ing, like the
Federalists, to consider the relations of England and the United States
on their merits,--to remember that the commerce between them was greater
than that which the United States had with any other country, the loss
of which might be a disastrous check to her prosperity; that the peoples
of the two countries were, after all, of one blood, and that theirs was
a common heritage in the institutions, laws, language, and character
that distinguished the race; that the quarrel between them was--though
it might be the more bitter on that account--a family quarrel, and ought
for that reason to be the more speedily settled. But, if England would
not remember these things,--as she never has to this day,--if, on the
contrary, she chose to be overbearing, contemptuous, insolent, quite
regardless of American rights,--as she always has been when she could be
so safely,--then it behooved the United States, inasmuch as she was a
young and as yet a feeble nation, to conciliate this powerful enemy
whenever she could do so consistently with her self-respect, to avoid
giving unnecessary offense or provoking fresh injuries, and, in the mean
while, to nurture and husband her strength, to keep an accurate account
of all the wrongs that in her weakness she should be compelled to submit
to, and to bide her time. These were the principles of the Federalists.
Their aim was, not the good of England, but the good of the United
States. They were an American party; to them foreign relations were of
importance mainly for the influence these might have upon the
prosperity, happiness, and power of their own country. They did not
forget the gratitude due to France for the aid she had given to the
struggling colonies, though that aid was given not so much for love of
America as for hatred of England. The pacific and friendly relations
already established with France they held in due estimation; and their
sympathies went out to her people in full measure in their struggle for
a popular government, so long as that struggle was kept within the
bounds of reason and humanity. But sympathy with and gratitude to France
did not blind them to the wisdom and expediency of pacific and friendly
relations with England, provided such could be established without the
sacrifice of their own prosperity, independence, and national pride. It
was only to add to that prosperity, to gain new security for that
independence, and to build up a nation of which they and