independence. It is true, that this declaration to go even to war, to
protect the independence of foreign States against foreign interference,
was restricted to the continent of America; for President Monroe
declares in his message that the United States can have no concern in
European straggles, being distant and separated from Europe by the great
Atlantic Ocean. But I would remark that this indifference to European
concerns is again a matter, not of principle but of temporary
exigency--the motives of which have, by the lapse of time, entirely
disappeared--so much that the balance is even turned to the opposite
side.

President Monroe mentions _distance_ as a motive of the
above-stated distinction. Well, since the prodigious development of your
Fulton's glorious invention, distance is no longer calculated by miles,
but by hours; and, being so, Europe is of course less distant from you
than the greater part of the American continent. But, let even the word
distance be taken in a nominal sense. Europe is nearer to you than the
greatest part of the American continent--yea! even nearer than perhaps
some parts of your own territory. President Monroe's second motive is,
that you are separated from Europe _by the Atlantic_. Now, at the
present time, and in the present condition of navigation, the Atlantic
is no separation, but rather a link; as the means of that commercial
intercourse which brings the interest of Europe home to you, connecting
you with it by every tie of moral as well as material interest.

There is immense truth in that which the French Legation in the United
States expressed to your government in an able note of 27th October
past:--"America is closely connected with Europe, being only separated
from the latter by a distance scarcely exceeding eight days' journey, by
one of the most important of general interests--the interest of