In the time of Washington, of the first Adams, of Jefferson, and of
Madison the condition of Europe, engaged in the gigantic wars of the
French Revolution and of the Empire, produced its series of public
questions and gave tone and color to our foreign policy. In the time of
Monroe, of the second Adams, and of Jackson, and subsequently thereto,
the independence of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of America
produced its series of questions and its apparent modification of our
public policy. Domestic questions of territorial organization, of social
emancipation, and of national unity have also largely occupied the minds
and the attention of the later Administrations.
The treaties of alliance and guaranty with France, which contributed so
much to our independence, were one source of solicitude to the early
Administrations, which were endeavoring to protect our commerce from the
depredations and wrongs to which the maritime policy of England and the
reaction of that policy on France subjected it. For twenty years we
struggled in vain to accomplish this, and at last drifted into war.
The avoidance of entangling alliances, the characteristic feature of the
foreign policy of Washington, sprang from this condition of things.
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