5. What is Washington saying in the following excerpt? “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it, for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements.”

Washington was saying the United States should not enter into long-standing foreign alliances.

Explanation:

This quote is from Washington's farewell address to the nation at the end of his presidency. The federal government had taken up this position against created foreign alliances especially with the European powers because it might serve as a means where former colonial powers like England and France in the Americas might try to exert influence again. This led to the position in foreign policy known as American isolationism, where the United States largely avoided foreign alliances until we started to exert influence in Cuba against the Spanish and imposing our interests in Panama with the construction of the Panama canal.