that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subject for future colonization by any European power. * * * We owe it, therefore, to candour, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. * * *"
This was a world challenge of supreme impertinence and great daring. Not only can't you have any land, but we won't stand a minute for the holy system cultivated with so much care by the Alliance. In other words, one half of the world is free.
I am aware that nothing could seem more trite and banal than reading a moral on as ancient a matter as the Monroe Doctrine. Still nothing is more certain than that its true significance, as well as its origin and its maintenance, is unknown to the American public to-
