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So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a
variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the
illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common
interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays
the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter
without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions
to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to
injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what
ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a
disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are
withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who
devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice
the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with
popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation,
a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public
good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or
infatuation.
-- George Washington
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