Plus, Jefferson was in the delicate position of being a diplomat in royalist Europe which was scared to death of the American, and later, French revolutions.

>>Walter and many Americans often site our popularity or standing in European opinion poles as the mark of our success or failure, as if that were the goal of American policy. Granted it is an indicator of success in certain areas, but I would shudder to think policy makers considered it the determining factor in setting national security policy.
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>>Maybe not the sole determining factor... but somebody called Jefferson once thought that "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" mattered quite a lot. ;-)
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>So true. But he was referring to the necessity of explaining our action in seeking independance, rather than the effort itself depending on those opinions <s>