But the pacific
objects of the congress--the establishment of close and cordial
relations of amity, the creation of commercial intercourse, of
interchange of political thought, and of habits of good understanding
between the new Republics and the United States and their respective
citizens--might perhaps have been attained had the Administration of
that day received the united support of the country. Unhappily, they
were lost; the new States were removed from the sympathetic and
protecting influence of our example, and their commerce, which we might
then have secured, passed into other hands, unfriendly to the United
States.
In looking back upon the Panama congress from this length of time it is
easy to understand why the earnest and patriotic men who endeavored to
crystallize an American system for this continent failed.
Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams were far-sighted statesmen, but, unfortunately,
they struck against the rock of African slavery. One of the questions
proposed for discussion in the conference was "the consideration of
the means to be adopted for the entire abolition of the African slave
trade," to which proposition the committee of the United States Senate
of that day replied: "The United States have not certainly the right,
and ought never to feel the inclination, to dictate to others who may
differ with them upon this subject; nor do the committee see the
expediency of insulting other states with whom we are maintaining
relations of perfect amity by ascending the moral chair and proclaiming
from thence mere abstract principles, of the rectitude of which each
nation enjoys the perfect right of deciding for itself.
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