Whitelaw Reid

Here, then, are three great principles, important to the advancement of civilization, which, if not established in International Law by the Peace of Paris and the war it closed, have at least been so powerfuly reinforced that no nation is…

But it has often been asked, and sometimes by eminent English writers, whether the Americans have not, at the same time, fatally unsettled the Monroe Doctrine, which never, indeed, had the sanction of International Law, but to which they…

A large and influential body of American opinion at first insisted that the acquisition of the West Indian, Philippine, and Sandwich Islands constituted an utter abandonment of that Doctrine; and apparently most European publicists have…

Our policy in regard to Europe ... is not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its Powers.

Monroe really said, in essence, was this: "The late Spanish colonies are now American republics, which we have recognized.

They shall not be reduced to colonies again; and the two American continents have thus attained such an independent condition that they are no longer fields for European colonization." That fact remains.

Furthermore, the United States has not interfered in the internal concerns of any European Powers.

What has really been unsettled, if anything, by the Peace of Paris and the preceding war, has been the current American idea as to the sphere of national activities, and the power under the Constitution for their extension.

It is perfectly true that the people did not wish for more territory, and never dreamed of distant colonies.

There was no considerable popular support since the Civil War for filibustering expeditions of the old sort against Cuba.

There was genuine reluctance to take the steps which recent circumstances and the national committals for half a century made almost unavoidable in the Sandwich Islands.

It will make an end forever of Spain in this hemisphere.