that, in
place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be
cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave to its
animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it
astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against
another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable,
when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent
collisions, obstinate, venomed, and bloody contests. The Nation prompted
by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government,
contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes
participates in the national propensity and adopts through passion what
reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the
nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride,
ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often,
sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces
a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the
illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common
interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other,
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the
latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to
concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which
is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by
unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by
exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the
parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to
ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the
favorite Nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their
own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding,
with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the
base of foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments
are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent
Patriot. How many opportunities do