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• 

  Swissarge

  August 7, 2024, 9:57 am

  As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable
  ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to
  the truly enlightened and independent patriot.
  How many opportunities do they afford to tamper
  with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe
  the public councils! Such an attachment of a small
  or weak towards a great and powerful nation
  dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
  Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence
  (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the
  jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly
  awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful
  must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument
  of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it.

  George Washington , Farewell Address, 1796

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