perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the
victim.

25. So likewise 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 the enmities of the other, betrays the former
into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter,
without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to
the 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 base or foolish compliances of ambition,
corruption, or infatuation.

26. As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such
attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened
and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford
to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of
seduction, to mislead public opinions, to influence or awe
public councils! Such an attachment of small or weak towards a
great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellites
of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence
(I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens), the jealousy of
a free people ought to be _constantly_ awake, since history and
experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most
baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be
useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the
very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it.
Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive
dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate, to see danger
only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of