n these contests and aid those who
are struggling for liberty.

This is a most seductive but dangerous appeal to the generous sympathies
of freemen. Enjoying, as we do, the blessings of a free Government,
there is no man who has an American heart that would not rejoice to see
these blessings extended to all other nations. We can not witness the
struggle between the oppressed and his oppressor anywhere without the
deepest sympathy for the former and the most anxious desire for his
triumph. Nevertheless, is it prudent or is it wise to involve ourselves
in these foreign wars? Is it indeed true that we have heretofore
refrained from doing so merely from the degrading motive of a conscious
weakness? For the honor of the patriots who have gone before us, I can
not admit it. Men of the Revolution, who drew the sword against the
oppressions of the mother country and pledged to Heaven "their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor" to maintain their freedom, could
never have been actuated by so unworthy a motive. They knew no weakness
or fear where right or duty pointed the way, and it is a libel upon
their fair fame for us, while we enjoy the blessings for which they so
nobly fought and bled, to insinuate it. The truth is that the course
which they pursued was dictated by a stern sense of international
justice, by a statesmanlike prudence and a far-seeing wisdom, looking
not merely to the present necessities but to the permanent safety and
interest of the country. They knew that the world is governed less by
sympathy than by reason and force; that it was not possible for this
nation to become a "propagandist" of free principles without arraying
against it the combined powers of Europe, and that the result was
more likely to be the overthrow of republican liberty here than its
establishment there. History has been written in vain for those who
can doubt this. France had no sooner established a republican form of
government than she manifested a desire to force its blessings on all
the world. Her own historian informs us that, hearing of some petty
acts of tyranny in a neighboring principality, "the National Convention
declared that she would afford succor and fraternity to all nations
who wished to recover their liberty, and she gave it in charge to the
executive power to give orders to the generals of the French armies
to aid all citizens who might have been or should be oppressed in the
cause of liberty." Here was the fa