Theodore Roosevelt: Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

On December 6, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt submitted his annual message to the Congress of the United States. That document, now called the State of the Union address, was in written form. Since 1801, when Thomas Jefferson instituted the practice, presidents had transmitted their annual report about the issues facing the United States to lawmakers in writing. As was his custom, Roosevelt wrote at length about many national problems, from railroad regulation to conservation of natural resources. When it came to foreign policy, however, he wrote several long paragraphs about the relations between the United States and its neighbors in Latin America. In one key paragraph, the president modified the diplomatic policy that had come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. Roosevelt asserted new American rights relative to other countries in the region and proclaimed a broad ability to set the rules for the Caribbean Sea and countries that surrounded it. What the president had done would come to be called the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.