CHAPTER 8: JEFFERSONIANISM AND THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS, 1801-1824

On march 4, 1801, Vice President Thomas Jefferson walked from his boarding house to the capitol
to be inaugurated as the nation's third president. His decision to walk rather than ride reflected his distaste
for pomp and ceremony. The new capital was Washington. It barely had any streets at the moment. The
new Chief Justice became John Marshall. Nevetheless, in his inaugurational address, Jefferson pointed out
that the will of the majority must prevail, but the minority had ''their equal rights'', he tried to aasure the
beaten Federalists.

THE AGE OF JEFFERSON

Narrowly elected in 1800, Jefferson saw his popularity rise during his first term. He worked to
loosen Federalists' grip on appointive federal offices, especially in the judiciary. His purchase of Louisiana
against Federalist opposition added to his popularity. In all of these moves, Jeffeson was guided not merely
by political calculation but also by philosophy of government, eventually known as Jeffersonianism.

Jefferson and Jeffersonianism

Jefferson was fluent in French, read Latin and Greek and studied several Native American
languages. For more than 20 years he was the president of the American Philosophical Society. He studied
architecture. If we summarize, he was:

1. principal author of the Declaration of Independence,

2. governor of Virginia,

3. ambassador to France

4. secretary of state under Washington,

5. vice president under John Adams.

Jefferson did not believe that blacks and whites could live permanently side-by-side in American
society. He worried that high taxes, standing armies and public corruption could destroy American liberty
by turning government into the master rather than servant of people. To prevent tyranny, he advocated
that the state goverments retain considerable authority. State governments would be more responsive to
the popular will than would the government in Washington.

He also believed that popular liberty required popular virtue. For Republican theorists like
Jefferson, virtue consisted of a decision to place the public good ahead of one's private interests and to
excercise vigilance to keep governments of growing out of control. To Jefferson, the most vigilant and
virtuous people were educated farmers, who were accustomed to act and think with sturdy independence.
The least vigilant were the inhabitants of cities. He regarded cities as breeding grounds for mobs and as
menaces to liberty.

Jefferson's ''Revolution''

Jefferson described his election as a revolution, but the revolution he sought was to restore the
liberty and tranquility that (he thought) the United States had enjoyed in its early years to reverse the drift
toward despotism that he had seen in Hamilton's economic program and Adams's Alien and Sediton Acts.
One alarming sign of this drift was the growth of the national debt by 10 milion dollars under the
Federalists. Jefferson and his Secretary of Treasury, Albert Gallatin, rejected Hamilton's idea that a national
debt would strenghten the government by giving creditors a stake in its health. Paying the interest alone
would require taxes, which sucked money from industrious farmers, the backbone of the Republic, and put
it into the hands of wealthy creditors. Increased tax revenues might also tempt the government to create a
standing army, always a threat to liberty.

Jefferson and Gallatin induced Congress to repeal many taxes, and they slashed expenditures by
closing some embassies overseas and reducing the army. Gallatin calculated that the nation could be freed
of debt in 16 years if the administrations held the line on expenditures. In Europe, the Peace of Amiens
(1802) brought a temporary halt to the hostilities between Britain and France that had threatened
American shipping in the 1790s, which resulted in Jefferson's conslusion that minimal military preparedness
was a sound policy.

In 1801 he ordered a naval squadron into action in the Mediterranean against so called Tripolitan
(or Barbary) pirates of North Africa, who often engaged in piracy, capture seamen and holed them for
ransom or sold into slavery, all in order to get out of some budgetary problems. In 1805 the U.S. concluded
a peace treaty with Tripoli. The war cost roughly half of what the U.S. had been paying annually for
protection.

Jefferson and the Judiciary

Jefferson believed that the Federalists intended to use the judiciary as a stronghold from which ''all
the works of Republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.'' In 1802 he won congressional repeal of
the Judiciary Act of 1801.

