little political connection as possible, and faithfully adhering to the
spirit of that admonition, I can not overlook the reflection that the
counsel of Washington in that instance, like all the counsels of wisdom,
was founded upon the circumstances in which our country and the world
around us were situated at the time when it was given; that the reasons
assigned by him for his advice were that Europe had a set of primary
interests which to us had none or a very remote relation; that hence she
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the, causes of which were
essentially foreign to our concerns; that our _detached_ and _distant_
situation invited and enabled us to pursue a different course; that by
our union and rapid growth, with an efficient Government, the period was
not far distant when we might defy material injury from external
annoyance, when we might take such an attitude as would cause our
neutrality to be respected, and, with reference to belligerent nations,
might choose peace or war, as our interests, guided by justice, should
counsel.

Compare our situation and the circumstances of that time with those of
the present day, and what, from the very words of Washington then, would
be his counsels to his countrymen now? Europe has still her set of
primary interests, with which we have little or a remote relation. Our
distant and detached situation with reference to Europe remains the
same. But we were then the only independent nation of this hemisphere,
and we were surrounded by European colonies, with the greater part of
which we had no more intercourse than with the inhabitants of another
planet. Those colonies have now been transformed into eight independent
nations, extending to our very borders, seven of them Republics like
ourselves, with whom we have an immensely growing commercial, and _must_
have and have already important political, connections; with reference
to whom our situation is neither distant nor detached; whose political
principles and systems of government, congenial with our own, must and
will have an action and counteraction upon us and ours to which we can
not be indifferent if we would.

The rapidity of our growth, and the consequent increase of our strength,
has more than realized the anticipations of this admirable political
legacy. Thirty years have nearly elapsed since it was written, and in
the interval our population, our wealth, our territorial extension, our
power--physical an