destructive to the peace
and good order of the world."_

I have quoted the very words, very unexpectedly given to
publicity,--words, which I out of respect and personal affection, did
not answer then, precisely because I took the interview for a private
one. Even now I refrain from entering into further discussion, out of
the same considerations of respect, though I am challenged by this
unlooked for publicity. I will say nothing more. But after having
quoted the very words, I leave to the public opinion to judge whether
their authority is against or for a national protest against the
principle of foreign interference.

Let once the principle become established with your silent consent and
you will soon see it brought home to you, and brought home in a moment
of domestic discord, which Russian secret diplomacy and Russian gold
will skilfully mix. You may be sure of it; and this mighty Union will
be shaken by that very principle of foreign interference which you
silently let be established as an uncontroverted rule for the despots of
the earth.

Great countries are under the necessity of holding the position of a
power on earth. If they do not thus, foreign powers dispose of their
most vital interests. Indifference to the condition of the foreign world
is a wilful abdication of their duty, and of their independence.
Neutrality, as a constant rule, is impossible to a great power. Only
small countries, as Switzerland and Belgium, can exist upon the basis of
neutrality.

Great powers may remain neutral in a particular case, but they cannot
take neutrality for a constant principle, and they chiefly cannot remain
neutral in respect to principles.

Great powers can never play with impunity the part of no power at all.

Neutrality when taken _as a principle_ means indifference to the
condition of the world.

Indifference of a great power to the condition of the world is a chance
given to foreign powers to regulate the interests of that indifferent
foreign power.

Look in what light you appear before the world with your policy of
indifference. Look at the instructions of your navy in the
Mediterranean, recently published, forbidding American officers even to
speak politics in Europe. Look at the correspondences of your commodores
and consuls, frightened to their very souls that a poor exile on board
an American ship is cheered by the people of Italy and France, and
charging him for the immense crime of having met symp