In all this processes several people were included, such as: Secreatary of State, James Madison,
Chief Justice, John Marshall, Federalist justice of peace of District of Columbia, William Marbury, etc. (see
page 277, paragraph 2)

The Judiciary Act of 1801 reduced the size of the Supreme Court from six justices to five and
eliminated the justices’ circuit duties. To replace the justices on circuit, the act created sixteen judgeships
for six judicial circuits. The U.S. circuit courts over which the new judges were to preside gained jurisdiction
over all cases arising under the Constitution and acts of the United States. The scope of the Judiciary Act of
1801, however, went beyond any specific revision of the judicial system and represented the triumph of
those who advocated a dominant national judiciary rather than the compromise of 1789 which left the
state courts with a significant share of federal jurisdiction. (ovaj dio je s neta)

For the first time, the Supreme Court had declared its authority to void an act of Congress on the
grounds that it was ''repuganant'' to the Constitution. The Republicans had already taken the offensive
against the judiciary by moving to charge with wrongdoing two Federalist judges. One, John Pickering, was
and insane alcoholic; the other, Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase, jailed several Republican editors
under the sedition Act od 1798.

The Louisiana Purchase, 1803

In 1800 Spain, a weak and declining power, controlled East and West Florida, as well as the vas
Louisiana Territory. Louisiana was equal to the size of the U.S. at the time. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to
France, which was fast emerging under Napoleon Bonaparte.
 Jefferson had long dreamed of an ''empire of liberty'' extending across North America and even into
South America. Bonaparte dreamed of a new French empire bordering the Caribbean and the Gulf of
Mexico, centering on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo (today's Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He
wanted to use Louisiana as a breadbasket for an essentially Caribbean empire. His immediate task to
subdue Santo Domingo, but an epidemic of yellow fever and the resistence by former slaves destroyed his
army.

In the short run, Jefferson worried most about New Orleans, because no roads or canals connected
Ohio, Mississippi and Indiana with the eastern ports. Farmers in the interior had to ship their cash crops
down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, a port that did not belong to the U.S. the Spanish had
temporarily granted Americans the right to park their produce there while awaiting transfer to seagoing
vessels. But in 1802, this right was revoked. The order originated from Spain, but most Americans believed
in came from Bonaparte.

These two events (Bonaparte's failure and the lossing of the abovemention priviledge) stimulated
two crucial decisions, one by Jefferson, other by Bonaparte, that resultes in the purchase of the Louisiana
Terrotory by the U.S. First, Jefferson nominated James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to negotiate with
France for the purchase of New Orleans and as much of Floridas as possible. Meanwhile, Bonaparte
concluded that his Caribbean empire was not worth of the cost. Also, he needed cash for the war in Europe,
so decided to sell Louisiana for 15 milions of dollars. The U.S. got the vast territory between the Miss. River
and the Rocky Mountains.

Jefferson then decied to draft a constitutional amandment that authorized the acquisition of
territory and prohibited the American settlement of Louisiana for an indefinite period. But, soon he
dropped the amandment fearing that the ratification wolud take too long and Bonaparte would change his
mind.

This purchase guarenteed land for American farmers, the backbone of the nation and true
guardians of liberty. Most Federalist opposed the Louisiana Purchase.

The Election of 1804

Jefferson's acquisition of Louisiana left the Federlist dispirited and without a popular national issue.
As the election of 1804 approached, the main threat to Jefferson was not the Federalist party, but his own
vice president Aaron Burr, who entered in many intrigues with Federalists. In 1804 Congress adopted the
12th Amandement, which required separate and distinct ballots in the electoral college for the presidential
and the vice-presidential candidates. In 1804, the Republicans didn't renominate Burr, but George Clinton.
The Federalists nominated Charles C. Pinkney aqnd Rufus King. They both lost. Jefferson and Clinton won.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition

Louisiana was a huge territory about the Americans knew nothing, not even the western boundry.
Even before the acquisition of Louisiana, Jefferson had planned an exploratory expedition; picked its leader,
his personal secretary and fellow Virginian Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis; and sent him to Philadelphia for a
crash course in zoology, astronomy, botany, and similar sciences relevant for the expedition. Jefferson
instructed Lewis to trace the Missouri River to its source, cross the western highlands, and follow the best
water route to the Pacific. Above all, Jeffferson hoped that his explorers would find a water route across
the continent. The potential economic benefits form it included diverting the lucrative fur trade from
Candaian to American hands and boosting trade with China.
 Setting from St Louis in May 1804, Lewis, his second-in-command William Clark, and about 50
others followed the Missouri River and then the Snake and Columbia Rivers. In the Dakota country, they
hired a French-Canadian fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, as a guide and interpreter. But, his wife, a
Shoshone called Sacajawea, was much bigger help. She showed them how to forage for wild artichokes and
other plants, often their only food.

