and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious
man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not
trace all their connections with private and public
felicity....

"Observe good faith and justice toward 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?...

"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....

"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 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 anytime resolve upon to be scrupulously respected;
when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making
acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us