Beginnings of U.S. Foreign Policy
NFL 2000-2001 Policy Topic:
"Resolved: That the United States federal government
should establish a foreign policy significantly limiting the
use of weapons of mass destruction."
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Excerpts from George
Washington's
Fairwell Address, 1796
[Paragraph 31] 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?
32. 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.
33. 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 deluded 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.
34. 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 practise 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.
35. Against the insidious wiles of
foreign influence (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.
36. 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
connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Here let us stop.
37. 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.
38. 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 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 our
interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
39. 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?
40. 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.
41. Taking care always to keep
ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
42. 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 shall 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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