The group reached Pacific Ocean in November 1805 and then returned to St Louis with a collection
of scientific information. The expedition's drawings of the geography of the region led to more accurate
maps and hightened interest in the West.

THE GATHERING STORM

Challenges on the Home Front

After being excluded from the run for vice presidency, Burr entered into series of intrigues with a
faction of despairing and extreme ( or ''High'') Federalists in New England. Led by Senator Timothy Pickering
of Massachusetts, these High Federalists plotted to sever the Union by forming a pro-British Northern
Confederacy composed of Nova Scotia (part of British-owned Canada), New England, New York and
Pennsylvania. They settled Burr as the leader. Also, he got nominated for the Federalist governor of New
York. Hamilton once again ''hit'' Burr (kao što se desilo sa izborima 1800) by publishing his ''despicable
opinion'' of Burr. Burr lost these election too (in New York), and challenged Hamilton to a duel. He mortally
wounded Hamilton in July 1804.

At that moment he was still the vice president and together with General James Wilkinson, military
governor of Louisiana Territory, conspired to separate the western states south of the Ohio River into an
independent confederacy, and to conquer Mexico and West Florida. By fall 1806, these two had about 60
followers going after them. In october 1806 Jefferson denounced conspiracy. Wilkinson then left the
conspiracy and proclaimed himself loyal to the President. Burr tried to escape, but was cought and tried for
treason before John Marshall. The jury returned a verdict of not proved. Burr – not guilty. Still, he escaped
in Europe, but returned in the U.S. in 1812, and died in 1836.

Also, Jefferson faced a challenge from a group of Republicans known as the Quids (roughly
translated, ''a dissenter''). Led by John Randolph, they believed in the ideology from the 1700s which
celebrated the wisdom of farmers against rulers and warned of government's tendency to encroach on
liberty. Jefferson, once in office, got a bit away from this ideology and strated compromising.

The Suppresion of American Trade and Impressment

In 1803 the Peace of Amiens collapsed. As Britain and France resumed their war, the U.S. prospered
at Britain's expense by carrying sugar and coffee from the French and Spanish Caribbean colonies to
Europe. America's boom was being fueled by the reexport trade. Accoridng to the British rule of 1756, any
trade closed in peacetime colud not be opened during war. The American response ti the Rule was the
''broken voyage'', by which American vessels wolud carry sugar from the Frech West Indies to American
ports, unload it, pass it through cutoms, and then reexport it as American produce. In 1805 a British Court
declared this illegal.

In 1806 they established a blockade of French-controlled ports on the continent of Europe.

Napoleon responded with ''Continental System'' – ships obeying Britih regulations would be subject to
seizure by France. In effect, this Anglo-French war of decrees outlawed virtually all U.S. trade. Both Britain
and France seized American ships, but British seizures were more humiliating to Americans. The Royal Navy
stopped and searched virtually every American vessel off New York, for example. There were
impressments, too - as war with France intensified Britain's need for sailors, they increasingly extended the
practice to seizing purported Royal Navy deserters from American Merchant ships and forcing them into
service.

Any doubts Americans had about British arrogance evaporated in June 1807. A British warship,
HMS Leopard, patrolling off Hampton Roads, Virginia, attacked an unsuspecting American naval vesel, USS
Chesapeake, and forced it to surrender, and seized four supposede deserters. This became known as the
Chesapeake Affair.

The Embargo Act of 1807

This act prohibited vessels from leaving American ports for foreign ports. Technically, it prohibited
only exports, but its practical effect was to stop imports as well. But, it contained some loopholes. For
example, it allowed American ships blown off course to put in at European ports if necessary; suddenly,
many captains were reporting that adverse winds had forced them accross the Atlantic. Treating the
embargo as a joke, Napoleon seized any American ship he could lay hands on and then informed the U.S.
that he was only helping to enforce the embargo.

