The American Foreign Policy Announced by

Washington.

THAT proved to be the basis of the foreign policy of

the United States for more than one hundred years is found in Washington's Farewell Address. “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with all. . . . 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 toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. ... 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. . . . Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, 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. Europe has a set of 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

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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 an 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

1 our interest guided by justice shall counsel. . . . It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

As Europe guards so jealously the “balance of power," or "status quo" on her continent as to deem any alteration of it by any power a "casus belli," so the United States regards the sentiment of "America for the Americans," crystallized into the Monroe Doctrine.

It was partly in pursuance of this policy, as well as to control the mouth of the Mississippi River, that President Jefferson decided on the Louisiana Purchase. That portion of what is now almost the center of the United States, having already been ceded from Spain to France, was again in danger of having its ownership transferred to another foreign nation. France, being at war with England, would in all probability have had the Louisiana territory wrested from her. Jefferson, by threatening to join England, was able to obtain that province from Napoleon for fifteen million dollars. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of Jefferson's action in procuring that magnificent domain for such a paltry sum.

As late as October 21, 1823 Jefferson wrote President Monroe “our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-atlantic affairs. America, north and south, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe.” Jefferson's views coincided with those of practically all the prominent Americans.

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