Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/261

Rh of cheap and desirable goods, and greatly desirous of custom, to adopt the policy which the committee assumed to be desirable in respect to nations similarly situated, he would advertise that he did not consider it expedient to trade with people living in small towns, or comparatively poor districts, irrespective of their means of payment, or the profits that might accrue on the transactions. It has also been forcibly pointed out, by Hon. Abram Hewitt (in a minority report in favor of the ratification of the treaty), that Mexico, being rudely rebuffed in her desire to strengthen her commercial relations with the United States, may, while preserving its political autonomy, nevertheless contract such trade relations with England or Germany as to practically occupy the position of a colony to one or both of these countries, so far as its trade and commerce are concerned; "and that hence, in rejecting the Mexican reciprocity treaty, the United States practically rejects the Monroe doctrine, by turning that country, with its resources and possibilities of development," over to some European nationality.

One other point, bearing on this subject, may be also worthy of consideration by no small part of the American people. Twenty years ago, the attempt to advocate or expound any form of