The American Empire
Washington would be proud of the emerging American Empire. He warned of foreign entanglements and the risks of getting wrapped up in the ancient power struggles of Europe, where we would be used as a pawn on the global chessboard of some far more established power. Times have changed.
We are the Entaglement
We are the Danger
Early in our nation's history, entanglements would have brought an early end to our blossoming nation. Our founders did not diminish the expansion of our own powers. By the time the last founding father to be president, James Monroe, left office in 182,5 the United States had already doubled in size.
To be continued…
Below are many of the notable comments our founders had on foreign influences:
George Washington
"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."
"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."
"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."
"Permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded."
"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."
"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?"
Thomas Jefferson
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none."
"I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war."
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others."
"I sincerely join you in abjuring all political connection with every foreign power; and tho I cordially wish well to the progress of liberty in all nations, and would forever give it the weight of our countenance, yet they are not to be touched without contamination from their other bad principles."
John Adams
"As often as Elections happen, the danger of foreign Influence recurs."
In a 1787 letter: "I know too that it is a maxim with us, and I think it a wise one, not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of Europe."
(John Quincy Adams, his son, later added: "She [America] 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." While not a Founding Father himself, this reflects familial influence.)
Alexander Hamilton
"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence."
"One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption."
"Hence it is that history furnishes us with so many mortifying examples of the prevalency of foreign corruption in republican governments."
"The causes of hostility among nations are innumerable... the love of power or the desire of preeminence and dominion—the jealousy of power, or the desire of equality and safety."
James Madison
"The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home."
"Foreign powers will intermeddle in our affairs, and spare no expence to influence them. Persons having foreign attachments will be sent among us & insinuated into our councils, in order to be made instruments for their purposes."
"Great Britain, above all other nations, ought to be dreaded and watched, as most likely to gain an undue and pernicious ascendency in our country."
John Jay
"The safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war."
"It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; nay, that absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for purposes and objects merely personal."
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin's direct statements on foreign entanglements are limited, but he contributed to discussions on foreign influences during the Constitutional Convention and in diplomacy. He supported protections against foreign corruption, such as the Emoluments Clause, to prevent undue influence on officials. His broader views on immigration and cultural influences included concerns about non-assimilation leading to foreign divisions within the nation.
