This was the burden of Washington's "Farewell Address," and it was a message which Jefferson reiterated in his inaugural.

These are the permanent principles which have controlled enlightened American statesmen in their attitude toward the world, from the days of John Winthrop to those of Woodrow Wilson.
It was early found, however, that the affairs of the immediate neighbors of the United States continually and from day to day affected the whole texture of American life and that actually they limited American independence and therefore could not be left out of the policy of the Government.

The United States soon began to recognize that there was a region in the affairs of which it must take a more active interest.

As early as 1780 Thomas Pownall, an English colonial official, predicted that the United States must take an active part in Cuban affairs.

In 1806 Madison, then Secretary of State, had instructed Monroe, Minister to Great Britain, that the Government began to broach the idea that the whole Gulf Stream was within its maritime jurisdiction.