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I wish to put in the RECORD the secret treaty of Verona of
November 22, 1822, showing what this ancient conflict is between
the rule of the few and the rule of the many.
I wish to call the attention of the Senate to this treaty because
it is the threat of this treaty which was the basis of the Monroe
doctrine. It throws a
powerful white light upon the conflict between monarchial government and
government by the people. The
Holy Alliance under the influence of Metternich, the Premier of Austria,
in 1822, issued this remarkable secret document : [American
Diplomatic Code, 1778 - 1884,
vol. 2 ;
Elliott, p. 179.]
The undersigned,
specially authorized
to make
some additions
to the
treaty of
the Holy
Alliance, after
having exchanged
their respective
credentials, have
agreed as
follows :
ARTICLE 1.
The high
contracting powers
being convinced
that the
system of
representative government is
equally as
incompatible with
the monarchial
principles as
the maxim
of the
sovereignty of the
people with
the high
divine right,
engage mutually in
the most
solemn manner,
to use
all their
efforts to
put an
end to
the system
of representative
governments, in
whatever country
it may
exist in
Europe, and
to prevent
its being
introduced in
those countries
where it
is not
yet known.
ART. 2.
As it
can not
be doubted
that the
liberty of
the press
is the
most powerful
means used
by the
pretended supporters
of the
rights of
nations to
the detriment
of those
princes, the
high contracting
parties promise
reciprocally to
adopt all
proper measures
to suppress
it, not
only in
their own
states but
also in
the rest
of Europe.
ART. 3.
Convinced that
the principles
of religion
contribute most
powerfully to
keep nations
in the
state of
passive obedience
which they
owe to
their princes,
the high
contracting parties
declare it
to be
their intention
to sustain
in their
respective States
those measures
which the
clergy may
adopt, with
the aim
of ameliorating
their own
interests, so
intimately connected
with the
preservation of
the authority
of the
princes ; and
the contracting
powers join
in offering
their thanks
to the
Pope for
what he
has already
done for
them, and
solicit his
constant cooperation
in their
views of
submitting the
nations.
ART. 4.
The situation
of Spain
and Portugal
unite unhappily
all the
circumstances to
which this treaty
has particular
reference. The
high contracting
parties, in
confiding to
France the
care of
putting an
end to
them, engaged
to assist
her in
the manner
which may
the least
compromit them
with their
own people
and the
people of
France by
means of
a subsidy
on the
part of
the two
empires of
20,000,000 of
francs every
year from
the date
of the
signature of
this treaty
to the
end of
the war.
ART. 5.
In order
to establish
in the
Peninsula the
order of
things which
existed before
the revolution
of Cadiz,
and to
insure the
entire execution
of the
articles of
the present
treaty, the high
contracting parties
give to
each other
the reciprocal
assurance that
as long
as their
views are
not fulfilled,
rejecting all
other ideas
of utility
or other
measure to
be taken,
they will
address themselves
with the
shortest possible
delay to
all the
authorities existing
in their
States and
to all
their agents
in foreign
countries, with
the view
to establish
connections tending
toward the
accomplishment of
the objects
proposed by
this treaty.
ART. 6.
This treaty
shall be
renewed with
such changes
as new
circumstances may
give occasion
for, either
at a
new congress
or at
the court
of one
of the
contracting parties,
as soon
as the
war with
Spain shall
be terminated.
ART. 7.
The present
treaty shall
be ratified
and the
ratifications exchanged
at Paris
within the
space of
six months. Made
at Verona
the 22d
November, 1822. For
Austria :-----------------------------------------------------METTERNICH. For
France :------------------------------------------------CHATEAUBRIAND. For
Prussia :---------------------------------------------------------BERNSTET. For
Russia :------------------------------------------------------NESSELRODE.
I ask to have printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD this secret
treaty, because I think it ought to be called now to the attention of the
people of the United States and of the world.
This evidence of the conflict between the rule of the few verses
popular government should be emphasized on the minds of the people of the
United States, that the conflict now waging throughout the world may be
more clearly understood, for after all said the great pending war springs
from the weakness and frailty of government by the few, where human error
is far more probable than the error of the many where aggressive war is
only permitted upon the authorizing vote of those whose lives are
jeopardized in the trenches of modern war.
Mr. SHAFROTH.
Mr. President, I should like to have the senator state whether in
that treaty there was not a coalition formed between the powerful
countries of Europe to reestablish the sovereignty of Spain in the
Republics of South and Central America?
Mr. OWEN.
I was just going to comment upon that, and I am going
to take but a few moments to do so because I realize the pressure of other matters. This
Holy Alliance, having put a Bourbon prince
upon the throne of France by
force, then used France to suppress the constitution of Spain immediately
afterwards, and by this very treaty gave her a subsidy of 20,000,000
francs annually to enable her to wage war upon the people of Spain and to
prevent their exercise of any measure of the right of self-government.
The Holy Alliance immediately did the same thing in Italy, by
sending Austrian troops to Italy, where the people there attempted to
exercise a like measure of liberal constitutional self-government ;
and it was not until the printing press, which the Holy Alliance so
stoutly opposed, taught the people of Europe the value of liberty that
finally one country after another seized a greater and greater right of
self government, until now it may be fairly said that nearly all the
nations of Europe have a very large measure of self government.
However, I wish to call the attention of the Senate and the country
to this important history in the growth of
constitutional popular self-government.
The Holy Alliance made its powers felt by the wholesale drastic
suppression of the press in Europe, by universal censorship, by killing
free speech and all ideas of popular rights, and by the complete
suppression of popular government.
The Holy Alliance having destroyed popular government in Spain and
in Italy, had well-laid plans also to destroy popular government in the
American colonies which had revolted from Spain and Portugal in Central
and South America under the influence of the successful example of the
United States. It
was because of this conspiracy against the American Republics by the European
monarchies that the great English statesman, Canning, called the
attention of our government to it, and our statesmen then, including
Thomas Jefferson, took an active part to bring about the declaration by
President Monroe in his next annual message to the Congress of the United
States that the United States should regard it as an act of hostility to
the government of the United States and an unfriendly act if this
coalition or if any power of Europe ever undertook to establish upon the
American Continent any control of any
American Republic or to acquire any territorial rights.
This is the so-called Monroe doctrine.
The threat under the secret treaty of Verona to suppress popular
governments in the American Republics is the basis of the Monroe doctrine.
This secret treaty sets forth clearly the conflict between
monarchial government and popular government and the government of the few
as against the government of the many.
It is a part, in reality, of developing popular sovereignty when we
demand for women equal rights to life, to liberty, to the possession of
property, to an equal voice in the making of the laws and the
administration of the laws.
This demand on the part of the women is made by men, and it ought
to be made by men as well as by thinking, progressive women, as it will
promote human liberty and human happiness.
I sympathize with it, and I hope that all parties will in the
national conventions give their approval to this larger measure of liberty
to the better half of the human race. Official Records of the Union Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion
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