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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/monroedoctrineinOOmacc 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 
 
est 
 en 
 
THE 
 MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 REPUBLIC OF HAITI 
 
 By 
 
 WILLIAM A. MacCORKLE, LL.D. 
 
 Former Governor of West Virginia 
 Author of " Some Southern Questions," Etc., Etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 1915 
 
r/fzo 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 
 Copyright, 19 14. by 
 The Neale Publishing Company 
 
 JUL 28 1915 v 
 
 ©CI.A406873 
 
 
 
 
 
„ 
 
 Inscribed to My Friend, 
 
 General Edward P. Meany, 
 
 of Alnwick Hall 
 
PREFACE 
 
 With the construction of the Panama Canal and 
 the consequent change of commercial lines the im- 
 portance of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 
 Mexico to the United States is enormously en- 
 hanced. With this change of commercial lines the 
 Island of Haiti and San Domingo, in the Carib- 
 bean Sea, has become of supreme importance to 
 the United States. 
 
 This book is in no sense of the word a study or 
 a philosophical treatise. It is simply a statement 
 of the present situation of the Republic of Haiti 
 and our relation to it under the Monroe Doctrine, 
 a statement that is made for the purpose of giv- 
 ing our people some information as to this little 
 known but most important and strategic island. 
 The general substance of this little book is con- 
 tained in an address delivered at Philadelphia, 
 April 3, 19 14, before the American Academy of 
 Political and Social Science. Since that time the 
 chronically bad status of the Republic of Haiti has 
 become very much more acute, and to-day is caus- 
 
 5 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 ing but little less anxiety to our government than 
 does the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 I have included in this volume Washington's 
 Address, President Monroe's message, and the 
 later interpretation of that instrument, in order 
 that the reader, as he studies the situation, may 
 have the foundation of the Doctrine with him and 
 may be able more accurately to decide as to the 
 soundness of the conclusions herein drawn. 
 
 Charleston, West Virginia. 
 July I, 19 14. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 CHAPTEB 
 
 I. Foundation of the Monroe Doctrine . 1 1 
 
 II. The Monroe Doctrine 15 
 
 III. The Function of the Doctrine . . 19 
 
 IV. Haiti's Relation to, Our Government . 24 
 V. Strategic Importance of Haiti . . .31 
 
 VI. Haiti's Government Policy and Reli- 
 gious Ideals 40 
 
 VII. Moral Conditions in Haiti .... 62 
 
 VIII. Object of the Monroe Doctrine . . 75 
 
 IX. Application of the Monroe Doctrine. 82 
 
 X. The Menace of Haiti 91 
 
 XI. The Enforcement of the Monroe Doc- 
 trine 97 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 
 
 I 
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE MONROE DOC- 
 TRINE 
 
 By many, Washington's farewell address is 
 considered the germ of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 One view, however, shows this judgment to be 
 not technically correct. While President Wash- 
 ington made plain that we should have as little 
 political connection as possible with foreign na- 
 tions and that our isolated position was our pro- 
 tection, he had in mind the question of alliances 
 with the European governments. He had just 
 gone through the annoyances that sprang from 
 complications arising from our sentimental feeling 
 toward one of those governments. While this 
 was true, he emphasized our isolated position and 
 the importance of maintaining that position. He 
 did not have his attention directed to the question 
 of European intervention so much as to the dan- 
 
 ii 
 
12 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 gers of the permanent alliance that we might make 
 with a European country. This isolation, when 
 carried to its fruition, is the practical foundation 
 of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 Washington's farewell address 
 
 "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con- 
 jure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a 
 free people ought to be awake, since history and experience 
 prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful 
 foes of republican government. . . . 
 
 "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign 
 nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
 with them as little connection as possible. So far as we 
 have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled 
 with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 
 
 "Europe has a set of primary interests which to us 
 have none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be 
 engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are 
 essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
 must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial 
 ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordi- 
 nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or 
 enmities. 
 
 "Our detached and distant situation invites and en- 
 ables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one 
 people, under an efficient government, the period is not 
 far off when we may defy material injury from external 
 annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 13 
 
 cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to 
 be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, un- 
 der the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will 
 not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we 
 may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, 
 shall counsel. 
 
 "Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? 
 Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, 
 by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of 
 Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of 
 European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? 
 
 "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alli- 
 ances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I 
 mean, as we are not at liberty to do it ; for let me not be 
 understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to exist- 
 ing engagement. I hold the maxim no less applicable to 
 public than to private affairs that honesty is always the 
 best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be 
 observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is 
 unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them." 
 
 In 1822 Austria, Russia, and Prussia formed 
 the Holy Alliance, which made the following dec- 
 laration : 
 
 "The high contracting parties, well convinced that the 
 system of representative government is as incompatible 
 with the monarchical principle as the maxim of the sover- 
 eignty of the people is opposed to the principle of divine 
 right, engage in the most solemn manner to employ all 
 their means and unite all their efforts to put an end to 
 
14 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 the system of representative government wherever it is 
 known to exist in the states of Europe and to prevent it 
 from being introduced into those states where it is not 
 known." 
 
 While this declaration referred to the states of 
 Europe, its important effect would be upon the 
 countries of this hemisphere; and the King of 
 Spain directly demanded support from the sov- 
 ereigns of the Holy Alliance to maintain the prin- 
 ciples of the Holy Alliance on this hemisphere. 
 In 1823, therefore, President Monroe, after care- 
 ful conference with the two great living revolu- 
 tionary statesmen, formulated the message that 
 has become a fundamental principle of our govern- 
 ment in its dealings with the foreign governments 
 of the world. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 15 
 
 II 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 "In the discussions to which this interest has given rise 
 and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, 
 the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a 
 principle in which the rights and interests of the United 
 States are involved, that the American continents, by the 
 free and independent condition which they have assumed 
 and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as 
 subjects for future colonization by any European 
 powers. . . . 
 
 "The political system of the allied powers is essen- 
 tially different in this respect from that of America. This 
 difference proceeds from that which exists in their re- 
 spective Governments; and to the defense of our own, 
 which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and 
 treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most en- 
 lightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed un- 
 exampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe 
 it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations ex- 
 isting 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. With the existing 
 colonies or dependencies of any European power we have 
 not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Gov- 
 
1 6 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 ernments who have declared their independence, and 
 maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great 
 consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we 
 could not view any interposition for the purpose of op- 
 pressing them, or controlling in any other manner their 
 destiny, by any European power, in any other light than 
 as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
 the United States. . . . 
 
 "Our policy in regard to Europe — which was adopted 
 at an early stage of the wars that have so long agitated 
 that quarter of the globe — nevertheless remains the same, 
 which is: not to interfere in the internal concerns of any 
 of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the 
 legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly rela- 
 tions with it, and to preserve these relations by a frank, 
 firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just 
 claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. 
 But in regard to those continents circumstances are emi- 
 nently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that 
 the allied powers should extend their political system to 
 any portion of either continent without endangering our 
 peace and happiness; nor can any one believe that our 
 Southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of 
 their own accord." 
 
 president Roosevelt's interpretation of the 
 monroe doctrine 
 
 "We must recognize the fact that in some South 
 American countries there has been much suspicion lest we 
 should interpret the Monroe Doctrine as in some way 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 17 
 
 inimical to their interests, and we must try to convince 
 all the other nations of the continent — once and for all — 
 that no just and orderly government has anything to fear 
 from us. 
 
 "There are certain republics to the south of us which 
 have already reached such a point of stability, order, and 
 prosperity, that they themselves, though as yet hardly 
 consciously, are among the guarantors of this Doctrine. 
 These republics we now meet not only on a basis of entire 
 equality, but in a spirit of frank and respectful friendship, 
 which we hope is mutual. If all the republics to the 
 south of us will not only grow as those to which I allude 
 have already grown, all need for us to be the especial 
 champions of the Doctrine will disappear; for no stable 
 and growing American republic wishes to see some great 
 non-American military power acquire territory in its 
 neighborhood. All that this country desires is that the , 
 other republics on the continent shall be happy and pros- i 
 perous; and they cannot be happy and prosperous unless ) 
 they maintain order within their boundaries and behave^ 7 
 with a just regard for their obligations toward outsiders. 
 
 "It must be understood that under no circumstances 
 will the United States use the Monroe Doctrine as a 
 cloak for territorial aggression. We desire peace with 
 all the world, but perhaps most of all with the other 
 peoples of the American continent. There are of course 
 limits to the wrongs which any self-respecting nation can 
 endure. It is always possible that wrong actions toward 
 this nation, or toward citizens of this nation, in some 
 state unable to keep order among its own people, unable 
 to secure justice from outsiders, and unwilling to do jus- 
 tice to those outsiders who treat it well, may result in 
 
1 8 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 our having to take action to protect our rights; but such 
 action will not be taken with a view to territorial ag- 
 gression, and it will be taken at all only with extreme re- 
 luctance and when it has become evident that every other 
 resource has been exhausted. 
 
 THE LODGE RESOLUTION 
 
 "Resolved, That when any harbor or other place in the 
 American continents is so situated that the occupation 
 thereof for naval or military purposes might threaten the 
 communications or the safety of the United States, the 
 Government of the United States could not see, without 
 grave concern, the possession of such harbor or other place 
 by any corporation or association which has such a rela- 
 tion to another Government, not American, as to give that 
 Government practical power of control for national pur- 
 poses." 
 
 The Lodge Resolution was not approved by the 
 President, but it was passed by an overwhelming 
 vote, which showed the sentiment of the American 
 people as to its provisions; and it is accepted as 
 the Doctrine of the United States founded upon 
 the preservation of the safety of our country. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 19 
 
 III 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE DOCTRINE 
 
 That the Monroe Doctrine made its apparent 
 advent in the history of nations so late as the 
 time of the President whose name it bears has, to 
 a certain extent, diminished its importance as a 
 part of the fundamental and international life in 
 the thought of the nations of the world. While 
 this doctrine did not form part of the written law 
 of this country, still it originated in the very life 
 of the American Republic, and is not, as a matter 
 of truth, the doctrine of President Monroe but 
 rather the doctrine that was part of the actual life 
 of this republic in its inception. It was enunciated 
 as a foundation proposition of our government by 
 Washington, was interpreted and insisted upon as 
 part of our fundamental life by Jefferson, and 
 finally, upon the historic occasion, established as 
 the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 Writers are fond of frequently repeating the 
 statement that the Monroe Doctrine is not part of 
 the international code, but that it is merely a pol- 
 
20 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 icy of this government and only so understood in 
 the law of nations. While this may be the thought 
 among other nations, the Monroe Doctrine is as 
 absolutely part of the life of this republic, in its 
 dealings with the nations of the world, as any 
 doctrine of international law expressed and pub- 
 lished as such by the nations of the world. It is 
 fundamentally the Doctrine of the greatest and 
 most powerful nation on earth, and so understood 
 to be a primary doctrine by the hundred millions 
 of people forming the great western republic. If 
 it is not technically part of the code of interna- 
 tional law, it is the belief of our people that it 
 forms an essential part of the structure of our na- 
 tional life. Secretary Foster stated: 
 
 "It has been said that the Monroe Doctrine has no 
 binding authority; first, because it has not been admitted 
 into the code of international law; and, second, because it 
 has never been adopted or declared by Congress. In reply, 
 it may be said that the principle which underlies the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine — the right of self-defense, the preservation 
 of the peace and safety of the nation — is recognized as 
 an elementary part of international law. ... It stands 
 to-day as a cardinal policy of our government." 
 
 While this doctrine may be a policy and not a 
 part of the technical code of international law, it 
 has for one hundred years held the hands of the 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 21 
 
 mightiest nations on earth, nations that have rec- 
 ognized its potency equally with the recognition 
 which they have extended to any principle of inter- 
 national law. The law of self-preservation is the 
 most fundamental and absolute of all the laws of 
 nations. The Monroe Doctrine is the one vital 
 doctrine, which in our intercourse with other na- 
 tions most vitally controls u our peace and happi- 
 ness" and "our peace and safety." It is idle for 
 any authority to contend that a principle so vital 
 as this does not have the real potency and effect of 
 international law. Throughout the discussions by 
 the fathers and by those who latterly placed the 
 doctrine in active effect, the one continuing thread 
 runs, that underlying this doctrine are "the peace 
 and safety" and "the peace and happiness" of the 
 American nation. 
 
 This doctrine was at first, in one sense of the 
 word, a negative proposition. Its primal idea was 
 non-action on the part of the United States, unless 
 foreign governments attempted to extend their 
 system to any portion of this hemisphere. With 
 the life of the world it has changed, not in its 
 fundamental idea, for it is founded upon the 
 preservation of the safety and peace of this repub- 
 lic, but to a certain extent the change has come 
 with the altered condition of the times and the 
 
22 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 surroundings of the life of this hemisphere. Time 
 has made it an affirmative doctrine on our part, a 
 doctrine that will, in a way, compel action on the 
 part of our government, even before direct inter- 
 ference with our hemisphere by foreign govern- 
 ments has come about. The peace and safety of 
 the republic, which was the underlying idea of the 
 Monroe Doctrine, will demand that this country 
 must affirmatively protect itself against the condi- 
 tion brought about by the governments of our 
 hemisphere. In other words, with the change of 
 circumstances and the surroundings of our life 
 this doctrine has in a way taken the form that will 
 compel action on our part to prevent a condition 
 which is ultimately liable to bring about interfer- 
 ence with our peace and safety. 
 
