Political world (Source: CIA)
I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your Union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its Administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and Virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
From: Farewell Address
The following opinion is from Jorge Castañeda, who served as Mexican Foreign Secretary during President George W. Bush‘s first term, about the value of closer ties between the United States and Mexico:
The time has come for both countries to start detailing — or at least imagining — how their relations can be transformed: a North American Economic Union, or Common Market, with full mobility of capital, labor, goods, and services; with infrastructure and social cohesion funds along European, Marshall Plan, and Iraq lines, and a common antitrust approach; a unified security commitment, against both organized crime and potential terrorist threats; a single currency and permanent supranational institutions, at first devoted strictly to trade issues, but later to broader economic an social matters, including labor rights, the environment, and human rights in the broadest definition of the term; and finally, far away in the future, a venture into certain political areas and the crucial realm of the rule of law.
President Washington believed American leadership — government dedicated to the safety and happiness of society — could result in a better world. Describing a vision of others joining the cause of liberty, he said, “We shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them.” — Join me
References
Jorge Castañeda, Mañana Forever: Mexico and the Mexicans (New York: Knopf, 2011).
John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, 39 vols. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931-1944).
Ronald Grey 