Great Britain withdrawn from
their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe
combined would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose to
get at either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion to be
slighted which this proposition offers, of declaring our protest
against the atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by the
interference of any one in the internal affairs of another, so
flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the equally
lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy."

Madison not only agreed with Jefferson as to the wisdom of accepting
the British proposal of some form of joint action, but he went even
further and suggested that the declaration should not be limited to the
American republics, but that it should express disapproval of the late
invasion of Spain and of any interference with the Greeks who were then
struggling for independence from Turkey. Monroe, it appears, was
strongly inclined to act on Madison's suggestion, but his cabinet took
a different view of the situation. From the diary of John Quincy
Adams, Monroe's secretary of state, it appears that almost the whole of
November was taken up by cabinet discussions on Canning's proposals and
on Russia's aggressions in the northwest. Adams stoutly opposed any
alliance or joint declaration with Great Britain. The composition of
the President's message remained in doubt until the 27th, when the more
conservative views of Adams were, according to his own statement of the
case, adopted. He advocated an independent course of action on the
part of the United States, without direct reference to Canning's
proposals, though substantially in accord with them. Adams defined his
position as follows: "The ground that I wish to take is that of earnest
remonstrance against the interference of the European powers by force
with South America, but to disclaim all interference on our part with
Europe; to make an American cause and adhere inflexibly to that."
Adams's dissent from Monroe's position was, it is claimed, due partly
to the influence of Clay who advocated a Pan-American system, partly to
the fact that the proposed cooeperation with Great Britain would bind
the United States not to acquire some of the coveted parts of the
Spanish possessions, and partly to the fear that the United States as
the ally of Great Britain would be compelled to play a secondary part.
He probably carried his point by show