Thomas Jefferson Quotes

This is one of the favorite quotations of American isolationists. Try as he and others did, they found the principle easier to utter than implement. Jefferson, having diplomatic experience in Europe knew far more than most Americans about foreign affairs, and he used this knowledge well on many occasions in playing off the French, Spanish and English against each other regarding their interests in America. By purchasing the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, he not only greatly increased the size of the nation but all but eliminated Spanish aspirations in North America. At the same time the money he gave Napoleon increased the French threat to England, Spain and other European countries. So Jefferson and America was in European “broils” as the advantage and necessity outweighed the general principle and dislike for those machinations.

Adams was in agreement with his former chief George Washington {37176} as well as with many of his political foes.

Shortly thereafter the United States joined the allies and the First World War.

The U. S. will win:

This is a variant of a famous Clauswitz quotation {635143}.

Inscribed in the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress. On this subject Jefferson was in agreement with George Washington {37176} and his political opponent, John Adams {592705}.

The Spanish had been beaten and bloodied by England, but no one else until Napoleon would come along later. So it was easy for Spain to bully and dominate the non-English countries.

There was some fear in the North that the shots fired by the Southern rebels, might encourage one or more of the European Powers to start a war with the United States. And if the Rebellion turned into a full scale Civil War, the South would surely encourage such acts be promising trade concessions in the export of Southern cotton. Seward’s confident and bellicose statement distressed some Union colleagues who feared that Seward might anger and provoke one of more of the machismo and nationalistic European Powers. However, if Seward was bluffing, the bluff worked. No country encroached on American interests during the Civil War. If he was not bluffing, he certainly, along with many others, understated the difficulty that the North would have putting down the Southern rebellion.

The plan was to have an American agent with a few marines make an alliance with a rival to the throne of Algiers and depose the existing ruler with American “special forces”.

Dreadnoughts were huge battleships. Britain had the dominant navy of the world and controlled the seas. A European war would be a land war where a navy would be of little use. Hence, Britain would not want to get involved in such a war where she could not use her greatest military strength. He was wrong about this and so much else. Britain entered WWI when Germany invaded Belgium fulfilling her treaty obligations. The Germans intelligence operators and analysts were well aware of the treaty obligations, but had little understanding of English culture and tradition. The German aggression against a small power like Belgium was morally offensive to many in Great Britain, and Britain had a tradition of fighting for moral principles. The Germans would never militarily disadvantage themselves for the sake of a treaty obligation to a small nation, and they did not believe that the British would be so different and fulfill their treaty obligations even though their strongest military asset—their navy would not be very helpful.