"(America) goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication.... She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit." -John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1821
