, I give the following reasons for it: "1. That whatever force of argument I might be able to give to the principle of non-colonization as laid down in the President's message, which had arrived in England since my instructions for the negotiation, my opinion was, that it would still remain a subject of contest between the United States and England; and that, as by all I could learn since the message arrived, Russia also dissented from the principle, a negotiation at St. Petersburg relative to the northwest coast, to which the three nations were parties, might place Russia on the side of England and against the United States. This I thought had better be avoided. "2. That a preliminary and detached discussion of so great a principle, against which England protested in limine, brought on by me. when her foreign secretary was content to waive the discussion at present, and preferred doing so, might have an unpropitious influence on other parts of the negotiation of more immediate and practical interest. "3. That by abstaining from discussing it at present, nothing was given up. The principle as promulgated in the President's message, would remain undiminished, as notice to other nations, and a guide to me in the general negotiation with England when that came on." Rush, Memoranda of a Residence at the Court of London, II. 88; quoted in 82 N. Am. Rev. (April, 1856), 508. "You will bring to the notice of the Mexican Government, the message of the late President of the United States to their Congress, on the 2nd December, 1823, asserting certain important principles of inter-continental law, in the relations of Europe and America. The |