 In this discussion we found our argument upon 
 the Monroe Doctrine, both in its original and its 
 later construction. We believe, as a cardinal 
 principle of its application, that independence is 
 fundamental. To differ with another country in 
 its ideas of government will form no reason why 
 we should deprive that country of its govern- 
 mental life and existence. We concede that be- 
 cause of the difference in thought, as to govern- 
 mental policy, we should not interfere with any 
 government nor establish over any government a 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 23 
 
 suzerainty or control. We do not contend that the 
 Monroe Doctrine applies to a country, unless the 
 acts of that country interfere with the doctrine in 
 our interpretation of its principles as to control by 
 European nations, or unless it interferes with the 
 preservation of our peace and safety, or unless it 
 commits a breach of international law. 
 
24 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 IV 
 
 HAITI'S RELATION TO OUR GOVERN- 
 MENT 
 
 The question of the condition of the Republic 
 of Haiti is one so urgent, is, indeed, a question 
 that so earnestly demands that the people of our 
 country should possess the fullest information as 
 to its condition, that no apologies are needed for 
 a discussion of the Monroe Doctrine as it applies 
 to this important strategic island lying practically 
 at our door and commanding the greatest avenues 
 of our commerce. 
 
 Next to Mexico this island republic is fraught 
 with the greatest importance to the United States 
 in our relation to the Southern and Central Amer- 
 ican republics, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Carib- 
 bean Sea. Let us then, as briefly as possible, dis- 
 cuss the conditions obtaining in Haiti and gain an 
 idea of its important relation to our government. 
 
 The island of Hispaniola, containing Haiti and 
 San Domingo, includes about 28,250 square 
 miles, of which 10,200 square miles are com- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 25 
 
 prised in the Republic of Haiti. The island is 
 about the size of the combined States of Dela- 
 ware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hamp- 
 shire, and Rhode Island. Next to Cuba, it is the 
 most important strategical point in the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is directly on 
 and commands the two great passages of the At- 
 lantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea from the east- 
 ern coast of the United States to and from the 
 Panama Canal. It thus practically controls the 
 great bulk of the commerce of the United States 
 to the East and the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 This island has within its shores more natural 
 wealth than has any other territory of similar size 
 in the world. By reason of its rich valleys and 
 splendid mountains it has every temperature 
 known to man. All tropical plants and trees, as 
 well as the vegetables and fruits of the temperate 
 climes, grow there in perfection. The best coffee 
 known to commerce grows wild, without planting 
 or cultivation. Sugar cane, indigo, bread fruit, 
 melons, mangoes, oranges, apples, grapes, mul- 
 berries, and figs all grow with little labor or care. 
 Mahogany, manchineel, satinwood, rosewood, cin- 
 namon-wood, logwood, the pine, the oak, the cy- 
 press, and the palmetto grow in rich profusion in 
 its splendid soil. Here are the best dyestuffs 
 
26 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 known to commerce, and in the earth are silver, 
 gold, copper, lead, iron, gypsum, and sulphur. 
 We hazard the statement that this island is more 
 capable of supporting life in all its phases, more 
 able to create wealth and diffuse happiness to its 
 people, than any other land of its size on the face 
 of the earth. Its harbors are incomparable, and 
 will float the navies of the world. Its atmosphere 
 is salubrious and its climate healthy. It is a nat- 
 ural paradise, and the description of its beauty 
 and resources by Columbus is as true to-day as it 
 was more than four hundred years ago. He 
 wrote : 
 
 "In it there are many havens on the seacoast, incom- 
 parable with any others I know in Christendom, and 
 plenty of rivers, so good and great that it is a marvel. 
 The lands there are high, and in it are very many ranges 
 of hills and most lofty mountains incomparably beyond 
 the Island of Centrefei (or Teneriffe) ; all most beautiful 
 in a thousand shapes and all accessible, and full of trees of 
 a thousand kinds, so lofty that they seem to reach the sky. 
 And I am assured that they never lose their foliage, as 
 may be imagined, since I saw them, as green and as 
 beautiful as they are in Spain in May and some of them 
 were in flower, some in fruit, some in another stage, ac- 
 cording to their kind. And the nightingale was singing, 
 and other birds of a thousand sorts, in the month of No- 
 vember, round about the way I was going. There are 
 palm trees of six or eight species, wondrous to see for 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 27 
 
 their beautiful variety; but so are the other trees and 
 fruits and plants therein. There are wonderful pine 
 groves and very large plants of verdure, and there are 
 honey and many kinds of birds, and many mines in the 
 earth; and there is a population of incalculable number. 
 Espanola is a marvel ; the mountains and hills, and plains, 
 and fields, and the soil, so beautiful and rich for planting 
 and sowing, for breeding cattle of all sorts, for building 
 of towns and villages. There could be no believing, with- 
 out seeing, such harbors as are here, as well as the many 
 and great rivers and excellent waters, most of which con- 
 tain gold. In the trees and fruits and plants, there are 
 greater diversities from those of Juana (Cuba). In this 
 there are many spiceries and great mines of gold and 
 other metals. The people of this island and all others 
 that I have seen, or not seen, all go naked, men and 
 women, just as their mothers bring them forth." 
 
 The seas that are to-day, actually and prospec- 
 tively, most important to mankind are the Med- 
 iterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Car- 
 ibbean Sea. In their importance these seas have 
 waxed and waned as have all other lands and seas 
 of the globe. While the Mediterranean has been 
 important throughout history as a part of the 
 chain of communication to the East, it is probably 
 at the present time more vital than ever, for it 
 commands the Suez Canal and is virtually a part 
 of the Suez route. The two great twin seas, the 
 Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, are, if 
 
28 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 possible, more important than the Mediterranean 
 in their effect upon the commerce of the world. 
 From their position they will be more world-wide 
 in their direct influence upon commerce than the 
 Mediterranean, because these two seas will em- 
 brace a greater part of the world. 
 
 It should be a fundamental principle of the 
 v United States that we should control the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This control 
 should be absolute and exclusive. The ultimate 
 realization of this postulate may be far in the fu- 
 ture, but the principle should be carried out as 
 persistently as Russia and Germany have pursued 
 the thought of an open sea. While the ultimate 
 thought of our country is toward peace, still the 
 developing world-conditions compel us to prepare 
 for the dominance of the seas that are absolutely 
 necessary to our future security. The control of 
 these great seas, which cut our shore line in twain 
 and which control our greatest river and the heart 
 of our greatest population, is as essential to the 
 peace and safety of this country as is the control 
 of the British Channel or the Red Sea to Great 
 Britain, or that of the Adriatic to Austria and 
 Italy. 
 
 The peace and safety of our country further 
 demand that the countries bordering on the Car- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 29 
 
 ibbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico should not be 
 able by whim, self-interest, or lawlessness, to in- 
 terfere with this nation. The conditions sur- 
 rounding this country demand that our spheres of 
 influence on this continent should be as absolutely 
 delimited and settled as is the establishment of 
 that principle in Europe. While it is possible 
 easily to settle this principle, it should be done; 
 and as rapidly as is consistent with justice and 
 right the bringing about of the situation that will 
 absolutely secure our control of these great seas 
 should be inaugurated. 
 
 The events of the day show how causelessly a 
 great war may arise and of what deadly impor- 
 tance to a great nation may be a small island or 
 an obscure country. The construction of the 
 Canal has emphasized our duty along the lines of 
 this basic idea, and this principle has been practi- 
 cally made part of our treaty obligations in an 
 agreement for the preservation of order in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the sur- 
 rounding and adjacent countries. 
 
 In the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty we contract that 
 "The canal shall be free and open to the vessels 
 of commerce and of war of all nations observing 
 these rules"; and we further agree that "The 
 canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right 
 
3 o THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be 
 committed within it. The United States, how- 
 ever, shall be at liberty to maintain such military 
 police along the canal as may be necessary to pro- 
 tect it against lawlessness and disorder." 
 
 It is idle to believe that these solemn and im- 
 portant obligations can be brought to fruition 
 while the condition of the Gulf of Mexico and the 
 Caribbean Sea remains as it is to-day and while 
 the present status of irresponsibility controls 
 these seas. These seas and islands and the lands 
 bordering on them are a part of the Panama Zone 
 and while their ability to cast this important ocean 
 of the Western Hemisphere into political, social, 
 and mercantile chaos remains, our solemn guar- 
 antees and treaties to preserve the canal are but 
 as waste paper. The control of the Panama Canal 
 makes the United States a trustee for civilization, 
 and to carry out our treaties it is necessary that 
 we dominate these seas; and we should be able 
 by fair treaty, or by fairly granted rights, to pre- 
 serve the peace and safety of that portion of this 
 continent. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 31 
 
 STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF HAITI 
 
 It is necessary to our subject briefly to discuss 
 the location of Haiti, not only as to its trade posi- 
 tion but as to its strategical situation. In the Gulf 
 of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea there are five 
 great strategical positions : the mouth of the Ca- 
 nal, the mouth of the Mississippi, Cuba, Haiti, 
 and Jamaica. The mouth of the Mississippi nec- 
 essarily will command the great central valley of 
 the United States, and here will be one of the 
 great positions in the trade of the world. From 
 the mouth of the Mississippi to Colon our com- 
 merce will have a straight course, passing Cape 
 Catoche, the outermost point of Yucatan, and 
 Cape Gracias a Dios on the Mosquito Coast. 
 This route will pass the island of Mujeres, which 
 is not important, but will be within easy striking 
 distance of the great island of Jamaica, owned by 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The island of Cuba is the great controlling 
 strategical influence in the Caribbean Sea and the 
 
32 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 Gulf of Mexico. It lies across the route from 
 North America, and largely commands the route 
 from the mouth of the Mississippi to the eastern 
 opening of the Canal. It controls the passage 
 from the Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean Sea 
 through the Yucatan Channel, and into the Gulf 
 of Mexico from the Atlantic by the Florida straits. 
 
 Second to Cuba in strategical importance is the 
 Island of Haiti and San Domingo. 
 
 The two great routes from North America to 
 the mouth of the Canal are : first, the route by 
 the Windward Passage, between the Island of 
 Cuba and the Island of Haiti; second, the route 
 by the Mona Passage, between the Island of Haiti 
 and the Island of Puerto Rico. This latter pas- 
 sage will be chiefly used by the sailing vessels go- 
 ing to and from the Canal to the eastern portion 
 of North America. Every ship sailing from New 
 York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Canada, Balti- 
 more, Newport News, in short, from the east- 
 ern coast of North America, on their journeys to 
 the infinite world of commerce will be compelled 
 to pass by the Island of Haiti, either through the 
 Windward Passage or the Mona Passage, and all 
 vessels to Great Britain and the northern part of 
 Europe must use the" Mona Passage by the east- 
 ern coast of Haiti. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 33 
 
 The other important passage to the mouth of 
 the Canal is the Anegada Passage by the Island 
 of Saint Thomas and Puerto Rico, within easy 
 striking distance of Haiti. This will be the route 
 used from the Isthmus to the Mediterranean and 
 Central Europe. Concisely speaking, the world 
 of commerce to and from the Canal will pass 
 along one coast or the other of the Island of 
 Haiti and San Domingo, or within easy striking 
 distance of its shores. 
 
 This world-wide commerce, in case of stress 
 and storm on its voyage to the commercial world, 
 must utilize this great island in the necessities of 
 sea life; for Haiti is the first great harboring 
 place on the way to the Canal, and on the return 
 it is the last stopping place. It will be as neces- 
 sary to the commerce of this country as Malta or 
 Aden or Gibraltar are to the Suez route. It lies 
 athwart the greatest commerce that will cleave the 
 seas. 
 
 In the present governmental condition of Haiti, 
 and with its relation to this country, the island of 
 Jamaica will be supremely important from a 
 strategical standpoint, if controlled or held by an 
 unfriendly power, and it could cripple our com- 
 merce passing through the Windward, Anegada, 
 or the Mona Passage. With the friendly influ- 
 
34 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 ence of Cuba and Haiti the commerce of the 
 United States would have a tremendous advantage 
 in case of war, or in the event of unfriendliness 
 on the part of any nation, even if Jamaica were 
 held by an unfriendly power. 
 
 It is usual to speak of the Caribbean Sea and 
 the Gulf of Mexico as the American Seas, and to 
 consider them as part of our life and practically 
 within the control of this nation. It is necessary 
 that we should glance at these great seas and ap- 
 preciate how they and the Canal are hemmed in 
 by islands, which would become a menace to our 
 commerce in case of war or hostility on the part 
 of the nations of Europe. 
 
