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AND NOW, FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, if the wise and learned
philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and
aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets,
the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, 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 conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the
last vital drop that visits the heart.
She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests
of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate
power, and emerging right.
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."
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.
"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....
[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the
march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon
her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her
Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with
the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
When John Quincy
Adams served as U.S. Secretary of State, he delivered this speech to
the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821, in celebration of
American Independence Day. |
