


"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 nation the
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the
quarrels and wars of the latter without 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 appearances of a virtuous
sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable
zeal for public good, the foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or
infatuation."
- George Washington 191 (emphasis
added)
THE END
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