University of Virginia Library

THE MONROE DOCTRINE.

THEORY OF THE ORBITS OF POWER.

From the New York Herald, February 27, 1865.

That history is continually repeating itself is
not a remarkably new observation; but is one,
the truth of which is so continually forced upon
us, that again and again it rises to our lips or
trickles from our pen as if spontaneously. “What
has been shall be, and what is has been,” may be
taken as a summary of the entire history of the
earth, both in its past and in its prophetic applications.
The same causes operating upon similar
nations invariably produce like results; and if the
Emperor of the French, in place of writing books
about Julius Cæsar, would only condescend to
study the history and results of the three Punic
wars, he might learn from the fate of Carthage in
that struggle a lesson of unspeakable value at the
present time to the prospects of his dynasty.

The Roman commonwealth, like our own, had
established a regular Monroe Doctrine for all the
islands and lands adjacent to it; and indeed for its
own, or the European side of the Mediterranean.
It had its own orbit of power, and was content

that Carthage should sway the destinies of Africa,
and be its great commercial rival on the seas; but
as to allowing Carthage, or any other Power, to
come as a disturbing element within its own sphere
of political action, or to meddle with the affairs
either of Italy or the dependencies of the Italian
Peninsula, or to cross the Mediterranean and establish
ascendancy in any of the countries on the
European side adjoining Rome, “Why that,”—
said the Conscript Fathers, very gravely—“that
would be an infringement of our Monroe Doctrine;
and we hereby pledge our lives, our honors,
and our sacred fortunes, that we will give our
last man and our last dollar rather than submit to
any such intermeddling.”

This resolution of the Roman Senate was doubtless
forwarded with all due formalities to the Carthaginian
Gerusia, or Council of State; but the
Gerusians committed the very egregious blunder
of believing that the Senators of the Seven-Hilled
City were only talking for buncombe in this particular
declaration. They did not, or could not
realize that the Monroe Doctrine of those days lay
at the very roots of the Roman character; and
that, no matter how long its professors might be
compelled by domestic trouble or rebellion to hold
it in subordination, and keep it out of sight, the
very moment they could attain peace and stable
government at home, all their efforts and sacrifices

would instantly be turned towards a vigorous and
relentless enforcement of Prince Henry's darling
theory:

These facts and these passions the Gerusians of
Carthage appeared as utterly to overlook as the
French Emperor seems to be overlooking, or ignoring,
similar facts and similar passions in the present
day, with regard to ourselves. Finding the
Romans involved in a succession of civil wars and
domestic troubles, the Carthaginians first seized
upon Sardinia, after a fierce struggle, and subsequently
upon Syracuse, in both of which fruitful
islands they established friendly governments and
most wealthy colonies—Rome the while looking
on grimly, but without power to interfere.

At length—disembarrassed of her civil troubles,
and probably regarding, as we shall soon, a foreign
war as offering the best means for reuniting
her lately belligerent component parts—the Roman
republic, about two hundred and sixty years
before the commencement of the Christian era,
gave ear to the cry of the Messinians, upon whose
soil the Carthaginians were attempting a fresh violation
of the Monroe Doctrine. War was at once
declared with all proper pomp, and pushed with

every energy of the Roman people. In a year
Syracuse was rescued from beneath the shadow of
foreign domination; the Romans, heretofore without
a navy, built an enormous fleet; and, in the
twenty-second year of this first War for the Monroe
Doctrine, after the Carthaginians had been defeated
in a heavy sea fight by the Romans under
Vice-Admiral Lutatius Catulus, the Gerusians of
Carthage “gave a receipt for the maize,” so to
speak—acknowledged the Monroe Doctrine of the
Roman republic in its full integrity, withdrew from
all islands and territories on the European side of
the Mediterranean, released all Roman prisoners
without ransom, and finally paid a very handsome
sum towards defraying the expenses of this war
for the vindication of the orbit of Roman power—
or the Monroe Doctrine of the present day.

The second Punic war had a similar origin, and
was waged on the Roman side for the vindication
of the self-same principle. The Carthaginians and
their mercenaries, under Hannibal, captured Saguntum,
a town on the eastern coast of Spain, and
consequently on that side of the Mediterranean
which the Romans claimed to be within the exclusive
orbit of their empire. “Two stars hold not
their courses in one sphere;” nor, in the case of two
great and progressive nationalities, can one infringe
upon the circuit or orbit of the other without leading
to inevitable and most disastrous collisions.

This truth neither the Carthaginian wise men of
old nor the French Emperor at the present day
have shown any ability to realize. The second
Punic war, commenced at Saguntum, lasted for
sixteen years, with varying fortunes—two of the
greatest generals the world has ever seen, Hannibal,
on behalf of the Carthaginians and Conquest,
and Scipio Africanus, shouting the battle-cry
of Rome and the Monroe Doctrine, being opposed
to each other up to the battle of Zama, in
which the cohorts of the “Gerusians” went heavily
to the ground. Carthage was then stripped of all
her navy, except ten triremes, or first-class vessels
of war; was deprived of every inch of her foreign
territory, and was compelled to pay a heavy tribute
for some years towards defraying the expenses of
her conqueror.

The third Punic war was short, sharp, and decisive.
The “Gerusians” of Carthage apparently
could not or would not learn wisdom from the
past, but still kept intermeddling at every opportunity
with affairs and with territories which clearly
fell within the orbit or grand circle of the progress
of the Roman Empire. At length went
forth the dread decree, delenda est Carthago, or Carthage
is to be blotted out—an order terribly and
brutally executed by Major-General Scipio Æmilianus
on behalf of the Romans, the walls and
houses of the city being razed to their very foundations,

and all of Africa that once owned the sway
of Carthage becoming thenceforth annexed as a
Roman province. Such was the fate, in ancient
times, of the country which would not respect the
“Monroe Doctrine” of a growing and powerful
republic—that doctrine, in a word, which forbids
any foreign Power to intrude itself within the orbit
of another, if it be wished to avoid collisions.

In these days of steam the Atlantic is no more
to our navies than was the Mediterranean to the
galleys and triremes of the ancient Pœni and Quirites
of Africa and Italy. The so-called Monroe
Doctrine is not a new-fangled American discovery
or claim, but an eternal principle essential to the
preservation of peace between all progressive
nations. We must, at any cost, keep the orbit
through which our star of empire has to move,
free from all foreign obstructions or interference.
With peace reëstablished at home, we shall need
employment for several hundred thousand soldiers,
drawn from both armies, who have accepted the
military calling as the profession of their lives. We
cannot with honor, and we cannot with safety,
permit the erection of a vast French colony on
our Southern frontier—for to that Maximilian's
empire amounts, and to nothing more—and it is
now for the French Emperor to say, knowing how
unstable in France are the elements beneath his
throne, whether he will challenge us to a modern

Punic war, in which will inevitably go forth the
decree—not, indeed, that Paris is to be blotted out
and France annexed—that the Napoleonic dynasty
shall be suppressed and kicked into obscurity as
common disturbers of the peace of the human
family, and of the grand imperial orbit of the
“manifest destiny” of these United States.