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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON. 184-8
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what latitude may be given to debate, we cannot eschew one important truth, that we are bound to protect the interests of our counry-and it matters not ·whether they are immediate or remote. Our relations are extensive and varied. Our position is of such a character that it requires unceasing vigilance to obtain for it security. While we ought not to interfere with the policy of other nations which is disconnected with our own, we should pursue that course in the preservation of our interest which is best calculated to prevent the intervention of foreign Powers in the affairs of this continent. Such was the principle laid down, clearly to my mind, by President Monroe, in his mes- sage to Congress in 1823. It was hailed with pleasure at that time by the statesmen of the Democratic party, and has been acknowledged and acquiesced in as a correct principle up to the present moment, and can only now be regarded as an axiom of government, which has directed our declaration, and must if we are to remain free from difficulty with other Powers, be regarded as the directory of our future course as a nation. It has _been the subject of the direct exercise of the faculty of this govern- ment by its distinguished functionaries. We may go as far back as 1825, two years subsequent to the declaration by Mr. Monroe, and we will there find the principle recognized and avowed by Mr. Clay, the then Secretary of State to Mr. Adams in a dispatch addressed to Mr. Salarzar [Jose Maria Salazar], Minister of Columbia, and resident in Washington; and in duplicate of said despatch, dated 20th of December, 1825, delivered to Mr. Obregon, Minister of the Republic of Mexico. Columbia and Mexico had it in contemplation to make a descent upon the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. For this they had concerted measures, and were to unite their efforts. Their objects were to place arms in the hands of the servile population of those islands, and thus destroy the interests of Spain. In full view of these circum- stances, Mr. Clay uses the following language, when speaking of the meditated movement: "The suspension is due to the enlightened intentions of the Emperor of Russia, upon whom it could not fail to have a happy effect. It would also postpone, if not forever render unnecessary, all consideration which other Powers may, by any irresistible sense of their essential interests, be called upon to entertain of their duties, in the event of the contemplated invasion of those islands, and of other contingencies which may accompany or follow it. I am directed, therefore, by the President, to request
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