Five-minute digest
The Monroe Doctrine
Summary
The Monroe Doctrine is the name later given to a few passages in President James Monroe's Seventh Annual Message to Congress, sent in writing on December 2, 1823, and read aloud to the new Eighteenth Congress. The library text gives the whole message, so readers can see the famous statements in their setting. Monroe begins by explaining that because the people are sovereign, they must be given full information about public affairs. He then reviews relations with foreign powers: boundary commissions under the Treaty of Ghent with Great Britain, trade with the British West Indies, claims against France, and an invitation from the Emperor of Russia to settle by negotiation the two countries' rights on the North West coast of North America. In that paragraph Monroe announces the first principle of the doctrine: the American continents, being free and independent, are no longer to be considered subjects for future colonization by any European power. Most of the message then turns to home affairs. Monroe reports on the national debt and finances, the army, coastal fortifications, the Military Academy at West Point, an attack by the Arikara on a trading party and Colonel Leavenworth's expedition against their village, the navy's campaign under Commodore David Porter against pirates in the West Indies, a deadly fever at the navy's station on Thompson's Island, the suppression of the slave trade, the Post Office, the Cumberland Road and a proposed canal joining the Chesapeake and the Ohio. Near the end he expresses hope that the Greeks will win their independence and then turns to Spain and Portugal, where the allied powers of Europe had intervened by force. Here he states the second principle: the United States takes no part in Europe's own wars, but it would consider any attempt by those powers to extend their system to this hemisphere as dangerous to its peace and safety, and any interference with the newly independent Spanish American republics as unfriendly to the United States. Existing European colonies would not be disturbed. The message closes by measuring the Union's growth since the Revolution, from three million people to about ten million. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams shaped much of the foreign-policy language, and the name Monroe Doctrine came into general use only in the 1850s.
Top Lessons
Two hemispheres, two systems
Monroe's message divides the world into Europe, whose quarrels the United States would stay out of, and the Americas, where it would not accept new European control. The idea joins a promise of restraint with a warning. Students can see that a famous policy began as a few sentences in a long report.
A policy in its setting
Most of the message is about debts, forts, roads, mail and pirates. Reading the whole text shows how foreign policy sat alongside ordinary government business, and how a president reported to Congress in 1823.
Neutrality and its limits
Monroe says the United States declared neutrality between Spain and its former colonies and will keep it unless a change requires otherwise. He leaves the government room to act while promising restraint. Careful wording, the message shows, can keep options open.
Verified Quotes
“The people being with us exclusively the sovereign, it is indispensable that full information be laid before them on all important subjects”
“the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”
“In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.”
“We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
“With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere”
Medical Lens
One paragraph reports that in August 1823 a very malignant fever broke out at the navy's anti-piracy station on Thompson's Island (Key West), killing many, striking the commanding officer and disabling most of the medical officers. Commodore Rodgers was sent with skilled surgeons to learn the origin of the fever and whether it would recur, and Porter withdrew most of the squadron. The outbreak is generally identified by historians as yellow fever, though the message does not name it; the passage shows the period's practice of investigating local causes of fever before the mosquito's role was known.
- Navy section, paragraph on Thompson's Island
The malignant fever at the West India station, the loss of medical officers, and Commodore Rodgers's mission with surgeons to determine the fever's origin.