John Quincy Adams And The Monroe Doctrine

John Quincy Adams and The Monroe Doctrine: Some New Evidence Questions surrounding the announcement of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823: - The question of who wrote the famous declaration? Who was responsible for the principles of non-colonization and non-intervention? Was it John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, or possibly Thomas Jefferson?' Or did the doctrine incorporate the thinking of a number of national leaders? - The reasons for the declaration and its purposes discusses and there is disagreement about it. Was it in response to Russian designs on the Northwest coast? Was it aimed at the European nations that threatened to intervene in Latin America to restore to Spain its colonies? Or was it directed against British commercial and imperial ambitions in the western hemisphere? Perhaps it was some combination of these factors? Virtually every explanation is acceptable, and recently one noted historian has argued that foreign policy considerations were not of primary importance, for the doctrine may best be understood in the context of domestic politics and the upcoming presidential campaign of 1824. In a letter of John Quincy Adams to his old friend explained that Mr. Monroe's declaration in the message of 2 Dec. 1823, was his own work. Adams wrote that paragraph of the message, and Monroe accepted it without alteration. The Declaration itself was first made with the first object was to present to the Emperor Alexander (Russia) a motivation, to give up his claims on the Northwest Coast of America by presenting a principle which he would consider as being directed towards Great Britain, who Emperor Alexander also did not like at that time. Its second purpose was a warning to Great Britain herself. Directed at both Russia and Great Britain, it initially was intended to dissuade Russia from its "pretensions" on the Northwest coast of North America. Adams thought Emperor Alexander I would accept the principle because the emperor would see it as operating primarily against Great Britain and, equally attractive from the Russian viewpoint, would prevent any sort of Anglo-American partnership in the new world. More importantly, the declaration was aimed at Great Britain. The one nation above all that needed to be contained to assure Adams's ambitions for American territorial and commercial expansion in the western hemisphere. As anticipated, Emperor Alexander had accepted the policy. The declaration's effect on George Canning, the British Foreign Secretary, had been almost immediate. In January 1824, shortly after Monroe's message arrived in England, Britain rejected the United State's presumption that no further European colonization would be allowed in either North or South America. Then, in a gesture that may have accurately reflected his pique, Canning withdrew his nation from the joint Anglo-American negotiations with Russia concerning the Czar's 1821 ukase and the northwest coast of North America."