The harshest effects of the embargo were felt not in Europe, but in the U.S. some 30.000 American
seamen found themselves out of work. Hundreds of merchants stubled into bankrupcy, and jails swelled
with debtors. The embargo fell hardest on New England, particularly Massachusetts. Unable to export
produce, Americans began to make products. Before 1808 the U.S. had only 15 mills for fashioning cotton
into textiles; by the end od 1809, an additional 87 mills had been constructed.

James Madison and the Failure of Peaceable Coercion

Even before the Embargo Act , Jefferson had announced thah he would not be a candidate for the
reelection. Republicans nominted James Madison for president and George Clinton for vice presidency. The
Federalist candidates were Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King. In 1808 the Federalist managed to gain 24
congressional seats. Still, Madison won for president, Clinton for vice president (till 1812).

'Little Jemmy'' Madison (tako su ga onomad zvali), like Jefferson, believed that American liberty had
to rest on the virtue of the people, which he saw as being critically tied to the growth and prosperity of
agriculture. More clearly than Jefferson, Madison also recognized that agricultural prosperity depended on
the vitality of American trade.

So, on March 1, 1809, Congress replaced the Embargo Act with the weaker Non-Intercourse Act,
which opened trade to all nations but Britain and France and then authorized Congress to restore trade to
those nations if they stopped violating neutral rights. But neither complied. In May 1810 Congress
substituted a new measure, Macon's Bill No. 2. This legislation opened trade with Britain and France, and
then offered each a clumsy bribe: if either nation repealed its restrictions on neutral shipping, the U.S.
wolud halt trade with the other. None of those had the desired effect.

As peaceable coercion became a fiasco, Madison came under fire from militant Republicans who
demanded more aggressive policies. The election of 1810 brought several young malcontents, ''war
hawks'', to Congress: Henry Clay (leader and elected Speaker of the House), John C. Calhoun, Richard M.
Johnson anf William King. (all Republicans)
 Tecumseh and the Prophet

Voicing a more emotional nationalism than Jefferson and Madison, the war hawks called for the
expulsion of the British from Canada and the Spanish from the Floridas. Their demands merged with
western settlers' fears that the Britih in Canada were actively recruiting Indians to halt the march of
American settlement.

Jefferson and Madison believed that the Indians could live peacefully with whites if they
abandoned hunting and nomadic ways of life and started farming. Also they insisted that the Indians be
compensated fairly for ceded land and that only those Indians with a claim to the land they were ceding be
allowed to conclude treaties with whites.

In 1809 no American was more eager to acquire Indian lands than William Henry Harrison, the
governor of Indiana Territory. The federal government had just divided Indiana, splitting off the present
states of Illinois and Wisconson into separate Illinois Territory. Harrison recognized that Indiana could not
gain the statehood unless it attrackted more settlers , which could be achieved by offering them the land
owned by Indians. So, he basically forced the Indians along the Wabash River to sell their lands at the price
of two cents per acre (The Treaty of fort Wayne in September 1809).

This ''deal'' outraged the numerous tribes that had not agreed with it, and no one more than
Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief, and his brother Lalawethica, who changed over night from an alcoholic to a
preacher (preched to Indians to return to their old ways, avoid contac with whites...), and became known
as The Prophet. Tecumseh sought to unite several tribes in Ohio and the Indiana Territory against
American settlers. He also insisted that Indian lands belonged colectivelly to all the tribes, hence he didn't
approve the Treaty.

He met with Harrison at a conference which ended in Harrison's decision to attack Indians, at
Prophetstown near the Tippecanoe River. The Prophet's army attacked Harrison's encampment in
November, 1811, but lost the battle. This battle made Harrison a national hero who was to be elected as
president three decades later.

Congress Votes for War

By spring 1812 president Madison had reached the decision that war with Britain was inevitable. On
June 1 he sent his war message to Congress. But, Congress had already passed the Declaration of war.
Southern Federalists opposed it and northern Republicans supported it. In his war message, Madison had
listed impressment, the continued presence of British troops in American waters, and British violations of
neutral rights, and British incitement of the Indians as the reasons for the war.

THE WAR OF 1812

Maritime issues had dominated Madison's war message, but the U.S. lacked a navy strong enough
to challenge Britain at sea. However, Canada became the principal Madison's target.

On to Canada

Form the summer of 1812 to the spring of 1814, the Americans launched a series of unsuccessful
attacks on Canada.
X July 1812 gen William Hull led an American army from detroit into Canada, but they quickly returned.

