When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%—The country beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years to come the country should be held in joint occupation.
%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%—One year later (1819) the boundary of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande. By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32°, then a north line to the Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky Mountains; then a north line to 42°, and then along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's History of the People of the United States,
Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.]
%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%—The Oregon country was thus restricted to 42° on the south, and though it had no limit on the north the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51°, which he declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to extend from 42° to 51°, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant colonies in either North or South America.
%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%—This was a new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas.
Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality (p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been asserted repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed, of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822 it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously.
[Footnote 1: See Washington's Farewell Address; Jefferson's Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803;
Monroe's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817,
Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also American History Leaflets,
No. 4.]
[Illustration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%]
Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America (Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in 1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked the American minister in London if the United States would join with England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain, and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced three great guiding principles now known as the