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 to 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. … The Monroe Doctrine appears to have implied a sense of permanency of alliance to a degree with nations on the American continents, and the notion seems to be to steer clear of permanent alliance with European powers in particular due to their tendency towards tyranny. From the Farewell Address The Monroe Doctrine appears to have implied a sense of permanency of alliance to a degree with nations on the American continents, and the notion seems to be to steer clear of permanent alliance with European powers in particular due to their tendency towards tyranny.
Author: DW
Published at: 2026-02-17 22:25:48
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