X In fall 1812 - the Battle of Queenston, near Niagara Falls, the Americans beaten by the British.

X 1812 – an attack on Montreal form New York via Lake Champlain – failed.

X 1813 – American renewed their offensive – gen William Henry Harrison tried to retake Detroit - failed

X September 1813 – cap Oliver H. Perry with his fleet destroyed a British squadron at Put-in-Bay on the
Lake Erie

X The British withdrew from Lake Erie and Detroit

X June 1814 American troops crossed into Canada, but withdrew after losing two battles

The British Offensive

The British took the offensive in the summer of 1814. General Sir George Prevost led 10.000
veterans in an offensive in order to split the New England states, where the opposition to war was strong,
from the rest of the country. The British advanced down Lake Champlain until meeting the well-entrenched
American forces at Plattsburgh. But, eventually Prevost abondoned the campaign.

But, a British army sailed from Bermuda for Chesapeake Bay, landed near Washington, at
Bladensburg, Maryland in August 1814. American militia fled almost without firing a single shot. Seeing this,
Madison escaped into the Virginia hills. The British burned the presidential mantion and some other public
buildings in Washington. A Few weeks later, the British attacked Baltimore, but without success.

The Treaty of Ghent

In August 1814 negotiations to end the war commenced between British and American
commissioners at Ghent, Belgium. The American delegation included Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin and John
Quincy Adams. The British gave away on the issue of territorial concessions. The final treaty was signed on
Christamas Eve 1814 and it restored the status quo ate bellum (the state of things before the war); the U.S.
neither gained nor lost territory. Since Napoleon previously had abdicated as emperor, neutral rights
became a dead issue. Because there was no longer a war in Europe, there was no longer neutrals.

The Hartford Convention

Federalists saw the nation misruled for over a decade by Republican bunglers. The embargo Act had
severely damaged New England's commerce. Now ''Mr. Madison's War'' was bringing fresh misery to New
England in form of the British blockade. E few Federalist began to talk of New England's secession from the
Union. Most, however, rejected the idea.

In late 1814 a Federalist convention met in Hartford, Connecticut and summarized New England's
grievances. It proposed to amend the Constitution to abolish the three-fifths caluse (which allowed the
southern Republicans a disproportionate share of votes in Congress since they have many slaves), to
require two-thirds vote of Congress to declare war and admit new states into the Union, to limit the
president to a single terrm, to prohibit the election of two successice presidents from a same state and to
bar embargoes lasting more than 60 days.
 The timing of these proposals was disastrous for the Federalist, so they couldn't achieve much.

THE AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NATIONALISM

The war produced more than its share of symbols of American nationalism. Whitewash cleared the
smoke damage to the presidential mansion; thereafter it became known as the White House. The British
attack on Fort McHenry, guarding Baltimore, prompted a young observer, Francis Scott Key, to sompose
''The Star-Spangled Banner''.

Madison's Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings

The war of 1812 had three major political consequences:

1. it eliminated the Federalists as a national political force

2. it went a long way toward convincing the Republicans that the nation was strong and resilient,
capable of fighting a war while maintaining the liberty of its people

3. with the Federalists tainted by suspicion of disloyality and no longer a force, nad with the fear
about the fragility of republics fading, Republicans increasingly embraced doctrines long associated with
the Federalists.

In a message to Congress in December 1815, Madison called for federal support for internal
improvements, tariff protection for the new industries that had sprung up during the embargo, and the
creation of a new national bank since the charter of the first bank expired in 1811. In 1816 the Second
National Bank was chartered and a moderate tariff enacted. Just before leaving the office in 1817, Madison
vetoed an internal-improvements bill.

As Rapublicans adopted positions that they had once disdained, an ''Era of Good Feelings'' dawned
on American politics. The phrase was coined by a Boston newspaper in 1817 and reflected not only the
war'd elimination of some divisive issues, but also Manroe's conscious effort to avoid political
controversies. (James Monroe, new president, 1817-1825).

John Marshall and the Supreme Court

In 1819 (still) chief justice John Marshall issued two opinions that stunned Republicans. The first
case, Dartmouth College v.Woodward centered on the question of wether New Hampshire could transform
a private corporation, Dartmouth College, into a state university. Marshall concluded that this effort was
unconstitutional.