 First in importance is the island of Jamaica, 
 owned by Great Britain, which is practically at 
 the mouth of the Canal. Of almost equal impor- 
 tance is the island of Curagao, belonging to Hol- 
 land, which, in the hands of an unfriendly power, 
 would be disastrous in its effect upon the com- 
 merce of the Canal. To the east and within strik- 
 ing distance are Martinique, in the hands of 
 France; Santa Lucia, owned by England; St. 
 Thomas, owned by Denmark; the Bahamas and 
 the Bermudas, in the hands of England, and Cuba 
 and Haiti, in independent control, neither of 
 which last two could be utilized by the United 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 35 
 
 States in case of conflict with the other nations of 
 the world. Thus we see that the Gulf of Mex- 
 ico and the Caribbean Sea are encompassed by 
 islands in the control of the two great nations of 
 the world, France and England, and by two 
 great islands, Haiti and Cuba, which are stra- 
 tegically so situated that they could largely con- 
 trol the commerce of practically half of the world. 
 In these waters the United States, to which this 
 commerce is supremely vital, controls with the ex- 
 ception of the harbor of Guantanamo in Cuba 
 only the relatively insignificant island of Puerto 
 Rico. Beyond these unimportant exceptions, the 
 United States has no right to fortify any of the 
 islands, nor could this country use them as bases 
 from which to protect our commerce and our 
 rights in the Canal. 
 
 From the present unrest in Europe, great even- 
 tualities, which will especially affect the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, will surely arise. 
 Here must be the vital center of the life of the 
 government of the United States. The greatly 
 coveted, sparsely settled, rich, undeveloped and 
 weakly governed portions of the earth are South 
 America and Central America. In the Caribbean 
 Sea is the Canal, the key to the world's commerce 
 for our country, and the connecting link between 
 
36 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 our eastern and western shores. The control of 
 this sea by our government is as fundamental and 
 as inexorable as the preservation of the rights of 
 the States, or of our form of free government. 
 To-day, because of present conditions, our country 
 has in that important region the advantage mili- 
 J tary and commercial. With the advent of new 
 forces our access to the Canal may be destroyed 
 and the control of that vital seat of commerce 
 may fall into the hands of a combination of na- 
 tions opposed to the interests of the United 
 States. The present situation of rest in the Carib- 
 bean Sea can no longer continue. To think that 
 it will is folly. 
 
 In case of German supremacy in the great con- 
 test of which the first declaration has just been 
 heard, the colonial dependencies of France will 
 J surely fall into German hands, and the strategic 
 islands of the Caribbean Sea will be held by the 
 most earth hungering of the nations of Europe. 
 If, in the complications of the inevitable war, Eng- 
 land is successful, it will mean with her a new era, 
 and it will do away with the old condition of rest 
 and quiet which has surrounded her West Indian 
 dependencies. 
 
 Under the present conditions an alliance of two 
 European nations can close the mouth of the Ca- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 37 
 
 nal, and can practically dominate the Caribbean 
 Sea. ( In the opinion of thoughtful men the great 
 vital and living proposition for us is that the 
 United States should control, militarily and com- 
 mercially, the Caribbean Sea and the access to the 
 Panama Canal. J Every step in that direction is 
 one of wisdom and demanded by the most primary 
 considerations of commercial and military neces- 
 sity. 
 
 With the change brought about by the present 
 conditions in Europe considerations of commer- 
 cial and military policy will surely demand that 
 the European nations will fortify their dependen- 
 cies in the Caribbean Sea, and the most fundamen- 
 tal considerations of safety demand that we shall 
 take every step looking to the finality which will 
 give to this government as complete control of mil- 
 itary and commercial conditions in the Caribbean 
 Sea as can be wrought by energy and foresight. 
 
 The Canal, closely held in our hands, will be 
 a source of incalculable strength. Dominated by 
 a European nation, or an alliance of European 
 nations, it will be to us commercial and military 
 destruction. We believe that this statement is 
 fundamental. 
 
 Let us consider the governmental and social 
 condition of the Republic of Haiti, so importantly 
 
A 
 
 38 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 located as it is, and the probability of its becom- 
 ing a menace to the fundamental principles of the 
 Monroe Doctrine. It is important for us to see 
 if it offends against the peace and safety of this 
 country. No one cares to indict a whole people; 
 but the question of the future of this island in its 
 relations to this republic is one of deep and abid- 
 ing importance to Americans. 
 
 This island is practically part of the shore line 
 of our republic, and is in control of the avenues of 
 our greatest routes of commerce to the world, and 
 lies at the mouth of the Canal, which has cost us 
 untold sums of money. Through its great pas- 
 sages will flow the bulk of our commerce to the 
 East, and a question for consideration for the 
 American people is whether or not this com- 
 merce should oftentimes be placed in the control 
 of a government continuously engaged in inter- 
 necine war, revolution, and insurrection and sunk 
 in religious and governmental degeneracy. It is 
 vital to the United States to determine whether 
 the condition of this island, so important to us, 
 will ultimately lead to interference on the part of 
 European nations or compel us, in order to pre- 
 serve the peace and safety of our country, to pro- 
 vide, by some means, that its present condition be 
 changed, and that instead of being a menace to 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 39 
 
 our republic it may become a blessing to the world 
 and a protection to a commerce that will be the 
 greatest witnessed since the keels of mankind's 
 ships began to cleave the water in their quest for 
 knowledge and riches throughout the world. 
 
 M6ft fa 
 
4 o THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 VI 
 
 HAITI'S GOVERNMENTAL POLICY AND 
 RELIGIOUS IDEALS 
 
 Let us, as briefly as may be, give the condition 
 of this island as set out by those who have visited 
 its shores and who are conversant with its condi- 
 tions. That which shows the real life of a nation 
 is its governmental policy and its religious ideals. 
 To these two propositions I invite your attention. 
 
 A short discussion of the history of the island 
 is necessary to explain the underlying reasons for 
 its economic and governmental conditions. 
 
 At the time that Hispaniola was discovered by 
 Columbus, in 1492, it was inhabited by two^ mil- 
 lion natives. By reason of the rapacity and cruelty 
 of the Spaniards the natives were soon extermi- 
 nated, and as early as 15 12 slaves were imported 
 from Africa. The descendants of those slaves 
 now control the Republic of Haiti. 
 
 Sugar, which was introduced into the island in 
 1506, soon began to be the great staple. In 1650 
 the buccaneers became formidable, and in 1697 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 41 
 
 the part of the island controlled by them was 
 ceded to France. 
 
 At the time of the French Revolution the popu- 
 lation was composed of relatively few whites, the 
 ruling class, some mulattoes, and a vast majority 
 of negro slaves. Under the control of the French, 
 Haiti became the seat of a luxury almost unparal- 
 leled, and furnished an enormous commerce to the 
 civilized world. 
 
 The mulattoes demanded civil rights, and with 
 the wave of freedom and liberty that broke over 
 France, they were in 1791 granted the privileges 
 of French citizenship by the National Convention. 
 The whites demanded that the decree be revoked, 
 which was done; but in 1791 the slaves engaged in 
 an insurrection in which they were assisted by the 
 mulattoes. In 1793 the French abolished slavery. 
 This, however, had no effect upon the situation. 
 
 During the war with England, which occurred 
 at this time, the slaves had rendered great as- 
 sistance to the French in defeating the English. 
 In 1 80 1 Toussaint L'Ouverture, a negro, obtained 
 military control, and proclaimed a constitutional 
 government. He was deceived by General Le- 
 clerc, the brother-in-law of Bonaparte, and was 
 taken to France, where he died. * p"'* ^ 
 
 This again brought on an insurrection by the 
 
42 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 negroes; and under Jean Jacques Dessalines they 
 renewed the conflict in its most horrible forms. 
 In 1803 the French abandoned the island. Des- 
 salines massacred all the whites, promulgated the 
 Declaration of Independence in 1804, and, after 
 he had proclaimed himself emperor in 1806, was 
 assassinated. 
 
 After this came the dreadful contest between 
 Christophe and Petion for the control of the 
 whole island, and the horrible conflicts between 
 Haiti and San Domingo continued, with varying 
 success. In 1844 the Spanish portion of the 
 island asserted its independence of Haiti, and the 
 Republic of San Domingo was established. Since 
 that time the two political divisions of the island 
 have continued. 
 
 Then followed succession after succession of 
 negro presidents and fierce dictators, but all under 
 the theory and practice of complete control of the 
 government and property by the negro. 
 
 Here is the distinguishing difference between 
 San Domingo and Haiti, which is not generally 
 understood. 
 
 The great development of the French portion 
 of the island, which at the time of the French 
 Revolution was supplying half of Europe with 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 43 
 
 sugar, coffee, and indigo, had demanded an enor- 
 mous proportion of slave population to carry on 
 this work, and this majority of the slave popula- 
 tion, after the weakening of the French influence 
 and the evacuation of the island by that nation, 
 was able absolutely to control, the island and to 
 direct its destiny. The whites and the mulattoes, 
 wherever found, were ruthlessly massacred by the 
 negro and their influence was practically de- 
 stroyed. ^ 
 
 In San Domingo there had been no such de- 
 mand for slave labor, and the whites and the mu- 
 lattoes held political and economical supremacy. 
 These two classes have largely maintained them- 
 selves in that portion of the island. 
 
 The situation was totally different in Haiti. 
 From the first slave insurrection until to-day the 
 supreme effort of the large negro population has 
 been to annihilate the mulattoes and the whites, 
 and the mulattoes are now a small and unimpor- 
 tant part of the population of Haiti. The mu- 
 lattoes' political power has gone along with their 
 prestige, while that of the whites, as a political 
 factor, has been destroyed by law, and only a few, 
 by special permit, are engaged in trade and agri- 
 culture and in operating a few concessions in the 
 island. 
 
44 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 Under the rule of Boyer, the negro republic 
 controlled San Domingo and showed the same 
 fear and detestation of everything white or Euro- 
 pean that had appeared in Haiti. The steady fear 
 of the Haitians of everything European led them 
 to destroy the lives of the mulattoes and the white 
 men wherever they were found, and in addition 
 they destroyed the culture, laws, and works of 
 the men who had made the island of Haiti at the 
 time of the French Revolution the richest posses- 
 sion, excepting Java, on the globe. 
 
 This continuing fear of all that was white and 
 civilized reached its supreme illustration in the 
 building by the tyrant, Christophe, of the enor- 
 mous fortress at La Ferriere. There, on the top 
 of a lonely mountain, miles away from any town 
 or city, at the cost of thirty thousand lives and 
 fifteen millions of dollars, this monster in human 
 form constructed one of the most stupendous for- 
 tresses ever reared by human hands. His object 
 in doing this was to protect himself against the 
 white man, who, he feared, would surely come and 
 replace the black's barbarous methods with the 
 rule of civilization. It stands there to-day with 
 giant walls one hundred feet high, filled with four 
 hundred cannons, its broken walls and roofless 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 45 
 
 towers attesting to the system which, under negro 
 rule, has destroyed this beautiful island. 
 
 Since the evacuation by the French, Haiti has 
 been a land of revolution, despotism, and crime 
 against religious authority and governmental law. 
 With the forms of a free government, it has been 
 a despotism unrivaled in its disregard for human 
 rights. A general of a department, with a ragged 
 army of banditti behind him, who by blood and 
 rapine seizes control of the government, often 
 without the pretense of the forms of an election, 
 has generally furnished the horrid phantasmago- 
 ria which, since the French evacuation, has posed 
 in the Haitian Republic as free government. 
 
 "Founded as it is upon force, with the strongest man at 
 the head, nominally as president, but in reality a dictator, 
 the Black Republic cannot endure another century as it is 
 going now, without calling to it the attention of the 
 world, and exciting its strongest reprobation. It is the 
 desire of more than one government that the United 
 States should take this irresponsible island republic in 
 hand and administer to it a salutary lesson. Nothing short 
 of extermination, some aver, could effect a reform in the 
 Haitian body politic; but as this age does not tolerate the 
 radical measures of the olden time it is not probable that 
 the present generation will experience a reformation. Sir 
 Spencer St. John, who was formerly the English Minister- 
 Resident in Haiti, and who wrote an exhaustive account 
 
46 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 of the doings in the Black Republic, says, of it, among 
 other things not complimentary: 'No country possesses 
 greater capabilities, or a better geographical position, or 
 more varied soil, climate, or production, with magnificent 
 scenery of every description ; and yet it is now the country 
 to be avoided, ruined as it has been by a succession of self- 
 seeking politicians, without honesty or patriotism.' " — 
 Ober, "The Wake of Columbus." 
 
 "The island being thus derelict, Spain and England 
 both tried their hand to recover it, but failed from the 
 same cause, and a black nation, with a republican consti- 
 tution and a population perhaps of about a million and a 
 half of pure-blooded negroes, has since been in unchal- 
 lenged possession, and has arrived at the condition which 
 has been described to us by Sir Spencer St. John. Repub- 
 lics which begin with murder and plunder do not come to 
 much good in this world. Haiti has passed through many 
 revolutions, and is no nearer than at first to stability. The 
 present president, M. Salomon, who was long a refugee in 
 Jamaica, came into power a few days back by a turn of 
 the wheel. He was described to me as a peremptory gen- 
 tleman who made quick work with his political oppo- 
 nents. His term of office having nearly expired, he had 
 reelected himself shortly before another seven years and 
 was prepared to maintain his right by any measures which 
 he might think expedient. He had a few regiments of 
 soldiers, who, I was told, were devoted to him, and a 
 fleet consisting of two gunboats commanded by an Ameri- 
 can officer to whom he chiefly owed his security." — 
 Froude, "The English in the West Indies." 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 47 
 
 Says Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, U. S. 
 Navy, a most careful and distinguished observer, 
 Mn "Haiti: A Degenerating Island": 
 
 "It is not possible within the limits of this paper to go 
 into details regarding the turbulent history of Haiti. The 
 fact that of its twenty-one rulers — from Dessalines to the 
 one now holding power — four only have completed their 
 terms of office, the most of them being driven out of the 
 country, will show the general tendency of the people to 
 revolution. History is here constantly repeating itself, 
 summed up in the general statement that the 'outs' are 
 always struggling to get into power, while the 'ins' are 
 striving to retain possession of the spoils of office. 
 
