My hope of preserving peace for our country is not founded in the greater principles of non-resistance under every wrong, but in the belief that a just and friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and friendship from others. In the existing contest, each of the combatants will find an interest in our friendship. I cannot say we shall be unconcerned spectators of this combat. We feel for human sufferings, and we wish the good of all. We shall look on, therefore, with the sensations which these dispositions and the events of the war will produce.
To the Earl of Buchan, July 10, 1803
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Realistic leaders value neutrality and pick their battles wisely.
Jefferson strongly resisted America’s involvement in the disputes between other nations. He expressed that sentiment in this letter about the conflict Napoleon was wreaking on Europe. He wrote again that he would “bless the Almighty Being” who put an ocean between the two continents, a natural barrier sparing the United States from Europe’s wars.
Americans would not be “unconcerned spectators.” We would grieve their suffering and look forward to its end.
Jefferson was not a pacifist, but unless conflict directly threatened the United States, we would remain concerned by-standers only. Perhaps our example of “justice and friendship” toward all combatants would bring the same response toward us.
Thomas Jefferson had both wisdom and wit for your 21st century audience.
Invite him to speak. Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Couldn’t agree more in the sentiment, although the world today would be as strange as walking on the moon for Jefferson. The political momentum in this world continues to develop a “world community”. An ocean will not serve as a buffer from events in any other part of our shared earth. Today a “world community” is too simply defined by leaders as a “world economy”. The world economy does not recognize local community or local economy. Local communities can be destitute while their local leaders can participate very profitably in the world economy. China sells labor. Oil has been a big seller in parts of the world where international companies plunder the resource while local communities still seem to live in a time warp. Today’s profit and plunder is the opposite of local community and local economies which were more common to Jefferson’s era. Separation between those who have lots from those who have not predicts that isolated Napoleon-type personalities would be easier to defend/cope with than a situation where two or three hundred families control the world economies and the separation between those who have from those who have not grows more stark. If an ocean is no longer a barrier, how tall will the wall necessarily be?