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On Foreign Entaglements
George Washington,1796
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.
Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a
great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and
things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might
be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the
permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended
by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! Is it rendered impossible by its
vices?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate
antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be
excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be
cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual
fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection,
either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy
in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to
lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or
trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war
the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes
participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of
hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The
peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of
evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common
interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities
of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the
latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the
favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation
making the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained,
and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from
whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluged
citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice
the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition,
corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways such attachments are particularly
alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they
afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead
public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or
weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the
latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influences (I conjure you to believe me,
fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since
history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it.
Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those
whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the
arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the
favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the
applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our
commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far
as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here
let us stop.
Europe has a primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence
she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign
to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by
artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations
and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If
we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may
defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such as attitude as will
cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when
belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our
interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon
foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle
our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or
caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the
foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be
understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim
no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense.
But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and
interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither
seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing
nothing; establishing with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to
define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them,
conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion
will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as
experience and circumstances dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one
nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of
its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such
acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal
favors; and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no
greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an
illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
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