ce heroic and
pathetic in the humanitarian zeal of a people, whom Europeans still
regarded with disdain, to carry to the remote ends of the earth a
Christian civilization which they had themselves hardly attained. But an
incomprehensible idealism has from first to last been interwoven in the
texture of American character.

After the cessation of European wars the United States stood singularly
aloof from the Old World, yet in the affairs of South America they did
not cease to take a lively interest. The successive revolutions by which
the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, Chili, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and
Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain woke a thrill in the people of the
United States, for they thought they saw the events of their own
revolution repeated in the exploits of San Martin and Bolivar. To the
imagination of Henry Clay, this was a sublime spectacle--"eighteen
millions of people struggling to burst their chains and be free." He
would have had the United States recognize these sister republics and
join hands with them in forming an American system independent of
Europe. And when the Administration hesitated, he exclaimed: "We look
too much abroad. Let us break these commercial and political fetters;
let us no longer watch the nod of any European politician; let us become
real and true Americans, and place ourselves at the head of the American
system."

The conception of an American system did not originate in the ardent
mind of Henry Clay. It was as old as the Union itself. Foreign
encroachment had been feared from the very birth of the nation. "You are
afraid of being made the tool of the powers of Europe," said Richard
Oswald to John Adams while peace negotiations were pending at Paris.
"Indeed I am," rejoined Adams. "What powers?" asked Oswald. "All of
them," said Adams; "it is obvious that all the powers of Europe will be
continually manoeuvring with us to work us into their real or
imaginary balances of power.... But I think that it ought to be our rule
not to meddle." Washington's refusal to enter into an alliance with
France and his firm insistence upon neutrality were inspired by this
same fear. Jefferson's negotiations for the purchase of New Orleans were
motivated by the fear that France, once in possession of the mouth of
the Mississippi, would threaten the isolation of the United States and
drive us into the arms of Great Britain. "Jefferson is an American,"
Adet once said, with rare insight, "