Alliance

“ It will stand as a symbol of unity and alliance, unity within our Empire, unity within our Western civilisation, that true alliance and that lasting unity which are won and sealed by a common sacrifice. ”

“ President, the alliance that comes from unwritten, unsealed instruments, as that from the convention, signed and ratified with all formalities, is of vital consequence. We make no political alliances, but we make an alliance with all our sisters in sentiment and feeling, in the pursuit of liberty and justice, in mutual helpfulness; and in that spirit I beg to return to you and to your Government and the people of this splendid and wonderful country my sincere thanks for the welcome you have given me and my country in my person. ”

“ How naturally might a great intelligence like his have seen that the alliance of two such nations is the guarantee of civilization throughout the globe, and that all our smaller rivalries and national jealousies sink to insignificance when viewed in presence of the great perils to which disunion exposes us,—perils that, at the hour in which I write these lines, are neither vague nor visionary, and against which an honest and cordial alliance can alone prevail. ”

“ Let us go straight to our object, frankly, clearly, and like men of honour. Tell me, without any concealment, on what conditions you consent to form an alliance with me and give me your support, and the number of men I can count on when the right moment arrives. ”

“ Madame, is this your way of beginning an alliance?"
"Go to, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur. Can a statesman like yourself fail to see that the most essential thing for me is to put aside all suspicion of undue influence, and that to espouse your cause openly would be the surest method of ruining it? Moreover, I do not propose that any one shall ever be able to betray me or denounce me. ”

“ No matter how naturally the group comes together, by tradition or self-interest, it becomes instantly the nucleus for an alliance; and as the alliance begins to form, nations we omit or reject begin to crystallize around some other centre, and we have the balance of power again, the race for markets and the race for armaments. ”

“ All that has happened is the expression of mutual sympathy between two nations. What can be amiss in the triumphal and honourable reception of the representatives of a friendly nation by the representatives of another nation? What can be wrong in this, even if we admit that the alliance is significant of a protection from a dangerous neighbour who threatens Europe with war? ”

“ I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances which would draw them into competitions of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences intruded from without. There is no entangling alliance in a concert of power. ”

“ If I have moreover, from this supposed hostile land, guaranteed and secured to Realism itself its own proper domain, then I may lay claim not merely to a kind of alliance, but to an alliance of the completest kind. ”

“ ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. ”

“ Gentlemen, you may call the union which binds us an empire, you may call it a federation, you may call it an offensive and defensive alliance of the closest kind—you may call it what you will—the name is of subordinate consequence while mutual sympathy and sentiment retain that binding force which, as we have seen in this Jubilee week, you are all so generously prepared to acknowledge in your relations with the old country. ”

“ Extend the principles of that alliance, and the nations are no more. There are only kings. It divides society horizontally, and leaves the sovereigns above, and all the people below; it sets up the one above all rule, all restraint, and puts down the others to be trampled beneath our feet. ”

“ But that mature and enlightened statesmen, with the lessons of all history before their eyes, should have been equally ready to embrace such a rash alliance, or should count upon it as any more than a temporary instrument of faction, is, to say the least of it, one of those self-delusions of the wise, which show how vainly the voice of the Past may speak amid the loud appeals and temptations of the Present. ”

“ When you dwelt so long upon the power of your master, I also imagined that he had sent to us to propose a league of friendship and alliance, such as might become equals, and bind man more closely to his fellows. ”

“ A vast of talk there is of all the country round; every strange circumstance; every incident and change of condition, and new alliance amongst their mutual friends and acquaintances, pass under review. ”

“ Or would you not rather accept it, send ministers, and, in a friendly and respectful manner, endeavor to satisfy those who are looking to us for counsel and example, and imitating our free institutions, that there is no necessity for such an alliance; that the dangers which alone could, in the opinion of any one, have justified it, have vanished, and that it is not good for them or for us? ”

“ They hand him the keys to every medium, the very codes and secrets that make him so powerful. They pledge their alliance and allegiance and render to him the access they possess to the nerve centres of society. ”

“ For who, upon any other motive than immediate interest, would form an alliance with a power which, upon the first appearance of danger, gives up a confederate, to purchase, not a large extent of territory, not a new field of commerce, not a port or a citadel, but an abject neutrality! ”

“ And if I had perceived that your army was composed of men like unto those who invited them, I had not deemed your attempt so absurd; for nothing does so much cement the minds of men together as the alliance there is between their manners. ”

“ They ought never to forget, that ours is a party of volunteers who act on principle and conviction, and that nothing tends so much to break up such a party as that fickle policy which shifts from expedient to expedient, from alliance to alliance, from compromise to compromise. ”

“ We renounce your alliance for ever. Your arms are more powerful than ours; but we are more just than you, and we do not fear them. The Itons are from this day your enemies;—fly from this country, and beware how you approach it again. ”

“ We perceive its superiority in the grandeur of its alliances. Weapons may secure an alliance with the governments of the world, with its wealth and power, its learning and eloquence, its useful and decorative arts, the glory of its monarchs, the policy of its statesmen, the influence of its sages, and the splendid renown of its conquerors. But wisdom boasts of loftier alliances with "the saints that are in the earth, and the excellent in whom is all its delight;" "a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people;" ”

“ Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. ”

“ Apart from other considerations, it is obvious that an alliance with a bond of sentiment, namely, the sentiment of a particular national duty in common, would be more secure than an alliance held together by material interests only. ”

