CHAPTER XI. RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND REVOLUTIONS

It was a favorite conviction of Theodore Roosevelt that neither
an individual nor a nation can possess rights which do not carry
with them duties. Not long after the Venezuelan incident--in
which the right of the United States, as set forth in the Monroe
Doctrine, to prevent European powers from occupying territory in
the Western Hemisphere was successfully upheld--an occasion arose
nearer home not only to insist upon rights but to assume the
duties involved. In a message to the Senate in February, 1905,
Roosevelt thus outlined his conception of the dual nature of the
Monroe Doctrine:

"It has for some time been obvious that those who profit by the
Monroe Doctrine must accept certain responsibilities along with
the rights which it confers, and that the same statement applies
to those who uphold the doctrine . . . . An aggrieved nation can,
without interfering with the Monroe Doctrine, take what action it
sees fit in the adjustment of its disputes with American states,
provided that action does not take the shape of interference with
their form of government or of the despoilment of their territory
under any disguise. But short of this, when the question is one
of a money claim, the only way which remains finally to collect
it is a blockade or bombardment or seizure of the custom houses,
and this means . . . what is in effect a possession, even though
only a temporary possession, of territory. The United States then
becomes a party in interest, because under the Monroe Doctrine it
cannot see any European power seize and permanently occupy the