 "It is said that Haiti is getting blacker and blacker, the 
 white element having been practically exterminated or 
 removed from the island. . . . 
 
 "In all its political history, Haiti, the beautiful, has 
 been torn almost to shreds by its turbulent inhabitants, 
 led on by a few aspiring chiefs, who rarely have had any 
 other object in view than personal gain." 
 
 "Of course, if Haiti were a true republic the people 
 would have an opportunity to correct the abuses from 
 which they suffer by exercising the manhood franchise to 
 which, under the constitution, they are entitled, but, of 
 all farces and travesties of popular institutions which are 
 so prevalent in the Black Republic, that of the so-called 
 popular elections is the most flagrant. Elections to the 
 chamber are held or not held, not as prescribed by law 
 and at the proper intervals, but simply when and how it 
 
48 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 may suit the personal convenience and private profit of the 
 supreme military chief of the day. If he can secure more 
 money in bribes from the deputies already assembled and 
 in session than is offered by those desirous of legislative 
 honors and opportunities for corruption, then the old 
 chamber remains on indefinitely. If the new men offer to 
 the military chief a sufficiently substantial inducement, the 
 legislature in being is dismissed, although it may have 
 enjoyed only a month of life, and new elections offered." — 
 Bonsal, "The American Mediterranean." 
 
 Again says Bonsai : 
 
 "In the winter of 1907-08, when twenty-two of the 
 adherents of Dr. Firmin fell into the hands of the ad- 
 ministration general at St. Marc, that officer walked them 
 out to the nearest cemetery, and after they had dug a 
 trench deep enough to hold their bodies, had them shot 
 and buried. He then reported to his commander-in-chief, 
 President Nord Alexis, the occurrence textually as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " 'Feeling confident that my proces verbal of the affair, 
 which I shall have drawn up at the earliest possible mo- 
 ment, would meet with 5^our excellency's approval, to 
 save time, I have executed the twenty-two prisoners — 
 provisionally.' This butcher never received a word of 
 censure, but, on the contrary, was promoted by his chief." 
 
 The first effort of a revolutionist is to obtain 
 possession of the custom house, so as to provide 
 the sinews of war and to obtain perquisites for 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 49 
 
 those in charge of the revolution. Then ensues a 
 massacre of those who followed the unsuccessful 
 aspirant for the presidency. 
 
 "At its head is a president assisted by two chambers, 
 the members of which are elected and hold office under a 
 constitution of 1889. This constitution, thoroughly re- 
 publican in form, is French in origin, as are also the laws, 
 language, traditions and customs in Haiti. In practice, 
 however, the government resolves itself into a military 
 despotism, the power being concentrated in the hands of a 
 president. The Haitians seem to possess everything that a 
 progressive and civilized nation can desire, but corruption 
 is spread through every portion and branch of the govern- 
 ment. Justice is venal, and the police are brutal and inef- 
 ficient." — Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
 "But the same causes which tended then to demoralize 
 the country and unsettle its people are those that render it 
 a hotbed of revolution to-day. The bankruptcy of its 
 treasury, the ambition of aspiring chiefs, the hatred of 
 disappointed ones, and the want of any regular system of 
 commerce and agriculture, with the incubus of an army 
 living in idleness and eating up the substance of the land, 
 must have their effect." — Hazard, "San Domingo and 
 Haiti." 
 
 "Official peculation, judicial murder, and utter corrup- 
 tion of every kind underlie the forms and titles of civilized 
 government; the religion, nominally Christian, is largely 
 vaudoux or serpent-worship, in which actual and horrible 
 
50 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 cannibalism is even now a most important element. In- 
 stead of progressing, the negro republicans have gone 
 back to the lowest type of African barbarism." — Chambers 
 Encyclopedia. 
 
 "A land of continuous revolution." — Encyclopedia Bri- 
 tannic a. 
 
 The written and ostensible form of government 
 of the Republic of Haiti is modeled in a general 
 manner after that of our republic. The govern- 
 ment is divided into three branches, legislative, 
 executive, and judicial. The national legislature 
 is composed of two chambers: a Senate and a 
 House of Representatives. According to the Con- 
 v I stitution, the members of the Chamber of Repre- 
 sentatives are elected by the people for a term of 
 three years. The Senate is chosen for a term of 
 six years by the representatives from a list fur- 
 nished by a Board of Electors and the President 
 of the Republic. The President of the Republic is 
 elected by the National Assembly for a term of 
 seven years. He has a cabinet, each member of 
 which has charge of the duties pertaining to his 
 department, and these departments are modeled 
 along the lines of those of the United States. 
 
 The Chamber of Representatives, when the pre- 
 tense of an election is carried out, is really re- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 51 
 
 turned by the President. Those desiring an elec- 
 tion to the Chamber of Representatives make 
 their arrangements with the President of the Re- 
 public, or the President, if he desires certain men 
 returned, has the general in charge of the district, 
 who is an appointee of the President, return 
 them as a matter of course. In the majority of 
 cases these names are returned by the general 
 without even the pretense of an election. The re- 
 turns are absolutely in the control of the Presi- 
 dent and of the twelve thousand ragged banditti 
 who constitute the army, men who are entirely 
 dependent upon him. It is a military despotism 
 pure and simple, founded upon greed and desire 
 of power ; and there is scarcely any pretense of a 
 free election or a free government. 
 
 The republic is divided into five departments, 
 which in turn are subdivided, and all the execu- 
 tive officers of these departments are appointed by 
 the President of the Republic and are under his 
 absolute control. The taxes are farmed out for 
 the benefit of the President and the clique that 
 surrounds him ; and while no general taxes are im- 
 posed by the Constitution, still, as a matter of fact, 
 every one who has any occupation or property is 
 compelled to pay a percentage, either to the Presi- 
 dent or to the ring that controls public affairs. 
 
52 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 From the highest office to the lowest there exists a 
 condition of imposition and public dishonesty. 
 The legal taxes arise from the import and export 
 duties at the custom houses, and the custom house 
 is the chief object of possession on the part of 
 those desiring to control the government of the 
 republic. 
 
 A system of unparalleled corruption and self- 
 interest controls this institution, and it is freely 
 used to provide the requisites for the needs of the 
 ever-ready revolution. The wickedest abuses pre- 
 vail in the administration of the custom houses, 
 and foreign firms are the chief sufferers in this 
 direction. They are compelled to pay whatever 
 is required by the President and his satellites, 
 without regard to justice. 
 
 The island is harried by the governors of the 
 departments and by the officials of the districts 
 into which the departments are divided. The 
 most flagrant outrages are committed upon the 
 people. The army of twelve thousand is the ready 
 instrument for this work, and it is used relent- 
 lessly by the officials for the purpose of hounding 
 the people, preying upon every man, whether he 
 be a poor peasant planting a banana patch or a 
 foreigner attempting to work the terms of a con- 
 cession. This system has destroyed the hope and 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 53 
 
 the welfare of the people, and the citizens are ter- 
 rorized to an extent rarely known elsewhere. 
 
 The President and his satellites have absolute 
 control of the treasury, and the largest amount of 
 the debt of this devoted island has been made by 
 its rulers at ruinous interest and at reckless sacri- 
 fice of the rights of the people. A loan is made, 
 out of which the President and the horde around 
 him exact an enormous part, and the burden is 
 saddled upon the people. The money is used to 
 carry on the ever-present revolution, or is em- 
 ployed to support the greedy horde of extortion- 
 ists surrounding the President and his so-called 
 government. 
 
 Men, without pretense of law, are drafted into 
 the army and are compelled to fight, and in the 
 revolutions that are ever recurrent most inhuman 
 atrocities are perpetrated. These revolutions are 
 bloody affairs without pretense of control by the 
 rules of civilized warfare; and by reason of them 
 a vast number of the people are impoverished to 
 the extent of starvation, which exists in a land that 
 smiles under a bright sky, amid cooling winds, and 
 blessed with the most fertile soil in the world. 
 
 While all this is true, the forms of justice are 
 in full effect. The republic has a Supreme Court, 
 and there is also a Court of Appeals in each dis- 
 
54 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 trict. The whole paraphernalia of the courts is 
 under the control of the President, and those who 
 dispense justice dispense it according to his desires 
 and under his commands. He has the sole power 
 of appointment and removal. 
 
 That the course of justice has a hard road to 
 travel is readily understood when it is known that 
 every department is presided over by a general, 
 appointed by the President, and that he is held 
 responsible for whatever taxes are collected, for 
 the control of the courts, and for the absolute ac- 
 quiescence of every department in the will of the 
 President. 
 
 The governor of the department, who is a mili- 
 tary chief, has absolute control of the life of his 
 district. He is paid a nominal sum, yet he is ex- 
 pected to maintain at least a fifth part of the army 
 needed by the President to sustain his authority. 
 His expenses are hundreds of times the amount 
 of money he legally receives, and it is his duty on 
 a salary of a few dollars each month to bring to 
 the standard of the President from five hundred 
 to two thousand soldiers, equipped to carry on the 
 saturnalia of bloodshed and carnage. 
 
 There is but one way that this can be effectively 
 done, and that is by a system of rapine, a system 
 by which the people are harried to supply the sol- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 5$ 
 
 diery and the expense needed for their sustenance 
 and equipment. Not only is the money necessary 
 for this equipment exacted from the people, but 
 with it the general of the department seizes a suf- 
 ficiency to support him in licentious plenty. This 
 system of wrong-doing compels the peasant to se- 
 crete his banana patch in some fastness of the 
 mountain, or to raise his little crop where the ra- 
 pacious eyes of the marauders about the general 
 will not fall upon it. The inevitable result is a 
 reign of terror, destruction of agriculture, and the 
 complete paralysis of trade. 
 
 This system has brought about a condition 
 scarcely equaled anywhere in the world, because 
 this is not a reign of terror that builds a great sys- 
 tem of government upon the ruins of the people ; 
 for here, while the people are destroyed, they re- 
 ceive no compensation in the splendor or perma- 
 nency of their government. There is no escape 
 from this condition, for the reason that the mili- 
 tary system, in the hands of the bloodthirsty 
 rulers, is too strong, and the long permanence of 
 the reign of terror has had its inevitable effect 
 upon the life and the spirit of the people. 
 
 The general of the department keeps around 
 him at all times a horde of marauders, attached to 
 him in the interest of plunder. When the Presi- 
 
56 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 '0- \jV* 
 
 dent desires troops, the order is sent to the general 
 for the number needed by the President, and the 
 citizen is taken from his farm or his shop, his 
 family is left to starve, and he is taken to the city 
 where the troops are being collected, and, half 
 naked and half starved, is thrown into a stockade, 
 or he is actually bound, and, under an armed 
 guard, is put into the ranks and compelled to fight. 
 If he despair and refuse to do as told, he is shot 
 down like a beast of the field and interred in a 
 shallow grave by the roadside. 
 
 Thus, throughout the whole of the island the 
 terror-stricken people are unable to carry on any 
 trade, nor can they pursue any calling necessary 
 for their sustenance. Under their system no for- 
 eigner can hold land. The whole government is 
 in the hands of the blacks, and the provision, by 
 which a white man can do business, hold land, and 
 in a manner enjoy the rights of citizenship by the 
 marriage of a black wife, has been done away 
 with, and the absolute control of all the property 
 in the island is in the hands of the negroes. 
 
 A fair illustration of the system of election is 
 exemplified by the election of Nord Alexis in 1902. 
 Being in control of the government forces and not 
 having been known as an aspirant for the presi- 
 dency, upon the assembling of the national assem- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 57 
 
 bly Alexis demanded that he should be elected 
 President. To his repeated demands the national 
 assembly paid little attention. On the eve of his 
 so-called election his troops in the field surrounded 
 'the palace, falling into firing groups. In the pal- j/ 
 ace preparations for a banquet were in progress. 
 Entering the national assembly, he notified it that 
 its members could elect him President and go to 
 the banquet, or face the firing squads being formed 
 in the yard. He was elected by acclamation. 
 
 This is but one of hundreds of illustrations of 
 the hollow pretense of free government in this 
 island. An election means but a revolution flow- 
 ing with blood. The government is a despotism 
 pure and simple, a despotism that fattens upon 
 the blood of an ignorant people, and is only a 
 horrid pretense of free government. Read this 
 record of its unstable and gory governmental life : 
 
 1804. Dessalines crowned as emperor. 
 
 1806. He is assassinated; war between Haiti 
 
 and San Domingo. 
 
 1807. Christophe becomes king under title of 
 
 Henry the First ; war. 
 181 1. Petion president of southern part; civil 
 war. 
 
58 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 1820. Boyer declared regent for life; after tre- 
 mendous insurrection and flow of blood 
 Christophe commits suicide. 
 
 1 843. Boyer deposed and exiled after revolution. 
 
 1844. Rivirere exiled after one year; war. 
 
 1845. Guerrier in office one year. 
 
 1845. Pierror abdicated. 
 
 1846. Riche proclaimed president; died in one 
 
 year. 
 
 1847. Soloque declared emperor after many 
 
 wars and much bloodshed; exiled in 
 1859. 
 
