Office of the Historian

No.62]

Mr. Dix to Mr. Seward

Legation of the United States, Paris, April 9, 1867.

Sir: I enclose the translation of a paragraph from Mr. Rouher’s speech in reply to Mr. Thiers, which is not without interest as an exposition of the views of the French government, at this juncture, on the question of the balance of power. It seems to me that it may be regarded as a renunciation of the right, claimed by Mr. Guizot in 1845, in behalf of France, “to protect by the authority of her name the independence of States and the equilibrium of the great political forces in America.” In a speech in the Senate of the United States, in 1846, I combated this pretension, and discussed somewhat elaborately the whole doctrine of the balance of power as asserted and practiced in Europe. The position of Mr. Guizot was virtually reassumed in behalf of the Latin race in the Mexican expedition; and it was not inappropriate that a pretension which was a mere theory in its inception, and which was very unfortunate in its first application to practice, should, on the failure and final abandonment of that expedition, be ignored in an elaborate discussion, and the question of maintaining the balance among the great powers of the earth treated as a problem concerning the whole family of nations, and not those of a single quarter of, the globe. Mr. Rouher’s position in regard to the people of western Europe is entirely defensive, and it is this which constitutes its chief significance. It is worthy of consideration whether it differs very essentially from the Monroe doctrine, the spirit of which is that there ought to be no interference by European powers with the independent states of America; and whether we may not congratulate ourselves that our policy in regard to the western hemisphere has, theoretically at least, the countenance of an authority equally eminent for great talents and high official station. At all events, we may be quite confident that there will be no continuation of it in the future.

Under any view of the subject it is very gratifying that France, with whom our relations are of the most friendly character, should, through her distinguished minister of state, have made it a question for our successors, by referring it to a distant future.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Extract from Mr. Rouher’s speech.

We have said, in glancing at a distant future, which no one of us is destined to see, a day will come when the vast domains of Russia will be more densely peopled; when America, the development of which is constantly increasing, will overcome that space of 3,000 miles of ocean which separates us from her to day, for you have said yourselves that the sea brings nations nearer to each other instead of keeping them further apart; a day will come when our concern will be not for the equilibrium of Europe, but for the equilibrium of the world—-a day when the great powers may perhaps desire to play the part of dominators. Then a natural feeling will bring together the people of the west* and unite them in opposition to the threatening invasion.

  1. Mr. Rouher means the west of Europe.—J. A. D,↩