that the cost of European
aggression would be greater than any advantage which could be won even
by successful aggression.

That great declaration was not the chance expression of the opinion or
the feeling of the moment; it crystallized the sentiment for human
liberty and human rights which has saved American idealism from the
demoralization of narrow selfishness, and has given to American
democracy its true world power in the virile potency of a great example.
It responded to the instinct of self-preservation in an intensely
practical people. It was the result of conference with Jefferson and
Madison and John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun and William Wirt--a
combination of political wisdom, experience, and skill not easily
surpassed. The particular circumstances which led to the declaration no
longer exist; no Holy Alliance now threatens to partition South America;
no European colonization of the west coast threatens to exclude us from
the Pacific. But those conditions were merely the occasion for the
declaration of a principle of action. Other occasions for the
application of the principle have arisen since; it needs no prophetic
vision to see that other occasions for its application may arise
hereafter. The principle declared by Monroe is as wise an expression of
sound political judgment today, as truthful a representation of the
sentiments and instincts of the American people today, as living in its
force as an effective rule of conduct whenever occasion shall arise, as
it was on December 2, 1823.

These great political services to South American independence, however,
did not and could not in the nature of things create any relation
between the people of South America and the people of the United States
except a relation of political sympathy.

Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Blaine, sanguine, resourceful, and gifted
with that imagination which enlarges the historian's understanding of
the past into the statesman's comprehension of the future, undertook to
inaugurate a new era of American relations which should supplement
political sympathy by personal acquaintance, by the intercourse of
expanding trade, and by mutual helpfulness. As secretary of state under
President Arthur, he invited the American nations to a conference to be
held on November 24, 1882, for the purpose of considering and discussing
the subject of preventing war between the nations of America. That
invitation, abandoned by Mr. Frelinghuysen, wa