 1858-59. Geffrard president until 1867; then 
 exiled. 
 
 1856-57. Dreadful revolution wherein Salnave 
 revolts, takes refugees from British 
 consulates, and kills them ; English ship 
 drives them out and helps Geffrard; 
 Geffrard banished, Salnave made presi- 
 dent, with a new constitution; revolt 
 suppressed amid torrents of blood. 
 
 1868-70. Continual revolution; Salnave massa- 
 cres his enemies; proclaims himself em- 
 peror, is finally defeated and shot. 
 
 1870-74. Nissage Saget; completed his four 
 years. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 59 
 
 1874. Domingue seized the government, and 
 after bloody revolution exiled in 
 1876. 
 
 1876. Canal, after bloody revolution, seizes 
 power; after many revolutions he is ex- 
 pelled in 1879. 
 
 1879. Salomon elected; reelected 1886. 
 
 1888. Salomon deposed and exiled; civil war 
 between Hipolyte and Legitime; Legi- 
 time placed in office for one year and 
 exiled. 
 
 1889-96. Hipolyte, after many insurrections, 
 died in office; supposed to have been 
 poisoned. 
 
 1896. Simon Sam president; trouble with Ger- 
 many; numerous disorders until 1899. 
 
 1900. Sam takes all the funds and leaves the 
 country. 
 
 1902. General Nord Alexis proclaimed presi- 
 dent. 
 
 1908. Nord Alexis retired by revolution; Pow- 
 ers sent warships to stop massacre. 
 
 191 1. Cincinnatus Le Conte proclaimed presi- 
 
 dent; killed in 19 12. 
 
 19 1 2. Tancrede Auguste appointed president; 
 
 killed in May, 19 13. 
 
60 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 19 13. Michael Orresti proclaimed president; 
 
 was retired by revolution January 27, 
 1914. 
 
 19 14. Orresti Zamor assumed the presidency 
 
 February 8, 19 14, and at last accounts 
 was still alive. 
 
 By this chronology it will be seen that the con- 
 stitutional office for a president in Haiti is seven 
 yyears, and President Salomon, who held office 
 from 1879 t0 1886, is apparently the only Haitian 
 president to fill out his term of office. He was 
 killed, however, within two years after his reelec- 
 tion for a second term in 1886. 
 
 A writer, one who occupies a high position in 
 the Haitian government, has lately put forth a 
 masterpiece of special pleading in defense of his 
 government. Any defense of this kind is idle. 
 Within a month it has reeked with blood under the 
 throes of one of its almost continuous revolutions. 
 Our government has been again compelled to in- 
 tervene and save the lives of many of the parties 
 engaged in this internecine war. A number of 
 times, by reason of this situation, war has been 
 almost precipitated between the Haitian govern- 
 ment and the European nations, and the warships 
 of Great Britain, France, and Germany are only 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 61 
 
 too frequent in the harbors of Haiti, protecting 
 their subjects, demanding redress of grievances, 
 and saving human life. Sooner or later the irre- 
 sponsible government of the Republic of Haiti 
 will commit the act that will involve us under the 
 first clause and original application of the Monroe 
 Doctrine. If it were not for the Monroe Doc- 
 trine, backed by the strong hands of this govern- 
 ment, this island to-day would be under the control 
 of a European nation. 
 
 / 
 
62 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 VII 
 MORAL CONDITIONS IN HAITI 
 
 Let us pursue this investigation and further 
 consider the moral and religious condition of 
 Haiti. 
 
 Religion is but a pretense. The worship of the 
 green snake and the control of the voodoo are 
 everywhere prevalent. The island has degener- 
 ated from its once high estate, and there is no pre- 
 tense but what the Papaloi and the Mamaloi are 
 as potent as any of the figures in its life. It seems 
 to be true, that on any night the horrid rites of 
 the voodoo can be witnessed in the heart of the 
 capital of Haiti, surrounded by the soldiers in the 
 uniform of the Haitian government. In the book 
 mentioned this statement is denied, and the asser- 
 tion is made that Haiti has been slandered by the 
 book writers and the magazine makers, by "un- 
 scrupulous writers and travelers." This assertion 
 is unbelievable. I do not quote Srjencer St. John, 
 the English minister, a resident in this" fsfanaror 
 many years, who states in detail the horror of 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 63 
 
 despotism that governs the island, and who gives 
 the details of the dreadful practice of the voodoo, 
 and who charges child stealing and cannibalism to 
 these people. I will give only a few of the many 
 other proofs. 
 
 "A man, of course a general, is in prison for treason or 
 a detournement of funds. (This is a delicate way they 
 speak of stealing in Haiti when they will speak of it at 
 all.) It is a question of such minor importance, simply 
 whether the man shall live or die, that the President will 
 not defer it to the Papaloi or Voodoo priest, who lives in 
 the hills behind the city, so he drops a manikin of clay 
 upon the floor. If it breaks, the man dies; if it remains 
 intact, then he lives — as long as the noisome atmosphere 
 of a Haitian prison will let him. . . . 
 
 "Again the doubt, the President would draw a line 
 across the floor of his sanctum and then pitch manikins, 
 this time made of wood and attired in the gaudy glory of 
 Haitian generals. If the puppets passed the line, it meant 
 one thing; if they lagged behind, it meant another, and so 
 the State papers were fashioned and the presidential de- 
 crees inspired in Haiti. 
 
 "But of course upon the graver questions the £apaloi 
 and the ^damaloi, the high priest and the high priestess 
 of the Voodoo sect, sat in judgment. The Papaloi, or 
 Guinea coast prophet, with his fetich worship and his 
 Congo prayers, is the one solid, substantial fact in Haiti. 
 Around about him turn Haitian life and politics. In some 
 administrations the doors of the Black House have not 
 been as wide open to these prophets of the night as they 
 
64 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 were while Nord Alexis ruled, but never have they been 
 closed except in the reign of the mulatto Geffrard some 
 forty years ago, and his was a short and little day and 
 ended with exile to Jamaica, where, under the guidance 
 of intelligent and sympathetic white men, the Afro- 
 American is accomplishing more, perhaps, than anywhere 
 else. 
 
 "The cannibalistic feed is only indulged in on rare 
 occasions and at long intervals, and is always shrouded in 
 mystery and hedged about with every precaution against 
 interlopers; for, be their African ignorance ever so dense, 
 their carnal fury ever so unbridled, the Papalois and 
 Mamalois, the head men and head women worshipers 
 never seem to forget that in these vile excesses there 
 should perhaps be found excuse enough for the interfer- 
 ence of the civilized world to save the people of the Black 
 Republic from the further degradation which awaits 
 them. 
 
 "Within the last fifteen years human victims have been 
 sacrificed to the great god Voodoo in the national palace 
 of Haiti. Last February there was assembled in the na- 
 tional palace what might justly be called a congress of 
 serpent worshipers. During the life of Mme. Nord, 
 which came to an end in October, 1908, not a week passed 
 but what a meeting of the Voodoo practitioners was held 
 in the executive mansion, and her deathbed was sur- 
 rounded by at least a score of these witch doctors." — 
 yBoNSAL, "The American Mediterranean." 
 
 "The serpent is the deity of the voodoos, and he is 
 represented by a high priest, called the Papaloi, and a 
 priestess, the Mamaloi ; meaning the father and the mother 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 6s 
 
 king. Their demands are absolute, and no sectary dare 
 disobey them. In this lies their menace to good govern- 
 ment, and it is well known that even some of the rulers 
 of Haiti have been dominated by them. The worship of 
 the serpent is carried on as secretly as possible; the sec- 
 taries are bound by oaths of secrecy, and their incantations 
 take place in the night. The serpent is consulted, through 
 the priest or priestess, and the devotees then indulge in 
 dancing and song, generally ending in the grossest forms 
 of debauchery." — Ober, "The Wake of Columbus." 
 
 "But this is not the worst. Immorality is so universal 
 that it almost ceases to be a fault, for a fault implies an 
 exception, and in Haiti it is the rule. Young people make 
 experiment of one another before they will enter into any 
 closer connection. So far they are no worse than in our 
 own English islands, where the custom is equally general ; 
 but behind the immorality, behind the religiosity, there lies 
 active and alive the horrible revival of the West African 
 superstitions; the serpent worship, and the child sacrifice, 
 and the cannibalism. There is no room to doubt it. A 
 missionary assured me that an instance of it occurred 
 only a year ago within his own personal knowledge. The 
 facts are notorious ; a full account was published in one of 
 the local newspapers, and the only result was that the 
 President imprisoned the editor for exposing the country. 
 A few years ago persons guilty of these infamies were 
 tried and punished; now they are left alone, because to 
 prosecute and convict them would be to acknowledge the 
 truth of the indictment." — Froude, "The English in the 
 West Indies." 
 
 "No accurate history of Haiti can be written without 
 
66 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 reference to the horrible sorcery, called the religion of 
 Voodoo, which was introduced into the country with the 
 slaves from Africa. Its creed is that the God Voodoo has 
 the power usually ascribed to the Christian's Lord, and 
 that he shows himself to his good friends, the negroes, un- 
 der the form of a non-venomous snake, and transmits his 
 power through a chief priest or priestess. These are 
 called either king and queen, master or mistress, or gen- 
 erally as Papalois and Mamalois. The principal act of 
 worship consists of a wild dance, attended by grotesque 
 , eJ. c ^; gesticulations, which leads up to the most disgraceful 
 r<H> r V cC (,H*f or gi es * A secret oath binds all the voodoos, on the taking 
 ;^Li ^ of which, the lips of the neophyte are usually touched with 
 jg^ /warm goat's blood, which is intended to inspire terror. 
 
 He promises to submit to death should he ever reveal the 
 secrets of the fraternity, and to put to death any traitor 
 to the sect. It is affirmed, and no doubt is true, that on 
 special occasions a sacrifice is made of a living child, or 
 the "goat without horns," as it is called, and then canni- 
 balism in its worst form is indulged in. Under the cir- 
 cumstances of taking the oath of allegiance, it should 
 cause no surprise that the Haitians claim that this is not 
 true and defy any white man to produce evidence of guilt. 
 But, notwithstanding, no one can read the horrible tales 
 published by one of the British ministers to Haiti, which 
 described in detail the revolting practices of the voodoos, 
 together with the proofs he brings to substantiate the 
 truth of the allegations, without coming to the reluctant 
 conclusion that cannibalism is resorted to in these meetings. 
 Of course, no white man could long live on the island after 
 having given testimony leading to the conviction of cul- 
 prits in such cases, and therefore the negroes' demand for 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 67 
 
 proof can never be satisfied. Indeed, it is said that 
 even some presidents who have openly discouraged the 
 voodoo practices have come to violent deaths from this 
 cause. 
 
 "The character of the meetings of the voodoos, which 
 take place in secluded spots in the thick woods, is well 
 known, and I have been given a description of one of them 
 from an eye-witness, who is an officer of our navy, which 
 no one could hear without a shudder. He states in brief 
 that one day while out hunting he abruptly ran into a 
 camp of worshipers, which was located in a lonely spot 
 in the woods, and the horrors he there saw made an in- 
 delible impression upon his mind. 
 
 "When his presence was discovered he was immediate- 
 ly seized by a frenzied crowd of men and women, and for 
 some minutes there did not seem to be a question but that 
 his life was to be forfeited ; but the Papalois called a halt 
 and a council, apparently, to determine what action should 
 be taken, and while this was in session a handful of coin, 
 judiciously scattered, diverted the thoughts of the negroes 
 for the time being from their captive. The usual sacri- 
 fice of a live white rooster was now brought on, seeing 
 which the people were called back to their worship, and 
 the ceremonies went on in his presence. 
 
 "In the horrible struggle which took place for posses- 
 sion, the bird was torn literally to pieces, and he had no 
 doubt that its accompaniment, the "goat without horns," 
 would soon follow. While this was in progress his pres- 
 ence seemed to be forgotten, and, watching a good oppor- 
 tunity, he ran for his very life, not stopping until he 
 reached the protection of his ship. 
 
68 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 Rear-Admiral Chester further says : 
 
 "But there is one thing common to the whole country, 
 of which every Haitian denies the existence : Vaudoux is 
 the one thing which they declare they have not. They tell 
 you there is no snake- worship ( I am speaking of the higher 
 classes) within the bounds of the republic. But when you 
 betray certain knowledge of the subject, they admit that 
 though sacrifices and savage dances may take place in other 
 departments, no such things are known in that one in 
 which you at the moment find yourself. 
 
 "Thus in Jacmel they told me I should find Vaudoux 
 in Port-au-Prince and the Plain of Cul-de-Sac. In Port- 
 au-Prince, as I was actually returning from witnessing a 
 sacrifice within the limits of the town, I was advised to go 
 to the Cape, where alone such rites flourished. And at 
 the Cape they told me to take ship for Jacmel, for there I 
 would assuredly find them. As a matter of plain fact, 
 the traveler riding across the country in any direction is 
 quite likely to come suddenly in view of the ceremonies 
 in full swing. He will see the tell-tale dances, the faces 
 smeared in blood, perhaps even the body of the black goat, 
 the sacred sacrifice." — Prichard, "Where Black Rules 
 White." 
 
 "It may bear away the palm of being the most foul- 
 smelling, dirty, and consequently fever-stricken city in the 
 world. Every one throws his refuse before his door, so 
 that heaps of manure and every species of rubbish encum- 
 ber the way. 
 
