My ardent desire
is, and my aim has been ... to comply strictly with all our engagements foreign
and domestic; but to keep the United States free from political connections
with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under
the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers
of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my
judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home.
. . . George Washington
letter to Patrick Henry
1775
[W]hat has America done for the
benefit of mankind? . . . She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century,
without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while
asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the
concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she
clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart . . . . But she goes not
abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom
and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
. . . John Quincy Adams
Foreign Policy Speech
1821
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