"I deem the essential principles of our government [to be] Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none, the support of the State Governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies, the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad." President Jefferson. First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801. THE EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN SYSTEM TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE DECLARED INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, BY PRESIDENT MONROE. "The political system of the Allied Powers is essentially different ... from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments, and to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those Powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.... "It is impossible that the Allied Powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness." President Monroe Annual Message of December 2, 1823 THE AMERICAN SYSTEM DECLARED TO HAVE EXTENDED ITSELF TO THE WHOLE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, BY PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS "Among the inquiries which were thought entitled to consideration before the determination was taken to accept the invitation [to the proposed Congress of the American Republics at Panama], was that whether the measure might not have a tendency to change the policy, hitherto invariably pursued by the United States, of avoiding all entangling alliances and all unnecessary political connections.