 "As to the streets, they do not seem to have been mend- 
 ed for the last hundred years. The Haitians have a say- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 69 
 
 ing, 'Bon Dieu gate li; bon Dieu paree li' (God spoilt 
 them, and God will mend them). As the 'bon Dieu' 
 only helps those who help themselves, and as the Haitians 
 have no desire to help themselves in the way of making 
 or repairing their roadways, their condition is frightful 
 beyond description. The gutters are open, pools of stag- 
 nant and fetid water obstruct the streets everywhere, and 
 receive constant accessions from the inhabitants using them 
 as cesspools and sewers. There are few good buildings 
 in town, and none in the country, the torch of the incen- 
 diary being constantly applied, and no ecouragement of- 
 fered to rebuild, through protection of the government or 
 local enterprises. Buildings destroyed by earthquake or 
 fire are never replaced, and the nearest approach to re- 
 building is seen in the slab shanty leaning against the 
 ruined walls of a large structure demolished." — Op^p^^-I. Y 
 "In the Wake of Columbus." 
 
 ^ Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, in his article 
 
 on "Haiti: A Degenerating Island," further says: 
 
 "Of the eleven ports of Haiti open to foreign com- 
 merce, Cape Haitien and Port-au-Prince are the largest 
 and most progressive. 
 
 "Cape Haitien, or 'The Cape,' as it is commonly called, 
 is situated on the northwestern coast, at the foot of a hill 
 that slopes back to the sea, with most picturesque sur- 
 roundings. It has a commodious harbor and supports a 
 population of 30,000 or 40,000 people. Under the French, 
 it was the capital of the colony, and its wealth, splendor, 
 and luxury gained for it the name of Little Paris ; but now 
 
70 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 the structures erected by the French in colonial days are 
 a mass of ruins, the parks overgrown with tropical weeds, 
 the fountains choked with debris, the gutters filled with 
 filth, all producing pestilential emanations from which for- 
 eigners speedily run away, if they are forced into its en- 
 vironments. 
 
 "Port-au-Prince, the present capital of the Republic, as 
 well as its largest and most important city, is likewise most 
 picturesquely located at the foot of hills, where one may 
 escape from its blistering and filthy streets to mountain 
 resorts that would be popular if located in almost any 
 country of the world. Unlike Cape Haitien, the city is 
 cut off from the trade-winds, to which this island owes 
 so much of its salubriousness, and therefore it is hot; but 
 still the traveler caught in the town may frequently felici- 
 tate himself when he reads that cities in our own country 
 have higher temperatures by 10 to 15 degrees than is 
 usually found here. The city is well supplied with the 
 most delicious mountain water, and if its 60,000 inhabi- 
 tants used it as freely as do Americans, it might be as clean 
 as nature made it. As it is, it may well hold the palm for 
 being the most filthy, foul-smelling, and, consequently, 
 fever-stricken city in the world. The gutters of the 
 streets, which may be said to cover the whole roadbeds, 
 are filled with stagnant waters and are used as cesspools 
 by the people. But for the torrential rains, which pour 
 down the mountain sides and carry off all the filth, into 
 the beautiful bay, even a Haitian could not live there. 
 But the bay, thus polluted, is quite as much of a menace to 
 health as the city itself. During the visits of American 
 men-of-war to the port, most of the time is spent in keep- 
 ing the people from the pestilential vapors which emanate 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 71 
 
 from the sea itself. The water of the harbor is so bad 
 that it cannot be used even for scrubbing the decks of 
 the ship." 
 
 "No one can foretell the future of the Black Republic, 
 but the present order of things cannot last in an island so 
 close under the American shores. If the Americans forbid 
 any other power to interfere, they will have to interfere 
 themselves. If they find Mormonism an intolerable blot 
 upon their escutcheon, they will have to put a stop in 
 some way or other to cannibalism and devil-worship. 
 Meanwhile, the ninety years of negro self-government 
 have had their use in showing what it really means, and if 
 English statesmen, either to save themselves trouble or to 
 please the prevailing uninstructed sentiment, insist on ex- 
 tending it, they will be found when the accounts are made 
 up to have been no better friends to the unlucky negro 
 than their slave-trading forefathers." — Froude, "The 
 English in the West Indies." 
 
 Mining is largely an unknown occupation in 
 Haiti. Agriculture has languished, although it is 
 true that in 19 12 the coffee crop increased, and 
 concessions have been made to some timber enter- 
 prises ; but little has been done in the way of en- 
 terprise and action in this island situated athwart 
 the commerce of the world. If this condition were 
 sporadic and lasted but for a time, it would be a 
 proposition for consideration ; but when the island 
 is lapsing practically into degeneracy, when the 
 
72 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 government is a continuous revolution, and the 
 state of religion is as the proofs indicated, are not 
 the peace and safety of this country constantly in 
 peril by reason of the condition of this island, so 
 near to us and so important to our life? 
 
 These statements are not pleasant. They are 
 not made for any sinister purpose; the object is to 
 bring to the attention of our people a condition of 
 affairs at our very doors, a condition that is of 
 vital and increasing importance to this nation. It 
 is easy to apply the Monroe Doctrine as to non- 
 W interference on the part of European nations with 
 our hemisphere. The great question is our own 
 position with the nations of this hemisphere, na- 
 tions that may offend against the doctrine which 
 conserves the peace and safety of our government. 
 With the world movement of to-day, with the 
 enormous changes which have taken place by rea- 
 son of the building of the Isthmian Canal, can 
 our peace and safety be preserved if we sit by and 
 allow an international nuisance to bring upon this 
 \/ country the interference of the nations of Europe, 
 and compel us by blood and treasure to enforce the 
 original application of our doctrine of European 
 non-interference? Free Cuba and the free Cen- 
 tral and South American states attest the fact that 
 one of the great fundamental desires of this re- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 73 
 
 public is that it shall be surrounded by free peo- 
 ples and free governments. It seems to be appar- 
 ent, however, that the time has arrived when the 
 conditions in and along the Gulf of Mexico and 
 the Caribbean Sea can no longer be tolerated. 
 These seas, for many years, have been silent seas. 
 The conditions are now changed, and the great 
 trade routes of the world will pass about this 
 island and over these seas, which will be noisy 
 with the whirl of the propeller and bright with the 
 sails of ships. 
 
 "The peoples of European civilization, after a period of 
 comparative repose, are again advancing all along the line, 
 to occupy not only the desert places of the earth but the 
 debatable grounds, the buffer territories, which hitherto 
 have separated them from those ancient nations, with 
 whom they now soon must stand face to face and border 
 to border." — MahanX 
 
 Can the peace and safety of this country be pre- 
 served unless we adopt the measures which are the 
 inalienable right of every nation? The world, 
 with the shortening of trade routes, the touching 
 of nations, and their needs for sure commercial 
 conditions, is arriving at the thought that there is 
 no inalienable right on the part of any people to 
 control any region to the detriment and injury of 
 
74 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 the world at large. This is not a covert assertion 
 that under the Monroe Doctrine this nation can 
 take control of the affairs of other states of this 
 hemisphere, when the policy of that country does 
 not suit our theories and ideas. It means, how- 
 ever, that when a country on these two seas per- 
 sists in being an international nuisance, when it 
 shows to the world a condition of general degen- 
 eracy, by which it practically gives notice that 
 there can be no improvement, this government, 
 under the Monroe Doctrine, will adopt measures 
 for its own peace and protection and for the pres- 
 ervation of the trade and commerce of the seas, 
 which are within this country's commercial life. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 75 
 
 VIII 
 OBJECT OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine is nothing more nor less 
 than a doctrine of_self-preservation. To permit 
 the condition of the Republic of Haiti to exist, 
 without interference or protest on our part, is 
 illogical. Under the Monroe Doctrine we say to 
 European nations that they shall not for any cause 
 lay their hands heavily upon a country in this 
 hemisphere. At the same time, in accordance with 
 the views of many people of our day, we ourselves 
 have not the right to interfere. Hence, unless we 
 interfere or permit the European nations that 
 privilege there must be a continuance of the 
 status. 
 
 The original object of the Monroe Doctrine 
 was to prevent the control and colonization of the 
 independent states of this hemisphere by Euro- 
 pean nations. This does not mean that with any 
 orderly or stable government this government 
 should occupy the position of suzerainty or im- 
 
76 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 plied control. No American believes that great 
 states, like Argentina, Brazil, or Chile, with their 
 stable governments, should be under our control, 
 either implied or actual./ Still, every one who un- 
 derstands the conditions of the day believes that a 
 logical corollary of the Monroe Doctrine demands 
 that the nations of this hemisphere shall, in their 
 governmental affairs, do nothing that would in- 
 \/ fringe upon the rights or impair the peace and 
 safety of the American government.) Since the 
 construction of the canal, this condition has be- 
 come intensified. This government is practically a 
 trustee for the world in its possession of the Isth- 
 mian Canal. Is it conceivable that, with our enor- 
 mously increased interests, we should sit idly by 
 and allow the peace and safety of this country to 
 be interfered with by a country that is a plague 
 spot to the nations of the earth? 
 
 A great part of American commerce and a 
 large part of the traffic of the world will be 
 through the American seas, between the walls of 
 this canal, and by the shores of this island. These 
 seas will become more populous with commerce 
 than any other section of the world. Thejf will be 
 a gathering place and a crossing point for the 
 East and the West; : and their "possession, either 
 forcibly or otherwise, will carry with it more po- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 77 
 
 tentiality than the possession of any other body of 
 water on the face of the earth. It will be abso- 
 lutely necessary that the outposts of the canal shall 
 be in the hands of strong and stable governments, 
 and it cannot be thought that the harbors neces- 
 sary for that commerce and the islands by which 
 it will pass, islands in whose broad bays it will be 
 compelled to anchor, shall be rife with revolution 
 and dangerous to that commerce. Is it wise that 
 this country, which is practically guardian of this 
 commerce, should allow a condition to obtain that 
 is a daily menace to this great American com- 
 merce — a condition that will surely bring about 
 complications which must interfere with the peace 
 and safety of this country? 
 
 This great traffic must be clear and safe, and 
 the responsibility is upon us to see that within these 
 seas the rights of a hundred million people and 
 their unborn descendants shall not be infringed 
 by countries that are not able to preserve a stable 
 government for themselves. 
 
 Our government believes that the fundamental 
 principles of a country's life should be freedom 
 and consent of the governed, yet it is idle to speak 
 of the consent of the governed in an island which 
 has never known anything but a blood-stained des- 
 potism. 
 
78 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 "It is untruthful folly to assert that it is possible for 
 the United States, or for any other great nation, to treat 
 an anarchic and wrongdoing country on a footing of real 
 and full equality of which I have above spoken as repre- 
 senting that plane of conduct which should characterize 
 all the dealings between my nation and your own, and my 
 nation and certain other South American republics. I 
 hope, and I am reasonably confident, that the less advanced 
 nations of the New World will in their turn gradually 
 advance just as my nation and yours, as well as certain 
 others, have already advanced. As soon as any such na- 
 tion in the course of its advance reaches a position of self- 
 respecting strength and orderly liberty and achieved power 
 to do and to exact justice, then it should at once step out 
 from any position of tutelage in any respect." — Roose- 
 velt, "Chile and the Monroe Doctrine." 
 
 A distinguished writer, in advocating the abro- 
 gation of the Monroe Doctrine, speaks of it as if 
 all danger to the South and Central American re- 
 publics were over. Permit a little plain speaking 
 on this subject, for frankness is sometimes help- 
 ful in the great affairs of the world as well as in 
 the small. 
 
 I believe if it had not been for the promulgation 
 and the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine by 
 this republic, there would not to-day be on the 
 continent of South America, or in Central Amer- 
 ica, a government independent of European con- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 79 
 
 trol. Let us look at the situation of to-day 
 throughout the world, and ascertain if there is any 
 change in the desires of the nations since the pro- 
 mulgation of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 The earth hunger of the European countries is 
 fiercer than ever in its history. Their vastly in- 
 creasing populations demand an enlargement of 
 their national life, and the peoples of the Euro- 
 pean governments demand more food and more 
 labor than their countries can furnish. The great 
 new markets of the world are South and Central 
 America, China, and some parts of Africa. China 
 has been practically delimited into spheres of in- 
 fluence by the European governments, and the 
 Japanese, and Mongolia has been raped from her 
 bosom. The gaunt breast of Africa has been 
 seized and marked out by the European govern- 
 ments for their own. The whitening bones of 
 Italian, Arab, and Turk in Tripoli, the fierce an- 
 ger of France and Germany only last year over 
 Morocco, the busy colonization plans of Europe 
 in Northern Africa, the strife over the dying 
 Moslem Empire, the seizure and occupation of 
 Egypt by England, and the tremendous conflict be- 
 tween Russia and Japan, which, in its last analy- 
 sis, was a conflict for territory, all attest that to- 
 day the earth hunger is not satiated. From this 
 
80 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 it seems that were it not for the power of the 
 Monroe Doctrine, within ten years, excepting Ar- 
 gentine, Brazil, and Chile, there would not be a 
 free and independent government in South Amer- 
 ica. Their marvelous natural wealth, their splen- 
 dor of climate, their richness of flora and fauna, 
 and their wealth of precious metals, would more 
 surely provoke the desire of the European nations 
 than the gaunt, fever-stricken and fierce sunburned 
 wastes of Africa. 
 
