[278] at the time to take this decisive step, and therefore the joint declaration was never made. Mr. Rush, in his despatch of September 19, 1823, to Mr. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State,1 communicated to him a lucid statement of these negotiations, with explanatory documents. After these had been considered by President Monroe, he sent them, with his own views on the subject, to Mr. Jefferson, and asked his advice as to the course which ought to be pursued by the Government to ward off the threatened danger. Mr. Jefferson's answer is dated at Monticello, on the 24th October, 1823. It is earnest, enthusiastic, and eloquent, displaying in old age the statesmanlike sagacity and ardent patriotism of the author of the Declaration of Independence. It foreshadows and recommends the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ to the fullest extent. From its importance we quote it entire from Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. III., p. 491. Mr. Jefferson says:
The question presented by the letters you have sent me is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of independence. That made us a nation; this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us; and never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should, therefore, have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely be to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty, Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or all on
