Circular from Minister de L'huys on the Monroe Doctrine.
The following is a circular from the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs to the
French Agents in foreign ports, (dated May 4,) upon the subject of the recent Monroe Doctrine resolution of the
Yankee Congress:
‘
Gentlemen: The recent vote of the House of Representatives at
Washington, on the subject of
Mexico, has given rise to certain interpretations which it will be as well to rectify.
The idea has arisen that this vote might induce the
United States to adopt towards us a new attitude, of such a nature as to affect the cordial feelings existing between the two countries, or, at any rate, to complicate the
Mexican question by embarrassments arising from without.
We need only, however, observe the circumstances under which the manifestation alluded to took place to understand that the vote is very far from possessing the importance imputed to it. It is doubtless the reflection of the feeling so carefully fostered by the
American press in the U States, which leads that people to consider as an indirect attack upon their rights the most legitimate intervention of a European Power, on any point of the
American continent.
But we must consider that, in the
United States, above all others, the legislative assembly may indulge in demonstrations of this character without pledging the
Government in any way or forcing it to regulate its conduct accordingly.
The imperial Government had, therefore, no reason to conceive any apprehension on this subject, even if the incident had elicited no explanation from the
Federal Government; but the
Cabinet at
Washington has made it a duty spontaneously to anticipate and obviate any unfavorable impressions that we might have formed from it.
Mr Dayton called upon me to read a dispatch addressed to him by the
Secretary of State for the
Union, repudiating all responsibility on the part of the
Cabinet of
Washington in this matter, and establishing the principle that a vote of the House of Representatives or of the Senate, or even of both Houses, while it would naturally be a subject for the serious attention of the
Cabinet, could not possibly oblige it to modify its policy or deprive it of its liberty of action.
Mr Seward sees no reason for adopting in the
Mexican question any line of conduct other than that which he has followed up to the present time.
’
I answered
Mr Dayton that nothing, according to our ideas, could justify a change; that our confidence in the wisdom and prudence of the
American Cabinet was too great for us to suspect it of any thoughts of compromising, by hasty acts, the true interests of the
United States.
In expressing to
Mr Dayton how much satisfaction the assurance he was commissioned to give me caused to the
Government of the
Emperor, I added that I thought, in fact, that, even seen from the point of view of the
United States themselves, the choice could not be doubtful between the establishment of a stable and regular Government in
Mexico and the perpetuation of an anarchy and its attendant evils, which they themselves had first felt the effects of and called attention to. The reorganization of a great country, which the return of order and security will enable to play an important economical part in the world, should be, for the
United States especially, a real source of advantage, because it opens for them a new market, and one by which they more than any one will profit, on account of their proximity.
The prosperity of
Mexico corresponds with their truest interests, and I could not believe that the
Cabinet of
Washington would recognize this truth.
This answer to
Mr Dayton's communication, and the fact of this communication itself, must show you sufficiently in what light the incident on which I now write to you must be regarded.
