French philosophers had awakened a new spirit of humanity." Read what the young poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, wrote about the movement. Read: Eternal Peace, by Immanuel Kant. Show how he identified the cause of self-government with the cause of peace. NOVEMBER: THE UNITED STATES IN THE NAPOLEONIC PERIOD FRANCE: AN ODE SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE O ye loud waves! and O ye forests high! When France in wrath her giant limbs upreared, The ideas of our statesmen during the Napoleonic Wars were fastened in Old-World politics. We find, for example, the English conservatism of Hamilton, who believed in authority and had no faith in the wisdom of the masses. On the other hand, the French philosophy which permeated Jefferson made him a democrat and inspired his steady devotion to what he considered to be the cause of the people. These two types of men struggled for ascendency, and during the struggle took sides in the conflict between England and France. Although the nation remained neutral, we were seriously injured by both countries. With this situation began the breaking away from Old-World tradition which resulted in our Second War of Independence. It should be pointed out here that the new Western spirit, which prompted the Lewis and Clark Expedition, began to be a factor in our national life. The discussion should point to the conclusion that the variety of elements and the combination of types of thinking have given our country its distinctive character, and that no type of manliness could have been dispensed with in the process. Topics to be considered 1. The United States in the Napoleonic Wars, 17891814. Jefferson and the Democratic friends of France; Hamilton and the Federalist friends of England. Purchase of Louisiana, 1804, a part of Napoleon's anti-English policy. The crumbling of Spain. 2. The United States in collision with England, 1812 14. Beginning of the United States as a world-power. European policy (Russia and Germany) friendly to the United States out of a desire to raise up an enemy to England. End of the great European wars. The Hundred Years of Peace between the United States and Great Britain. Read: History of the United States, Henry Adams. Charles History of the People of the United States, vols. I and Mere Literature, chap. vIII, Woodrow Wilson. Lewis and Clark, William Lighton. Riverside Lives of Jefferson (John T. Morse, Jr.), and Hamil- The Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt. G, History of the United States Navy, Edgar S. Maclay, America's Conquest of Europe, David Starr Jordan, The Men Who Made the Nation, Edwin Erle The Promotion of Peace. Bulletin, 1913, no. 12, Fannie Fern Andrews. United States Bureau History of the United States, Jacob Schouler. Story subjects: Jefferson, Napoleon, William Pitt, Lewis and Clark. Perry, and Jackson. Why was it better to buy Louisiana from Napoleon than to go to war with France? How did the Lewis and Clark Expedition help to develop a new spirit in our nation? How did this new spirit affect our relations with other nations? Why did the New England Federalists oppose the War of 1812? Why has the Treaty of Ghent become so famous? The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 provided that there should be no warships on the Great Lakes which join the United States and Canada, and ever since that time, for nearly a hundred years, this long boundary, now nearly four thousand miles long, has been a boundary of peace without a warship or a fortress, a soldier or a gun. Why was this agreement a remarkable document? What influence has it had on the movement for international peace? DECEMBER: EUROPEAN INTEREST IN SPANISH AMERICA THE PAN-AMERICAN UNION JOHN BARRETT But during this formative period of the great Republic of the North forces were at work in the southern half of this hemisphere creating a group of independent, selfgoverning nations, in spite of the forces of despotism in Europe, laboring under the guise of a so-styled "Holy Alliance," to aid Spain in her attempt to keep them in subjection. Out of a long travail of fifteen years, fraught with the horrors of fire and sword, repression, imprisonment, denial of rights, there came forth nine weak yet strong republics - strong in the righteousness of their cause. After the United States had gained her freedom from Europe, she became involved in another struggle for liberty. Having watched the United States win her independence, Mexico and the other Spanish colonies in America rose in revolt against Spain who looked for aid to the Holy Alliance. It is in this period that we see developed a new American policy. On account of the Spanish secessions and a dispute with Russia over the limits of her possessions in the Northwest, the United States announced to the world that this country was not only a land of liberty but a protector of liberty. The Monroe Doctrine, promulgated on December 2, 1823, was a firm declaration against European intervention in American affairs, and a clear statement of our intention not to take part in the wars of the European powers. Moreover, the United States wished to stand alone in this policy, and with singular independence rejected the proposition of the British Prime Minister, George Canning, who suggested a joint declaration on the part of England and the United States. In his message, President Monroe expressed the feeling that the institutions of the New World were essentially different from those of the Old, and therefore should have their independent development. Thus we see the people of the United States, with almost unanimous voice, proclaiming themselves the guardians of the New World. The immediate effect of this new doctrine was to block the proposed intervention of the Holy Alliance, thus allow |