Here in the United States the main attack on both the
preliminary project and the perfected Covenant of the
League of Nations was on the ground that the League
would operate as an interference with our sovereignty and
with the Monroe Doctrine, that it involved abandonment of
our traditional policy against entangling alliances, and that
the country lacked the power, under its Constitution, to
enter into such a treaty. These objections are fully met
by Mr. Taft in the speeches and articles embraced in this
volume. Sovereignty is shown to be just so much liberty
of action on the part of States as is consistent with their
obligation, under international law and morality, to permit
of the exercise of equal sovereignty or liberty of action by
their sister States. The League Covenant secures all States
in their exercise of this sovereignty free from oppression
by other States, and he who wants more is really seeking
the license selfishly to disregard these obligations -- to
reject, for example, the just judgments of a properly con-
stituted tribunal -- which is the German conception of
sovereignty.

The Monroe Doctrine is shown to be strengthened, not
impaired, by the Covenant. In its original form the
doctrine opposed future colonization on the American conti-
nents by European governments and all interference by
Europe with the free governments of America. Later on,
the United States, under the Polk and under the Taft admin-

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