Monroe followed Adams's advice and laid out an independent course for the United States, declaring four major points in his December 2, 1823, address to Congress. He made four basic statements:

1) The United States would not get involved in European affairs. 2) The United States would not interfere with existing European colonies in the Western Hemisphere. 3) No other nation could form a new colony in the Western Hemisphere. 4) If a European nation tried to control or interfere with a nation in the Western Hemisphere, the United States would view it as a hostile act against this nation. In his Monroe Doctrine, he said that the peoples of the West "are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." Do you think Monroe presented his foreign policy as the "Monroe Doctrine"?