341. AMERICA, Europe and.—
The European
nations constitute a separate division
of the globe; their treaties make them part of
a distinct system; they have a set of interests
of their own in which it is our business never
to engage ourselves. America has a hemisphere
to itself. It must have its separate
system of interests, which must not be subordinated
to those of Europe. The insulated
state in which nature has placed the American
continent, should so far avail it that no spark
of war kil dled in the other quarters of the
globe should be wafted across the wide oceans
which separate us from them. And it will be
so.—
To Baron Von Humboldt. Washington ed. vi, 268.
Ford ed., ix, 431.
(Dec. 1813)
See Canada, Colonies, South America, United States.
