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.]
SECRET TREATY OF VERONA
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 govern- ment is egually
as incompatible with
the monarchial principles
as the maxim of the
sovereignty of the
people with the
high devine 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 exhist 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 detrement 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
exhisted 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 exhisting
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 preasure 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 Europian 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.
6. The
experience we have had, has made us acquainted with the many advantages that
have been taken by the Society of its intervention in the marriages of the House
of Austria, and of those which have been effected in other kingdoms, France,
Poland, and in various duchies. Forasmuch assembling, proposing with
prudence, selecting choice persons who may be friends and families of the
relatives, and of the friends of the Society. 7. It will
be easy to gain the princesses, making use of their valets; by that coming
to feed and nourish with relations of friendship, by being located at the
entrance in all parts, and thus become acquainted with the most intimate secrets
of the familiars. Secret Instructions of The
Company of Jesus: Chapter II.
