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Highlights for December 2
1823 Monroe Doctrine Declared
During his annual address to Congress, President James Monroe proclaims a new U.S. foreign policy initiative that becomes known as the "Monroe Doctrine." Primarily the work of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe Doctrine forbids European interference in the American hemisphere, but also asserts U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.The origins of the Monroe Doctrine stem from the attempts of several European powers to reassert their influence in the Americans in the early 1820s. In North America, Russia had attempted to expand its influence in the Alaska territory, and in Central and South America, the U.S. government feared a Spanish colonial resurgence from a country still opposing independence movements across its former empire. Britain too was actively seeking a major role in the political and economic future of the Americas, and Adams feared a subservient role for the U.S. in an Anglo-American alliance. Beginning in the mid nineteenth century, the United States invokes the Monroe Doctrine to defend its increasingly imperialistic role in the Americas, but it is not until the Spanish-American War at the end of the century that the U.S. declares war against a European power over interference in the hemisphere.
The isolationist position of the Monroe Doctrine also becomes a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy over the nineteenth century, and it takes the major world conflicts of the twentieth century to draw a hesitant America into its new role as a major global power.
1845 Polk affirms Monroe Doctrine
Making his first annual address to Congress, President James K. Polk belligerently reasserts the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and calls for aggressive American expansion into the West. Polk's aggressive expansionist program created the outline of the modern American nation.The Monroe Doctrine was the creation of Polk's predecessor, James Monroe, who argued that all European influence should be removed from the neighborhood of the United States for reasons of national security. As a result, throughout the first half of the 19th century, Americans had worked to undermine European claims on the continent, often by peacefully annexing
European territories. Polk's extension of the Monroe Doctrine, however, carried a far more aggressive agenda, which reflected his willingness to use force to create a nation stretching across the continent. Polk felt that such expansion was
part of America's "manifest destiny." Polk's vision of America's future included the rapid annexation of Texas, the acquisition of California, and an end to sharing control of Oregon territory with the British.Always slightly paranoid about the Europeans, Polk worried that France would insist on maintaining a balance of power in North America and that Great Britain would try to keep the U.S. from acquiring Texas and California. In fact, neither nation was very aggressive about resisting American expansionism, and Great Britain peacefully surrendered its claim to the Oregon territory south of the 49th parallel in 1846.
Polk's ambition to take the Mexican-controlled Texas, California, and the rest of the Southwest away from Mexico proved more difficult to realize. Six months after his speech to Congress, Polk's decision to annex the Republic of Texas led to war with Mexico. Despite Polk's fears, neither France nor Great Britain leapt to the aid of the Mexicans in the war, leaving the U.S. free to act as it wished. When the Americans emerged victorious in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave Polk precisely what he wanted: the vast northern provinces of the Mexican empire that would one day become the states of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. This land was the final piece of the puzzle needed to create the territory of today's United States
1954 MCCARTHY CONDEMNED BY SENATE:
The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. The condemnation, which was equivalent to a censure, related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military, and civilian society.
What is known as "McCarthyism" began on February 9, 1950, when McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, announced during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he had in his possession a list of 205 communists who had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight. Asked to reveal the names on the list, the opportunistic senator named just one official who he determined guilty by association: Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the "top Russian spy" in America.
These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy's charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public, and during the next two years he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman's respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.
In 1953, a newly Republican Congress appointed McCarthy chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and its Subcommittee on Investigations, and McCarthyism reached a fever pitch. In widely publicized hearings, McCarthy bullied defendants under cross- examination with unlawful and damaging accusations, destroying the reputations of hundreds of innocent officials and citizens.
In the early months of 1954, McCarthy, who had already lost the support of much of his party because of his controversial tactics, finally overreached himself when he accused several U.S. Army officers of communist subversion. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for an investigation of McCarthy's charges, and the televised hearings exposed the senator as a reckless and excessive tyrant who never produced proper documentation for any of his claims.
A climax of the hearings came on June 9, when Joseph N. Welch, special attorney for the army, responded to a McCarthy attack on a member of his law firm by facing the senator and tearfully declaring, "Until this moment, senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" The crowded hearing room burst into spontaneous applause.
On December 2, after a heated debate, the Senate voted to condemn McCarthy for conduct "contrary to senatorial traditions." By the time of his death from alcoholism in 1957, the influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy in Congress was negligible.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-Mail me.
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