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but only American. His was, however, an Americanism that could not entirely forget the Revolution and the personal humiliations he suffered during Benedict Arnold's invasion of Virginia. Nor was it possible but that the courtesies of which the minister was a constant recipient at French hands should impress him with their British contrast.

Of the crisis affecting navigation on the Mississippi, Jefferson was a most interested spectator. His sympathies lay wholly with the Westerners. To barter away their rights for such a mess of pottage as a paltry trade with Spain appeared to him the betrayal of a nation. Already there was shaping in the mind of Jefferson a Spanish-American attitude which entitles him in some sense to rank as a forerunner of the Monroe Doctrine. For the present, he believed in letting Spain retain her hold. Her weakness was less formidable than another's strength. But the future would tell another story. A letter of June 3, 1788, hinting at rather than detailing these views is decidedly suggestive.

With respect to the Isthmus of Panama I am assured by Burgoyne (who would not chuse to be named however) that a survey was made, that a canal appeared very practicable, and that the idea was suppressed for political reasons altogether. He has seen and minutely examined the report. This report is to me a vast desideratum for reasons political and philosophical. I cannot help suspecting the Spanish squadron to be gone to S. America, and that some disturbances have been excited there by the British. The court of Madrid may suppose we would not see this with an unwilling eye. This may be true as to the uninformed part of our people: but those who look into futurity farther than the present moment or age, and who combine well what is, with what is to be, must see that our interests, well understood, and our wishes are that Spain shall (not forever, but) very long retain her possessions in that quarter. And that her views and ours must, in a good degree, and for a long time, concur.

The allusion to England is in unmistakable anticipation of the Monroe Doctrine. The great powers of Europe would be unwelcome neighbors in South America.12

12 The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition, vol. V, 403-404.

One further phase of diplomacy under the Confederation may be noted, namely the question of the diplomatic proprieties confronting the minister to a country in revolution. For before Jefferson's return to America, the Bastile had fallen and the great days of the first stage of the French Revolution had brought their thrill of hope. The presence at Paris of the author of the Declaration of Independence necessarily drew to him the leaders of the new movement. La Fayette in particular was his friend. The situation was most delicate. To aid revolutionists by advice and counsel might rupture all relations with the lawful authorities. The problem reached its crisis when without Jefferson's foreknowledge La Fayette and a party of eight gathered at the minister's residence to ascertain his views. Thus solicited, Jefferson did not refuse advice. But he hastened next day to the foreign office to express his regrets to the Count de Montmorin, as secretary, concerning a situation that had embarrassed him greatly. Montmorin, who already knew of the episode through agents in the secret service, absolved Jefferson of all responsibility, and even encouraged him to offer in the future such counsel as might lead to a constructive program of reform. It was Revolution at its best that Jefferson witnessed. Long before the Terror he was on his native soil.18

The return of Jefferson to America in 1789 coincided with a new era in our diplomacy. During his absence the Constitution had been drawn up and adopted, and under its provisions a new government set up. The mission to France had deprived Jefferson of opportunity to assist directly in framing the Constitution. But his approval of the document in its essentials, subject to the incorporation of a Bill of Rights, had aided in securing its adoption. His appointment, therefore, as Secretary of State under the new government was a fitting tribute to the greatness of the man, and his experience in diplomacy.

To a large extent the problems which so long perplexed the government of the Confederation were carried over as 13 Ibid. I, 155.

a legacy to the new nation under the Constitution. But the gifted men who grappled with them in the trying years from 1781 to 1789 were to find their solution in the new machinery of government and the power of national unity, for the associates of Washington in the early days of the republic were men of ripe experience. Their failure in the diplomacy of the Confederation was far from personal. With the advent of a new government came a new faith and courage in the conduct of diplomacy.

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CHAPTER IV

THE NEW NATION

HE United States in its infancy required a careful foreign policy if the country were to survive and expand. The conduct of this policy was the political equivalent of adaptation to environment. That is the meaning of success for any organism. But the weaker the organism the greater the compulsion to do the adapting. The strong, while subject to the law of adaptation, accomplish their ends through coercion of the weak. The immediate environment enveloping America consisted of two neighbors and an ally. The United States shared North America with Great Britain and Spain. Her chief connection with Europe lay politically through France, and economically through Great Britain, though the Confederation had already negotiated commercial treaties with Sweden and Portugal, and was under financial obligations to Holland.

But America's position was inherently far stronger than would appear from a comparison of herself with any one of these powers. Even as Napoleon ascribed most of his military successes to the simple formula of being strongest only at the point of attack, so America possessed an important diplomatic asset in being in her own immediate zone the strongest of the nations. The sparse populations of Canada, Louisiana, and the Floridas offered no serious menace to 3,000,000 people in the American settlements. And as for France, while it would be well to please her, there was slight need to fear her.

Nor could it be said that the whole strength of any of these states was in direct opposition to that of America. Speaking again in terms of environment, the nations of the world, even those most concerned with us, viewed America

as but a portion, and insignificant at that, of their own environment. While they could not ignore her, still less could they ignore each other.

From all these circumstances, the statesmanship of Washington and his Secretary was to reap advantage. Granting America's ability to subsist at all-and this was insured by the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton-the rivalries of foreign powers must play into her hands. Of this an illustration occurred in 1790, almost at the outset of the administration, in a controversy between Great Britain and Spain arising out of an incident at Nootka Sound on the distant shores of the Pacific. Events on that ocean could not be matter of indifference to Americans engaged since 1784 in the fur trade with Canton. But the episode's significance consisted in its influence upon British attitude toward us.

THE NOOTKA SOUND INCIDENT

Nootka Sound, a small inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was the objective for two expeditions, a British and a Spanish, each setting forth in the spring of 1789 to plant a colony on a coast long claimed by Spain but never previously settled. The Spaniard arrived first. Two months later the Briton challenged his occupation. The Spaniard was the victor and sent his enemy in chains to Mexico. Great Britain demanded an apology; Spain refused one. Both nations girded for a war in which Great Britain, urged on by the Venezuelan patriot Miranda, dreamed of taking over the Spanish empire in America.

In the event of war, New Orleans would become at once an objective for British forces. Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Canada, was instructed to ascertain whether America would permit a British expedition from Canada to cross our territories for an attack on Spanish Florida and New Orleans. Accordingly his lordship dispatched to Philadelphia an agent, Major Beckwith, previously referred to, who presented the situation to our government, and conducted unofficial inquiries into the trend of American opin

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