entangling alliances with none

Cultural  

1. A phrase President Thomas Jefferson used in his first inaugural address in 1801, calling for a cautious, isolationist foreign policy. (See isolationism.)

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George Washington had given similar isolationist advice four years earlier in his Farewell Address: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

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entangling alliances with none

Jefferson said: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."

From A History of the Republican Party by George Washington Platt

Friendly relations with all, but entangling alliances with none, is declared to be our policy.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852. by Various

In his first inaugural address he summed up the principles by which he proposed to regulate his foreign policy in the following terms: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none."

From From Isolation to Leadership, Revised A Review of American Foreign Policy by John Holladay Latane

Peace and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

From The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference by Joseph Triemens

He proclaimed America's well-known policy toward the European States: "Friendship with all, entangling alliances with none."

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14 by Various