The second case, McCulloch v. Maryland, was centered on the question wether the state of
Maryland had the power to tax a national corporation, specifically the Baltimore branch of the Second
national Bank of the U.S. whose stockholders were private citizens, but that was charteted by Congress.
Marshall concluded that nothing in the Constitution granted this power. But the Constitution did authorize
Congress to lay and collect taxes, to regulate interstate commerce, and to declare war. So, these powers
implied a power to charter a bank. The second issue in this second case was whether a state could tax a
federal agency that lay within its borders. Marshall responded that any power of national government was
supreme within its sphere, and no state can interfere in its work.
 All this dismayed many Republicans, especially the McCulloh decision, because it stripped state
governments of the power to impose the will of their people on corporation.

The Missouri Compromise, 1820-1821

Carved from the Louisiana Purchase, Missour attrackted many southerners who expected to
employ their slaves in the territory to grow cotton and hemp. By the end of 1819, three slave states had
been formed out of the Purchase without notable controversy: Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Missouri would prove different.

Early in 1819 a New York Republican offered an amandment that prohibited the further
introduction of slaves and provided for the emancipation, at age of 25, of all slave offspring born after
Missouri's admission as a state. The House accepted the amendment, but the Senate rejected it.

By the end of 1819 the Union had 11 free and 11 slave states. The admission of Missouri as a slave
state would upset this balance to the advantage of the South. Virtuallay every issue that was to wrack the
Union during the next 40 years was present in the controversy ove Missouri: southern charges that the
North was conspiring to destroy the Union and end slavery; accusations by northeners that southerners
were conspiring to extend the institution. Such threats of civil war persuaded some northen congressmen
who had originally supported the restriction of slavery in Missouri to back down. The result was a series of
congressional agreements in 1820 and 1821 known colectively as the Missouri Compromise.

At the same time, Maine was seeking admission as a free state. In 1820 Congress admit it, so it
could admit Missouri as a slave state. As a prelude to statehood, Missourians drafted a constitution that
prohibited free blacks from entering their territory. So, antislavery northeners barred Missouri's admission
to the Union until 1821, when Henry Clay engeneered a new agreement. This second Missouri
Compromise prohibited this state from discriminating against citizens of other states but left open the issue
of whether free blacks were citizens.

Foreign Policy under Monroe

Monroe was fortunate to have as his secretery of state an extraordinary diplomat, John Quincy
Adams. Adams moved quickly to strenghten the peace with GB. During his tenure, the U.S. and GB signed
the Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817, which effectively demilitarized the Great Lakes by severely restricting the
number of ships that the two powers could maintain there.

Next, the British-American Convention of 1818 restored the Americans the same fishing rights off
Newfoundland that they had enjoyed before the War. And fixed the boundary between the U.S. and
Canada from the Lake of the Woods west to the Rockies. Oregon, a territory beyond Rockies was declared
free and open to both American and British citizens.

The nation now turned its attention to dealing with Spain, which still owned the both Floridas. No
one was sure whether the Louisiana Purchase included the west Florida. Acting as if did, the U.S. in 1812
had simply added a slice of West Florida to the state of Loiusiana and another slice to the Mississippi
Territory.

In 1819 Spain agreed to the Adams-Onis (or Transcontinental) Treaty. By its terms, Spain ceded East
Florida to the U.S., renounced its claims to all of West Florida, and agreed that a part of U.S. southern
boarded can ran through the Sabine River that separated Texas form Louisiana. In effect, the U.S. conceded
that Texas was not part of the Louisiana Purchase.

The Monroe Doctrine, 1823

Adams flatly rejected British foreign minister George Canning's insistence on a joint Anglo-American
pledge never to annex any part of Spain's former territories, for Adams wanted the freedom to annex Texas
or Cuba, should their inhabitants one day ''solicit a union with us''.

This was the backround of the Monroe Doctrine, as President Monroe's message to Congress in
December 1823, later come to be called. The message, written largely by Adams, announced three key
principles:

1. that unless American interests were involved, U.S. policy was to abstain from European

2. that the ''American continents'' were not ''subjects for future colonization by any European
power''

3. that the U.S. would construe any attempt at European colonization in the New World as an
''unfriendly act''.