Of course if one of these nations, or if Canada, should be overcome by some Old World power, which then proceeded to occupy its territory, we would undoubtedly, if the American Nation needed our help, give it in order to prevent such occupation from taking place.

But the initiative would come from the Nation itself, and the United States would merely act as a friend whose help was invoked.
The case was (and is) widely different as regards certain--not all--of the tropical states in the neighborhood of the Caribbean Sea.

Where these states are stable and prosperous, they stand on a footing of absolute equality with all other communities.

But some of them have been a prey to such continuous revolutionary misrule as to have grown impotent either to do their duties to outsiders or to enforce their rights against outsiders.

The United States has not the slightest desire to make aggressions on any one of these states.