“America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
John Quincy Adams, July, 1821
She is a well-wisher of freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator of only her own.
She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice,
and the benign sympathy of her example.
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence; should would involve herself beyond the powers of extrication, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. She might become a dictatress of the world. We would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.”
How America Has Changed
“The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. “