As long as that Europe shall have any
possessions either in the southern or the northern parts of that
America, even separated as it is by the ocean, it must be considered as
a part of the European system. It is not America, menaced with internal
ruin from the attempts to plant Jacobinism instead of liberty in that
country,--it is not America, whose independence is directly attacked by
the French, the enemies of the independence of all nations, that calls
upon us to give security by disarming ourselves in a treacherous peace.
By such a peace, we shall deliver the Americans, their liberty, and
their order, without resource, to the mercy of their imperious allies,
who will have peace or neutrality with no state which is not ready to
join her in war against England.
Having run round the whole circle of the European system, wherever it
acts, I must affirm that all the foreign powers who are not leagued with
France for the utter destruction of all balance through Europe and
throughout the world demand other assurances from this kingdom than are
given in that Declaration. They require assurances, not of the sincerity
of our good dispositions towards the usurpation in France, but of our
affection towards the college of the ancient states of Europe, and
pledges of our constancy, our fidelity, and of our fortitude in
resisting to the last the power that menaces them all. The apprehension
from which they wish to be delivered cannot be from anything they dread
in the ambition of England.
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