“ Do you conceive that the true interest and prosperity of America, is materially, or at all, dependent upon an alliance with any foreign nation? If you do, please state the causes, and a preference, if any exists, with the reasons for that preference.
3d. Are you in favor of an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Great Britain? In fine, are you disposed to advocate any other, or a closer connection with that nation, than exists at the ratification of the treaty of 1794? ”

“ But sundry of these well-behaved people will mistake your civility and complacence for a recognition of special affinity, and proceed at once to frame an alliance offensive and defensive while the sun and the moon shall endure. ”

“ Having already made an extract from, both declarations of war, I shall here give a translation of the eighth article in the grand alliance, which will put this matter out of dispute.
THE EIGHTH ARTICLE OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE.
WHEN the war is once undertaken, none of the parties shall have the liberty to enter upon a treaty of peace with the enemy, but jointly and in concert with the other. ”

“ Generosity not inconsistent with justice may yet lay the foundations of an enduring alliance where once there was only cold fealty and unsympathising command. A powerful State may arise whose greatest citizens shall be proud to receive such honours as the Monarch of England can bestow, whose people shall vie with us in the friendly contests of commerce, and stand side by side with us in battle. ”

“ And when they solicit the alliance, offensive or defensive, of a whole nation, they send an embassy with a large belt of wampum, and a bloody hatchet, inviting them to come and drink the blood of their enemies. ”

“ The one was eminently calculated to form the complement of the other, thus creating a natural alliance which is rapidly becoming a menace, all the world over, to the best and most enduring interests of humanity. ”

“ Now what are the issues for which we are fighting? In due time the terms of peace will be put forward by our Allies in concert with us—in accordance with the alliance that exists between us—and published to the world. ”

“ It depends upon you to avert such a disastrous catastrophe. And we hope, that you will be guided by such counsels, as are in accordance with the duties you owe to the Confederation, as are necessary to the peace and order of the whole country, and to your own cantons. Let us be one common brotherhood, united in one common bond of alliance. ”

“ Doubtless it is easy to make out a strong case against using 'alliance' to cover the existing position, or any future position in which there would remain the features at least of a common Crown and a common foreign policy, such as is implied by the idea of an all-round offensive and defensive combination. Yet 'alliance,' or any equally neutral term, has this great advantage, that it is not more misleading to one of the democracies than to another. ”

“ The association, or ‘Alliance,’ as it terms itself, which has been formed for this purpose, has acquired some notoriety through the publicity given to a correspondence between its secretary and one of the very few English public men who hold that a politician’s opinions ought to be founded on principles. ”

“ I have often brought about alliances, which there was no room to think could ever be made; and I have been so fortunate, that all the couples whose marriages I have procured, have been prolific, and furnished our nation with supports, defenders, and subjects, to eternize our race, and to protect us from the insults of our enemies. These old firs, these antient spruce-trees, full of knots from the top to the root, whose bark is falling off with age, and who yet preserve their gum and powers of life, do not amiss resemble me. ”

“ A renegade from either side makes an unholy alliance, and, with his first shout from the public pulpit, tightens the master knot which he is trying to untie to the glory of God and for the sake of peace and good will on earth. ”

“ Happily, the thought of an alliance has sunk deeply into the minds of many serious people, who realise that in a seemingly accidental, certainly unpremeditated, way, a great historical truth has been uncovered, which, in its full growth and maturity, may lead to the greatest epoch in the history of the English-speaking race. ”

“ We are now arrived at a point, in which it is necessary to look around with caution, and that consequences should be fully known. A number of persons are leagued together for an end of some moment. To make yourself one of these is submitted to your choice. Among the conditions of their alliance are mutual fidelity and secrecy. ”

“ The use of alliances, sir, has, in the last age, been too much experienced to be contested; it is by leagues well concerted, and strictly observed, that the weak are defended against the strong, that bounds are set to the turbulence of ambition, that the torrent of power is restrained, and empires preserved from those inundations of war, that, in former times, laid the world in ruins. By alliances, sir, the equipoise of power is maintained, and those alarms and apprehensions avoided, which must arise from daily vicissitudes of empire, and the fluctuations of perpetual contest. ”

“ There is, and always has been, a real alliance between the two extreme parties in this country. They play into each other's hands. They live by each other. Neither would have any influence if the other were taken away. ”

“ The word is used, especially in a political sense, of an alliance or temporary union for joint action of various powers or states, such as the coalition of the European powers against France, during the wars of the French Revolution ”

“ Offensive alliances, of course, are usually directed against some particular enemy; defensive alliances against anyone from [116] whom an attack may come. Among the more famous alliances in history are: The Triple Alliance of 1688 between Great Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands; The Grand Alliance of 1689 between the Emperor, Holland, England, Spain, and Saxony; The Quadruple Alliance of 1814 between Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia; The Triple Alliance of 1882 between Germany, Austria, and Italy; and The Dual Alliance between Russia and France. ”

“ ALLIANCE, in international law, aleague between independent states, defined by treaty, for the purpose of combined action, defensive or offensive, or both. Alliances have usually been directed to specific objects carefully defined in the treaties. ”

“ The alliance which satisfies parents and guardians, which sends a man and a woman walking side by side along a worthy road in the world, giving each to each what the other lacks, a good, useful comradeship which keeps at arm's length the world's cares, surely this makes a true marriage, and into it, believe me, love will come. ”