 "The territorial responsibilities of the Latin-American 
 nations are greatly in excess of their respective popula- 
 tions. The seventeen republics from Mexico to Cape 
 Horn, with an area several times that of Central Europe, 
 contain at best seventy million inhabitants, who could be 
 comfortably housed in any one of the larger republics, 
 leaving the immense remaining territory available for 
 European expansion. Can Tripoli compare with the 
 broad and fertile plains of Northern Venezuela, border- 
 ing on the Caribbean? Or Morocco with the At- 
 lantic coast section of Colombia? Can the Congo com- 
 pare favorably with the Amazon, or Madagascar or West 
 Africa with the inner lands of Peru, or Bolivia, or of 
 Ecuador ? 
 
 "The consideration of such possibilities implies no wan- 
 ton spirit of alarmism. If Tripoli has been thought worth 
 Italy's present effort, and Morocco France's recent ven- 
 ture, why should not the infinitely richer Caribbean coast 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 81 
 
 fare likewise? No one in his senses, surely, would out- 
 rage the Powers by supposing that their abstention has 
 been prompted by moral considerations; their reputation 
 is too well established."- — Senor A. deManon-Albas, in 
 the English Review of Reviews, quoted by Wheless. 
 
82 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 IX 
 
 APPLICATION OF THE MONROE DOC- 
 TRINE 
 
 Those who feel that the Monroe Doctrine is 
 outworn, that it should be abrogated, evidently 
 do not remember very modern history. My mean- 
 ing is illustrated by an incident in connection with 
 one of the great ABC nations of the South 
 American continent, an incident that many of us 
 remember as if it had occurred yesterday, when 
 the revolution against the republic was inaugu- 
 rated in Brazil. For the purpose of reestablish- 
 ing the empire, the navy of Brazil was in favor of 
 the overturning of the republic and the restoration 
 of the Braganza family to the head of an imperial 
 Brazilian government. In the harbor of Rio 
 Janeiro was congregated an assembly of the war- 
 ships of the monarchies of Europe and of the re- 
 public of the United States. The commanders of 
 the European squadrons were in sympathy with 
 the revolutionists and were unwilling to do any- 
 thing that would interfere with the plans of the 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 83 
 
 imperialists. When the imperialists attempted to 
 establish a blockade, to carry out their plans of 
 revolution, the American commander, acting un- 
 der the Monroe Doctrine, by direction of our gov- 
 ernment in Washington, was the only naval com- 
 mander who objected, and he cleared for action 
 and forced the admiral commanding the imperial 
 forces to desist from his purposes. It must be re- 
 membered that this incident occurred only in 1893, 
 and that it happened to the great republican gov- 
 ernment of Brazil, our friend and neighbor. 
 
 Let us take another modern and well-known ap- 
 plication. So late as 1894 the British government 
 attempted to force a situation with Venezuela, a 
 situation that would bring about British control of 
 the Orinoco region and practically shut up in 
 British hands the control of one of the greatest 
 rivers of commerce, a region that has imperial 
 potentialities of trade and commercial life. Had 
 it not been for the strong hand of this government, 
 acting through the Monroe Doctrine and under its 
 provisions, an important field of commerce, a vast 
 region of South America, a great portion of an 
 independent republic, and the control of a mighty 
 river would to-day be in the grasp of the British 
 empire. 
 
 Another illustration was the attempted enforce- 
 
84 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 ment, 1 901 -1904, by the governments of Ger- 
 many, England, and Italy of the payment of the 
 Venezuelan debt. Had it not been for the vig- 
 orous representations of our government that 
 under the Monroe Doctrine it would not permit 
 heavy burdens to be placed upon the Venezuelan 
 Republic, it is plain that the European govern- 
 ments would not have held their hands in the en- 
 forcement of their claims against Venezuela. 
 These governments have not often returned to the 
 possession of their owners any territory taken 
 under pretense of collection of debts or seized for 
 the infringement of any of their rights. Here 
 was a practical recognition, both by act and by 
 written statement, of the enforcement of the 
 Monroe Doctrine in preventing the great Euro- 
 pean governments from laying their hands heavily 
 upon countries of this hemisphere. The Magda- 
 lena Bay incident is another case; and while the 
 attempt to obtain possession of this important 
 strategic position was denied, still there was, prac- 
 tically, a recognition of the Doctrine by the Japa- 
 nese government. 
 
 The question of European interference is not 
 dead. To every one who reads there arises the 
 question of the settlement of the position of the 
 great foreign colonies in South America. Every 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 85 
 
 well-informed student of public affairs and inter- 
 national matters is looking forward to the time 
 when friction will develop between the home gov- 
 ernments of these colonists and the republics with- 
 in whose territories they live. 
 
 The enormous importance of this has not been 
 thoroughly understood by the people of our coun- 
 try. One illustration of the many at hand will 
 suffice in the statement of Prof. Schmoller, of the 
 Prussian Privy Council: "We must wish that at 
 any price a German country peopled by twenty or 
 thirty million Germans must grow up in Brazil." 
 
 "The people of the United States have learned in the 
 school of experience to what extent the relations of states 
 to each other depend, not upon sentiment nor principle, 
 but upon selfish interest. They will not soon forget that, 
 in their hour of distress, all their anxieties and burdens 
 were aggravated by the possibility of demonstrations 
 against their national life on the part of the powers with 
 whom they had long maintained the most harmonious re- 
 lations. They have yet in mind that France seized upon 
 the apparent opportunity of our civil war to set up a mon- 
 archy in the adjoining state of Mexico. They realize that 
 had France and Great Britain held important South 
 American possessions to work from and to benefit, the 
 temptation to destroy the predominance of the Great Re- 
 public in this hemisphere by furthering its dismemberment 
 might have been irresistible. From that grave peril they 
 have been saved in the past and may be saved again in 
 
86 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 the future through the operation of the sure but silent 
 force of the doctrine proclaimed by President Monroe. 
 To abandon it, on the other hand, disregarding both the 
 logic of the situation and the facts of our past experience, 
 would be to renounce a policy which has proved both an 
 easy defense against foreign aggression and a prolific 
 source of internal progress and prosperity." — Secretary 
 Olney. 
 
 We desire to go in peace and equity with the 
 peoples of this hemisphere to that consummation 
 where all will be kindliness and trust between this 
 republic and our neighbors. Still, the great 
 thought of this republic is that it is best for all to 
 maintain the Monroe Doctrine in all its virility. 
 With our President we expressly disclaim any de- 
 sire of conquest, nor do we wish any suzerainty or 
 control of the stable nations of this hemisphere. 
 Here is where the correct differentiation as to the 
 Latin countries is lost. It is idle to speak of the 
 great nations, stable and orderly as they are, as 
 standing on a level with disorderly, revolution- 
 ridden despotisms, such as have been here dis- 
 cussed and which largely obtain in Latin America. 
 This doctrine is fundamentally necessary to the 
 existence of the peace and safety of this country, 
 and we wish the moral support of the great and 
 stable nations of South America to carry it to its 
 full fruition. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 87 
 
 The application of these propositions to the 
 subject under consideration is plain. It will not 
 do to say that the revolutions of these people mark 
 an era and establish a stage of development on the 
 line of governmental sobriety and national charac- 
 ter, nor that they are contending for some great 
 principle, as did the English in working out their 
 ideas of constitutional government. Such is the 
 contention of some of those that write of this 
 island. No upward step had been taken by the 
 Haitians; and while their continuous revolutions 
 bring about an enormous loss in both govern- 
 mental affairs and economic matters, these people 
 will not reach the ultimate high level that will be 
 for the benefit of mankind. By reason of their 
 training, their inherent constitution, and their tra- 
 ditions, their condition has become surely and 
 steadily worse. We cannot say: "Let them 
 alone; their condition will right itself," for there 
 is nothing to show hope of improvement. 
 
 This debased condition is not the result of cir- 
 cumstances, which have been truly unfortunate, 
 but it grows from the inherent nature and spirit of 
 the people, fundamentals that cannot be changed 
 by the few forms of civilization adopted by them. 
 The proofs, so abundant, show that they are not 
 
88 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 fitted for self-government; and their condition, if 
 left to itself, will become worse than it is to-day. 
 
 By the control of the strong hand of a civilized 
 government they may be able to emerge from the 
 condition of anarchy and despair that surrounds 
 their so-called republic; but they will never be able 
 of themselves to rise from the deep bog in which 
 they have been floundering for more than a cen- 
 tury. 
 
 This is well illustrated by the neighboring re- 
 public of San Domingo. After the control by this 
 government of its custom houses and finances, and 
 the payment of its debts, and the honest expendi- 
 ture of its greatly increased revenues, it would 
 seem that the results would be sufficient to show 
 the people that the ways of civilization are happier 
 than are the ways of revolution and anarchy. 
 However, after nine years of debt-paying, with a 
 touch of experience of constitutional government, 
 they have again broken into their old ways of 
 insurrection, and the island is again weltering in 
 blood and in the throes of dreadful anarchy. 
 
 It would seem that the only hope of permanent 
 improvement must spring from the control of their 
 governmental affairs by the strong hands of a 
 civilized government. After years of control, \ 
 such as is indicated, these people may emerge into / 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 89 
 
 the light of a better day, but constitutionally they 
 seem to be opposed to the trammels of civilized 
 government; and it is a serious question whether 
 after years of leadership and practical control 
 by civilized effort they will ever bring them- 
 selves to a condition where they will be able 
 to carry into orderly fruition the principles of free 
 government. 
 
 While this government has no desire for con- 
 quest, yet the great advance in the world move- 
 ment and in the vital commercial affairs of the 
 globe demands that the peace and safety of this 
 hemisphere shall not be needlessly and wickedly 
 broken, and that the peace, happiness, and safety 
 of this nation and the commerce of the world 
 within the bounds of our governmental life shall 
 not be imperiled in the future. The tremendous 
 impetus which, under the world movements of to- 
 day, has been so potent and plain demands order 
 in all the affairs and details of its life. The condi- 
 tions of the times and the dependence of one part 
 of the globe upon the other, brought about by 
 the easy interchange between the nations, mean 
 that no disorder in that great world commerce will 
 be again lightly tolerated. 
 
 Under the plainest and fairest interpretation of 
 the Monroe Doctrine, that instrument reaches 
 
 v 
 
90 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 easily the subject under discussion. Under its 
 original application it will not allow a situation to 
 obtain which will give foreign nations the oppor- 
 tunity to interfere in the governmental life of 
 countries of our hemisphere. Under the funda- 
 mental meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, it will 
 imperil the peace, safety, and happiness of this 
 country if an island, lying at our doors, within 
 touch of our daily life, athwart our greatest line of 
 commerce, be allowed to continue its life of dis- 
 order. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 91 
 
 X 
 
 THE MENACE OF HAITI 
 
 This discussion is not a mere moot question. 
 The condition of the Republic of Haiti is fraught 
 at this time with peril to the peace and safety of 
 the United States, both as regards the original 
 application of the Monroe Doctrine, as to actual 
 interference with our hemisphere by foreign pow- 
 ers, and also in its later application and exten- 
 sion, by endangering the peace and safety of this 
 country through its moral and governmental de- 
 generation. 
 
 All students of these affairs are familiar with 
 the episode that brought about the destruction of 
 the Crete-a-Pierrot by the German cruiser Pan- 
 ther. Within a month the Republic of Haiti, 
 reeking with blood, was in the throes of one of its 
 almost continuous revolutions. Our government 
 has time and again been compelled to intervene to 
 save the lives of those engaged in Haiti's inter- 
 necine wars. Repeatedly, by reason of its condi- 
 tion, war has been almost precipitated between 
 
p} 
 
 92 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 the Haitian government and the nations of Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 The government of Haiti is bankrupt, and its 
 debt amounts to more than thirty-five millions of 
 dollars. It has often defaulted in the payment of 
 / I its debts; and within the last few months the 
 French government impounded the Haitian navy 
 to compel the payment of the interest to the citi- 
 zens of France. This was done again within a 
 short time by the German government, and a Ger- 
 man ship by force compelled the payment of 
 money due the citizens of that government. The 
 same action, in effect, was taken within the last 
 month by the English government,- which com- 
 pelled, under threats of war, the payment of 
 money due the English bond-holders. 
 
 We do not pretend to set down the long list of 
 interferences by the armed forces of foreign na- 
 tions in the affairs of Haiti, but we give as an il- 
 lustration of the danger of this situation that 
 which is to-day taking place in the immediate lines 
 of our commerce, on, practically, the shore line 
 of the government of the United States. 
 
 It is now reported, with seemingly important 
 proof, that the German government has lately 
 sought control of Haiti in return for a loan of two 
 millions of dollars, and that Germany was to re- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 93 
 
 ceive important rights in its ports and have charge 
 of the custom receipts, and that the contract was 
 to include a coaling station at Mole Saint Nich- 
 olas. The German government has denied this 
 statement Yet, in its letter of denial it added 
 this most significant and important statement: 
 "The German government had joined with other 
 European governments in representing to Wash- 
 ington that the interests of European countries in 
 Haiti are so large that no scheme of reorganiza- 
 tion or control can be regarded as acceptable, un- 
 less it is undertaken under international auspices." 
 
