and to regulate their internal affairs.
The people of the United States can not, therefore, view with
indifference attempts of European powers to interfere with the
independent action of the nations on this continent. The American system
of government is entirely different from that of Europe. Jealousy among
the different sovereigns of Europe, lest any one of them might become
too powerful for the rest, has caused them anxiously to desire the
establishment of what they term the "balance of power." It can not be
permitted to have any application on the North American continent, and
especially to the United States. We must ever maintain the principle
that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their
own destiny. Should any portion of them, constituting an independent
state, propose to unite themselves with our Confederacy, this will be a
question for them and us to determine without any foreign interposition.
We can never consent that European powers shall interfere to prevent
such a union because it might disturb the "balance of power" which they
may desire to maintain upon this continent. Near a quarter of a century
ago the principle was distinctly announced to the world, in the annual
message of one of my predecessors, that--

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.

This principle will apply with greatly increased force should any
European power attempt to establish any new colony in North America. In
the existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper
occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by Mr. Monroe
and to state my cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound policy. The
reassertion of this principle, especially in reference to North America,
is at this day but the promulgation of a policy which no European power
should cherish the disposition to resist. Existing rights of every
European nation should be respected, but it is due alike to our safety
and our interests that the efficient protection of our laws should be
extended over our whole territorial limits, and that it should be
distinctly announced to the world as our settled policy that no future
European colony or dominion shall with our consent be planted or
established on any part of the North American continent.

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