10. What seems to you to be the most important among American contributions to international law?

Topics for Debate

1. All members of the diplomatic service, including ambassadors, should be chosen under civil service rules.

2. A majority vote in the Senate should be made sufficient for the ratification of treaties.

3. It would be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine if Great Britain were to sell the island of Jamaica to Germany.

CHAPTER XXX
THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER

The purpose of this chapter is to answer the question: What are the relations of the United States to the rest of the world?

The Old Policy of Isolation.—For more than one hundred years it was the settled policy of the United States to keep aloof from all entanglements in the affairs of the rest of the world. |The doctrines of Washington and Jefferson.| This tradition of aloofness was given a definite form by Washington, who solemnly warned his countrymen against getting mixed up in the “ordinary” conflicts of European states, and it was subsequently endorsed by Jefferson.[[296]] Yet even in Jefferson’s own administration it became apparent that if the United States intended to carry on trade with all parts of the world, the government must intervene for the protection of its own citizens whenever this should become necessary. So, in 1803, the American fleet was sent to the Mediterranean, where it bombarded a nest of pirates who had been interfering with American commerce. Then came the War of 1812, which grew out of foreign interference with American trade. On several subsequent occasions during the nineteenth century the policy of protecting and promoting foreign trade drew the United States into negotiations with various countries of Europe and Asia. In a sense, therefore, the United States has never pursued a policy of complete isolation; on the other hand no permanent alliances have been made with any country, and the principle of independence in all matters of foreign policy has been consistently maintained. So far as diplomatic matters did not directly concern North, Central, or South America, the statesmen of the world could safely leave the United States out of their reckonings during the greater part of the nineteenth century. In diplomacy the United States belonged, so to speak, to a different world.