 A large portion of the debt of the Haitian re- 
 public is owing to German and French citizens. 
 The demand of the German government, in effect, 
 is that such control as is set out in its note would be 
 the practical control of Haiti by Germany and 
 France. It would be a tripartite agreement be- 
 tween Germany, France, and the United States,' ^ 
 with the two former countries acting together as ^1^" 
 against our country. This proposition is to-day 
 pending, and it looks to the control of this impor- 
 tant and strategic island by foreign governments, 
 one of which has important interest in securing a 
 position in either the Gulf of Mexico or the Car- 
 ibbean Sea. 
 
 The statement of the German government is 
 
94 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 practically a warning, and it is the part of states- 
 manship that this warning should be heeded. The 
 condition of Haiti, which is in danger of bringing 
 about this important interference with the Monroe 
 Doctrine and with the peace and safety of this 
 nation, should be terminated by a vigorous and 
 firm exercise by this government of the principles 
 of the Monroe Doctrine, and thus prevent the re- 
 currence of a situation that may at any time bring 
 about an infraction of the doctrine by European 
 governments. 
 
 This position of our country should breed no 
 distrust among the self-respecting and stable na- 
 tions on this hemisphere. We will go along with 
 them, hand in hand, and, with their assistance, 
 help the nations that are weak, and we will do 
 what we can to place them on eternal foundations 
 of freedom and order, so that they may become 
 part and parcel of this great, free brotherhood on 
 the western hemisphere. This does not mean, 
 however, that under the Monroe Doctrine we are 
 to allow any weak, degenerating, bankrupt, and 
 emasculated country the continued right to bring 
 about a situation that will involve this country in 
 war, imperil our peace and safety, or hamper and 
 interfere with our commerce. 
 
 This is not an untoward extension of the Mon- 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 95 
 
 roe Doctrine. By the progression of the world 
 and change of the lines of commerce the Monroe 
 Doctrine has been modified, not in its fundamen- 
 tal principles, but the mode, manner, and time of 
 its application must be different from what they &* 
 were when it was originally enunciated. This 
 government, under the Doctrine, cannot sit idly by 
 and wait until the actual encroachment of foreign 
 powers upon this hemisphere, an encroachment 
 brought about by the condition of our so-called re- 
 publics, shall take place. The Doctrine is a na- 
 tional right that cannot be neglected, and it is a 
 "national policy based upon a natural right, as in- 
 alienable from nationality as life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness are inalienable from hu- 
 manity." 
 
 The demands of the civilized world sooner or 
 later will compel the United States to interfere in 
 the affairs of Haiti and in the governments of 
 other countries similarly situated, in order to pre- 1^ 
 vent further offense against the laws of civilization 
 and decency. Civilization will not much longer 
 tolerate plague spots in the midst of its work. It 
 is unthinkable that a condition will be allowed to 
 continue at our door, where great ships under 
 our flag, filled with our citizens, will be at the 
 mercy of bloody and half-civilized revolutionists, 
 
96 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 and where the laws of civilization governing com- 
 merce and harbors, lighthouses and charting of 
 channels are practically set at naught. 
 
 Not much longer will it be tolerated within 
 thirty hours of our greatest port, on a line with 
 our most important commerce, that the idolatry 
 of the snake and the control of the witch doctor 
 should be supreme, that cannibalism should be 
 charged and proven, that absolutism should exist 
 in its worst form, and that, under the present sys- 
 tem, the impoverishment and destruction of a 
 great island — almost part of our shore line — 
 should occur, and that its political, moral, and 
 financial degeneracy should be brought about by 
 the dreadful governmental and economical forces 
 at work within its borders. 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 97 
 
 XI 
 
 THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE MONROE 
 DOCTRINE 
 
 A great writer speaks of the abrogation of the 
 doctrine, and voices the distrust and suspicion 
 among the nations of the southern hemisphere. 
 In reply to this we present the pages of history; 
 and we ask, Under what government, people, or 
 system that has ever existed have there been pre- 
 served, in their freedom and governmental life, so 
 many weak nations as have existed on this hemis- 
 phere, side by side with this powerful republic? 
 He has cited as cause of distrust California and 
 Mexico. These were life movements, absolutely 
 instinctive in their being, movements that were 
 demanded by the very existence of this nation. 
 
 Distinguished writers so frequently discuss the 
 jealousy of the South American nations toward the 
 United States by reason of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 One has gone so far as to give in detail the size 
 and strength of South American dreadnoughts, 
 and to dwell, with immense particularity, on the 
 
98 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 amount of beef and wheat raised and shipped by 
 these nations. 
 
 It is true that some jealousy does really exist. 
 That cannot be avoided. The thinking statesmen 
 of the South American countries, however, do not 
 believe in the unjust aggression of the United 
 States. Those of them who know the situation, 
 and understand it, do not fear the Monroe Doc- 
 trine nor its consequences. There are profes- 
 sional politicians in South America who fan the 
 embers of distrust for their own uprising and for 
 their own purposes; but the great trend of senti- 
 ment and thought on the part of the leaders in the 
 great states of South America is not in this direc- 
 tion. 
 
 I quote the statement of j>enor Zabellos of Ar- 
 gentina, as a fair indication of the thought of 
 those of South America who know the real feeling 
 of our country toward its southern neighbors : 
 
 "What other countries of America have the same world 
 problems as Panama and Mexico, the latter on the fron- 
 tier of the United States, and the former the throat of 
 the continent itself? They have nothing in common with 
 the problems of the River Plata, or the shores of Brazil, 
 or the coast of Chile. The Monroe Doctrine is necessary 
 to-day to the United States. The Caribbean Sea washes 
 the coast of the richest part of the United States, and it 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 99 
 
 is necessary that it be dominated by them, in order to 
 guarantee the independence and security of the United 
 States. Under these circumstances, when there is constant 
 danger of European intervention, as in the case of Vene- 
 zuela, the United States said to the Powers, in accord- 
 ance with the Monroe Doctrine: 'You can urge your 
 claims in accordance with international procedure, but 
 you cannot take territory, because if you do you will have 
 to deal with the armed forces of the United States.' The 
 Powers thereupon became less aggressive and the matter 
 was settled by arbitration. This action of the United 
 States emphasized once more the doctrine that no Euro- 
 pean Power will be permitted to acquire territory on the 
 continent of America." 
 
 Thoughtful men do not agree with the conten- 
 tion made in some directions that the Monroe 
 Doctrine should be enforced under an agreement 
 with South American states. It seems that this 
 would be impracticable. The Monroe Doctrine 
 is necessarily an emergency doctrine. While it is 
 fundamental, tEe~3eman3 for its action is immedi- 
 ate and decisive. It is a doctrine that demands 
 absolute and direct action to make it effective. 
 Very many serious questions arise as to the prac- 
 ticability of the carrying out of any such agree- 
 ment between the states of South America and 
 the United States. 
 
 In the first place, the interests of this govern- 
 
ioo THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 ment are greater than the interests of any other 
 government on this hemisphere. What relative 
 power would this government have as against the 
 other contracting powers? The Monroe Doc- 
 trine is a doctrine peculiarly applying to the 
 United States. When this doctrine shall have 
 been changed, so that it applies to other govern- 
 ments, necessarily its very essence will be de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Again, the history of international affairs goes 
 to show that permanent agreements between na- 
 tions diverse in thought, life, sentiment, situation, 
 and race, have never been successful. Here would 
 be an agreement for the enforcement of the doc- 
 trine between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin na- 
 tions, nations totally diverse in temperament, and 
 also between nations whose whole financial status 
 and local situation are absolutely different froO 
 those of the United States. 
 
 Suppose, for instance, a question should arise 
 between England and some of the South American 
 states, and that the contracting powers for the 
 maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine should be 
 the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. 
 Those who know the situation in Argentina would 
 not suppose for a moment that Argentina would 
 oppose England in some controversy as to some 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 101 
 
 minor state — a state that would be important to 
 the United States, but relatively unimportant to 
 Argentina. This illustration applies with equal 
 force as to the other South American states. The 
 money with which these great states are being de- 
 veloped, and the population which is largely en- 
 gaged in developing them, come from Europe, 
 and Europe could injure these states financially if 
 they opposed European interests in the enforce- 
 ment of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 This is merely one illustration of the multitude 
 of troubles that would come of an agreement that 
 the Monroe Doctrine should be enforced by a 
 joint action of South American states and the 
 United States. The questions are so absolutely 
 diverse as between the United States and these 
 countries that no unity of action could be brought 
 about to make the enforcement of the doctrine ef- 
 fective. While this is true, the Monroe Doctrine 
 should not be enforced with the strong hand, but 
 should be carried out in justice, in courtesy, and in 
 fairness between our country and the countries of 
 South America. This honesty and respect obtain 
 among nations, just as they do among men, and by 
 the immutable laws of cause and effect, and the 
 action of this government upon a high plane will 
 
102 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 surely obtain and hold the respect of the countries 
 of South America. 
 
 "Whatever must be brought about between this pow- 
 erful country, the United States, and the South American 
 Republics will come of itself. Sympathy, loyal and hon- 
 orable treatment, proximity, an intimacy as close as pos- 
 sible between the men directing the destinies of these peo- 
 ples, and especially reciprocal interests, will of themselves 
 effect a political and an economic entente. There is need 
 of no artificial measures, for they are ever fragile and 
 often unproductive. The play of the natural laws of hu- 
 man progress must be left free." — Dr. Marcial Mar- 
 tinez, of Chile. 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine, within its very nature, 
 is a doctrine that is fundamental to the United 
 States and peculiar to our government. While it 
 should be carried out in justice, the mode, the time, 
 the place, and the manner of its operation should 
 be, and I believe will be, directed and controlled 
 absolutely by the United States. To place it in 
 other hands would be the destruction of the doc- 
 trine, which has been vital to this country and to 
 this hemisphere, and would cause the weakening 
 of the hands of this government in the direction 
 where international trade and governmental de- 
 cency will demand that our hands should be strong 
 and absolutely free to act decisively in the great 
 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 103 
 
 international emergencies that arise so unexpect- 
 edly, emergencies that are fraught with such mo- 
 mentous consequences. 
 
 The doctrine of Monroe is a doctrine of help 
 and peace. It is true that those who love our 
 country believe that this republic "looks hopefully 
 to the time when, by the voluntary departure of 
 European governments from this continent and the 
 adjacent islands, America shall be wholly Ameri- 
 can." Still, these governments and their systems 
 are here, they are a part of the life of this hemis- 
 phere. They will surely demand that we preserve 
 order and conserve the safety of the commerce 
 within our sphere. This means absolute order. 
 To bring about this order this government will 
 not hurt the self-respect nor pride of any of the 
 great and stable nations of our hemisphere. We 
 will work with them along the lines of mutual 
 respect and esteem. Touched by the new life, 
 which is making them so vital and important a 
 part of the world affairs of the day, they will 
 understand that the conditions of other days can- 
 not continue, and that the responsibilities brought 
 about by present world conditions demand that 
 our safety and peace, as well as theirs, compel the 
 continued existence of the Monroe Doctrine in its 
 full virility. When this is understood, there will 
 
io 4 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 be no distrust. There will be the co-mingling of 
 nations with the same governmental freedom. It 
 will be a great brotherhood, the only one, a 
 brotherhood of free peoples and free nations 
 marching onward hand in hand to the consumma- 
 tion of that blessed time when the strong will not 
 oppose the weak, when order will walk with jus- 
 tice, and when, filled with mutual esteem, confi- 
 dence, and regard, and touched by the wondrous 
 vitalizing life of freedom, the nations of this 
 hemisphere, great and little, Latin and Anglo- 
 Saxon will show to the world the splendor of 
 freedom in its highest and best development. 
 
 THE END 
 
INDEX 
 
 Brazil, 83, 84, 85 
 
 Caribbean Sea, 34 
 Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 
 
 Mexico : 
 Their Future, 73 
 Control of the Caribbean 
 
 Sea, 37 
 Cuba, 35 
 
 Europe's Demand for En- 
 largement, 79, 80 
 
 Germany and Haiti, 91, 92, 
 
 93, 97 
 Haiti : 
 Army, 54, 55 
 Description, 26 
 Governmental Condition, 
 
 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, SO, 52, 53 
 Governmental Policy and 
 
 Religious Ideals, 40 
 History, 41, 42, 43, 44 
 Importance to United 
 
 States, 28, 29, 30 
 Location, 24, 25 
 Presidents, 59 
 Religion, 62 
 Strategic Importance, 31, 
 
 32, 33 
 
 Holy Alliance, 13 
 
 Lodge Resolution, 18 
 
 Magdalena Bay, 84 
 Monroe Doctrine, 15 
 Conditions of Enforcement 
 
 by United States, 101 
 Effect of Abrogation, 82 
 Function of the Doctrine, 
 
 19, 20, 21, 22 
 Its Application to Haiti, 87 
 Its Necessity to the United 
 
 States, 86 
 Its Objects, 75, 76, 78 
 Should Be Enforced by 
 
 United States Alone, 100 
 
 Panama Canal, 38 
 Port-au-Prince, 70 
 
 Santo Domingo, 43 
 Sefior Zabellos on Monroe 
 Doctrine, 98 
 
 Venezuela, 83 
 
 Voudou, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 
 
 Washington's Farewell Ad- 
 dress, 12, 13 
 

 
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