,
531, 536, 542; International Am. Conference, Reports, etc., IV.,
"The Congress of 1826 at Panama," 23.] initiated by Bolivar, with
the design of consolidating the Spanish-American policy, though at
first the United States had not been included among the states
invited. [Footnote: International Am. Conference, Reports, etc.,
IV., "The Congress of 1826 at Panama," 155.] Clay was predisposed to
accept the overture, for he saw in the congress an opportunity to
complete the American system, which he had long advocated and which
appealed strongly to his idealistic view of the destiny of the new
republics. [Footnote: See chap, xi., above.] But Adams was skeptical
of the future of these new nations, and, as for an American system,
he had once (1820) declared that we had one already, "we constituted
the whole of it; there is no community of interests or of principles
between North and South America." [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, V.,
176; cf. Am. Hist. Rev., XII., 113.]
Adams had learned something from Clay in the mean time, however, and
his own share in announcing the Monroe Doctrine inclined him to
favor the idea of such a congress, under careful restrictions, to
safeguard our neutrality and independence.
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