Some Americans may be familiar with the admonition of John Quincy Adams that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. But his sentiments extended well beyond this oft-cited maxim. First, Adams considered what could be said in America's defense if anyone were ever to wonder what she had done for the world:
[I]f the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world ... should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless, and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights; she has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own; she has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.
Adams then described the foreign policy of the American republic:
Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....
This wasn't "isolationism." It was a beautiful and elegant statement of common sense, and of principles that at one time were taken for granted by nearly everyone.
> Some Americans may be familiar with the admonition of John Quincy > Adams that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to > destroy. But his sentiments extended well beyond this oft-cited maxim. > First, Adams considered what could be said in America's defense if > anyone were ever to wonder what she had done for the world:
That was then (he served 1798 to 1801) and this is now. Adams could not possibly have conceived in all of his wildest dreams the changes that would occur between his years and ours. I suspect as brilliant a man as Adams was, had he lived 200 years would have constantly adjusted his thinking to align with the times and technology. To search for monsters in his day would have taken a great deal of time. How far was Europe by boat? South America, Asia or Africa? Today those countries are only hours away, as are the powerful bombs owned by some of them.
> > Some Americans may be familiar with the admonition of John Quincy > > Adams that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to > > destroy. But his sentiments extended well beyond this oft-cited maxim. > > First, Adams considered what could be said in America's defense if > > anyone were ever to wonder what she had done for the world:
> That was then (he served 1798 to 1801) and this is now. Adams could not > possibly have conceived in all of his wildest dreams the changes that would > occur between his years and ours. I suspect as brilliant a man as Adams > was, had he lived 200 years would have constantly adjusted his thinking to > align with the times and technology. To search for monsters in his day > would have taken a great deal of time. How far was Europe by boat? South > America, Asia or Africa? Today those countries are only hours away, as are > the powerful bombs owned by some of them.
> Joan
Ron Paul's answer to your contention is as follows:
It is easy to dismiss the noninterventionist view as the quaint aspiration of men who lived in a less complicated world, but it's not so easy to demonstrate how our current policies serve any national interest at all. Perhaps an honest examination of the history of American interventionism in the twentieth century, from Korea to Vietnam to Kosovo to the Middle East, would reveal that the Founding Fathers foresaw more than we think. -- Howard
>> Some Americans may be familiar with the admonition of John Quincy >> Adams that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to >> destroy. But his sentiments extended well beyond this oft-cited maxim. >> First, Adams considered what could be said in America's defense if >> anyone were ever to wonder what she had done for the world:
> That was then (he served 1798 to 1801) and this is now. Adams could not > possibly have conceived in all of his wildest dreams the changes that > would occur between his years and ours. I suspect as brilliant a man as > Adams was, had he lived 200 years would have constantly adjusted his > thinking to align with the times and technology. To search for monsters > in his day would have taken a great deal of time. How far was Europe by > boat? South America, Asia or Africa? Today those countries are only > hours away, as are the powerful bombs owned by some of them.
> Joan
Hi Joan,
That was John Adams who was President from 1797 to 1801. John Quincy Adams, his son, was President from 1825 to 1829.
My biggest problem with Howard's attempt to make the point is that Quincy was a one person and there is nothing to say that this particular president was correct, assuming that the quote means what it says. But looking at the larger context of the quote - Adams' address as Secretary of State to the U.S. House of Representatives. (1821-07-04) see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams - what he is saying is that the US should not be involved in foreign wars of liberation. What he was probably thinking about were the numerous wars in South America at the time where Bolivar and others were struggling for independence from Spain at the time. That indeed would have been a mistake.
But I do not believe that Quincy would have hesitated at getting involved with WWI or WWII when we did. Nor do I know of any quote from him criticizing the US involvement in the Barbary Wars.
