Monroe Doctrine

James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States (1817-1825), delivered his Seventh Annual Message to the 18th Congress on December 2, 1823. The address features an overview of domestic politics and key areas of international relations. Monroe presents the United States as a new country on a path toward growth, progress, and exploration. The President addresses the questions of manufacturing and trade, infrastructural development, communication, government spending, and public health. The most famous aspect of this address, however, is its foreign-policy statements, which came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. Monroe seeks to maintain amicable relations with European powers, especially Britain, Russia, and Spain. However, he warns them about engaging in further colonization and interference in the Americas. At the time, Monroe perceived this foreign policy to be defensive, not aggressive: In his view, he is simply asking the European imperial powers not to encroach any further into what he claims is the US’s sphere of influence. In amended form, however, this doctrine later became a cornerstone of American interventionism in the Western Hemisphere from the turn of the 20th century to the present day.

The Annals of Congress edition hosted on the Library of Congress website is being used in this guide.

Summary

President Monroe’s annual message is akin to a present-day State of the Union Address. In a relatively brief 6,500 words, Monroe aims to addresses all the topics in domestic and foreign policy that were most important to the United States in 1823. Thus, the scope of the address is necessarily broad, but Monroe strategically goes into detail wherever necessary or appropriate. The format is a standard government speech: It is both oral and written. Monroe also returns to certain points, such as foreign-policy questions, on more than one occasion because they are interrelated.

The immediate audience for Monroe’s message is the newly elected 18th Congress, which started its work that same year. Monroe emphasizes the legislators’ role as public servants whose work should display maximum transparency and accountability to those they represent. For this reason, he goes into detail on questions of public spending for the maintenance of government institutions like the post office and for the construction of infrastructure like the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In the realm of domestic politics, he also discusses the development of trade, westward exploration and expansion, the growth and training of the Army and Navy, and the conflicts with the continent’s Indigenous groups such as the 1823 Arikara War. The 1823 outbreak of Yellow Fever on Thompson’s Island, now Key West, is one of the first cases of joint military-medical investigations. The international trade of enslaved people also remains an area of concern for the US, which banned the importation of enslaved people in 1808.

The address is best known today for articulating a foreign-policy stance that later came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. Monroe’s statements left a lasting impact on US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere from the time of the address until today. The Monroe Doctrine comprises four paragraphs excerpted from different parts of Monroe’s Congressional address, totaling approximately 1,000 words. Monroe’s objective is to prevent additional European colonization, or recolonization of newly independent states, of the Western Hemisphere. In effect, the doctrine claims the Americas as an exclusive US sphere of influence. At the same time, the President pledges to stay out of European affairs. One immediate catalyst for these foreign policy statements was the Russian claims to the Pacific Northwest north of the 51st parallel. Another catalyst was a serious concern about Spain’s recolonization of its historical colonies in the region, such as the recently independent Mexico.

The Monroe Doctrine also features ideological support rooted in the American Enlightenment and Manifest Destiny. Initially, the doctrine was essentially defensive. However, as the US became more powerful, the Monroe Doctrine was amended by the Roosevelt Corollary (1904) to include active economic, cultural, political, and military interventionism in the region. During the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy applied the doctrine during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), risking nuclear war.

This selection of issues reflects the transformation and challenges that the United States faced as a relatively new country approximately half a century following its independence from Britain. Monroe’s Seventh Annual Message to Congress retains its value as a key historical document, offering a glimpse into the development of the United States in the early 19th century.