Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/255

Rh visit to the principal cities of the north and south; and, second, the national reception of the Marquis de Lafayette, who came to this country as the nation's guest. The purchase of the Floridas was brought to a successful issue, February 22, 1819, by a treaty with Spain, concluded at Washington, and thus the control of the entire Atlantic and Gulf seaboard, from the St. Croix to the Sabine, was secured to the United States. Monroe's influence in the controversies that preceded the Missouri compromise does not appear to have been very strong. He showed none of the boldness which Jefferson would have exhibited under similar circumstances. He took more interest in guiding the national policy with respect to internal improvements and the defence of the seaboard. He vetoed the Cumberland road bill, May 4, 1822, on the ground that congress had no right to execute a system of internal improvement; but he held that if such powers could be secured by constitutional amendment good results would follow. Even then he held that the general government should undertake only works of national significance, and should leave all minor improvements to the separate states.

There is no measure with which the name of Monroe is connected so important as his enunciation of the “Monroe doctrine.” The words of this famous utterance constitute two paragraphs in the president's message of December 2, 1823. In the