FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE AMERICAN PEACE DELEGATES IN THE HOTEL CRILLON IN PARIS. LEFT TO RIGHT ARE, LANSING, PRESIDENT WILSON, WHITE AND BLISS. them in regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and whose loyalty to its Government should unite them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinions, hot against each other, involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action. "Such divisions among us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend. "I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another. "My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest and purpose of every thoughtful American that this great country of ours which is, of course, the first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a nation far beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self control, the efficiency of dispassionate action; a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world. "Shall we not resolve to put upon ourselves the restraints which will bring to our people the happiness and the great and lasting influence for peace we covet for them?" Washington's This policy of neutrality which was to characterize our attitude until April, 1917, was in general accord with the foreign policy pursued throughout our history, a foreign policy Procwhich took its origin in the famous Proclamation of Neutrality issued by Washington in 1793 in which he announced: "Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between lamation of Neutrality. Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands of the one part, and France on the other; and the duty and interest of the United States require, that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent Powers: "I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid towards those Powers respectively; and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever, which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition. "And I do hereby also make known, that whosoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said Powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the United States, against such punishment or forfeiture; and further, that I have given instructions to those officers, to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons, who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations, with respect to the Powers at war, or any of them. "In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the Twenty-second day of April, one-thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the seventeenth." The European War was still raging when Washington closed his administration and in his Farewell Address declared: "The great Policy of Farewell rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them Address. as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. The Policy of Non-Intervention. "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 and collisions 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 scrupuously respected. When belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice shall counsel. "Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambitions, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean as we are now at liberty to do it, for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense: But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. "Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies." Isolation. The policy inaugurated by Washington announced an aversion to permanent foreign alliances and it pointed out that we were not a part of European strife due to a "detached and distant situation". Although quoted by those opposing our entrance into The Policy of the World War to prove that such a step would be contrary to a long established foreign policy, it was not contrary to our policy of 1917. Later when President Wilson's foreign policy is studied, it will be found that the policy of Washington is not estranged from that of Wilson so far as alliances are concerned. The policy of isolation, as announced by Washington, sprang, no doubt, from his desire to give the country time to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which was to give it the command of its own fortunes. That time is past. We have become one of the leading nations of the world. We have been despoiled of our "detached and distant" position by modern means of transportation and communication. Mechanical devices have made us a part of the world and not a part of the western hemisphere only. The pronouncement of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 reëmphasized the policies announced by Washington. This doctrine had its incep The Monroe tion in the period following the great struggle with Napoleon in Europe. In a real sense it was the first important announcement of the foreign policy of the young republic of the United States. EspeDoctrine. cial attention was attracted to it because of the sympathy of the people of the Unites States for their brethren in South America who were struggling for independence from Spain. The public announcement of so comprehensive a foreign policy in complete harmony with the views of Washington had much to do with its popularity at that time as well as later. The Quadruple Al liance. Influence upon Liberalism. Announcement of a definite policy was propitious and timely because of European conditions. The Quadruple Alliance, made up of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and England, strengthened by the adherence of France, had come to assume that the peace of Europe was necessarily dependent upon the checking of all revolutionary tendencies within the European states. Acting on this theory, the Quadruple Alliance had interfered everywhere with the growth of liberal ideas and constitutional government because these ideas were recognized to have been behind the great unheaval in France in 1789. The arguments against liberalism seemed plausible, and only England hesitated to accept them and to act in concert with the other members of the Alliance in suppressing rebellious and liberal aspirations within the national boundaries of the various European States. The South American states had begun their revolt from Spain when Napoleon removed the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, and set his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain, in order to secure the coöperation of the Spanish troops in his struggle for World Empire. With the overthrow of Napoleon, the South American revolt passed into a definite demand for independence, and Spain was much too busy with the reorganization of her internal affairs to make any serious efforts to reestablish her authority in the American colonies. When, however, the councils of the Quadruple Alliance had settled upon a policy of repressions and had agreed upon the assistance to be rendered to the individual states, the question of the Spanish colonies in America became acute. England and the Quad England refused to take any part in the conference of the Quadruple Alliance at Verona on Spanish colonial affairs and made it clear that she was prepared to oppose any attempt at the coercion of the Spanish colonies. Canning, the English foreign minister, suggested to Rush, representive of the United States in England, that the two Powers should unite in opposition to the program of the Alliance. ruple Alli ance. |