What did George Washington say about foreign alliances?

The matter of foreign alliances was one I addressed with the greatest deliberation, for I knew the young republic was peculiarly vulnerable to entanglement in the quarrels of older powers. The clearest statement I ever made on the subject appears in my Farewell Address of 1796. There I declared that “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world”. I did not mean by this that we should be hermits among nations — commerce and civil intercourse I heartily recommended. But political ties of a permanent character seemed to me a snare. I was equally concerned about the dangers of excessive fondness for a particular nation, as much as excessive hatred. As I warned in that same address, “The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave”. Passion — whether of affection or animosity — leads a people astray from their true interest. Yet I was no absolutist on this point. Existing engagements were to be honored in good faith; I was explicit about that. And for moments of genuine crisis, I acknowledged that temporary alliances might serve their purpose. The republic simply could not afford to mortgage its independence permanently to any foreign power's ambitions or whims.