The danger
was even at our doors, he declared, for within a few days the
minister of France had openly threatened to recover Louisiana.
[Footnote: Ibid., VI., 207; cf. Reeves, in Johns Hopkins Univ.
Studies, XXIII, Nos. 9, 10.] Such suggestions exhibit the real
significance of the problem, which in truth involved the question of
whether America should lie open to seizure by rival European
nations, each fearful lest the other gain an undue advantage. It was
time for the United States to take its stand against intervention in
this hemisphere.
Monroe was persuaded by Adams to change the first draught of his
message, in which the president criticized the invasion of Spain by
France and recommended the acknowledgment of the independence of the
Greeks, in terms which seemed to threaten war with Europe on
European questions. Even Webster and Clay, in fervent orations,
showed themselves ready to go far towards committing the United
States to an unwise support of the cause of the Greeks, which at
this time was deeply stirring the sympathy of the United States.
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