A Lesson from the War of 1812

"We have considered ourselves of too much importance in the scale of nations. It has led us into great errors. Instead of yielding to circumstances which human power cannot control, we have imagined that our own destiny and that of other nations was in our hands, to be regulated as we thought proper." 

Virgina Federalist Daniel Sheffey on the eve of the war of 1812 from The War of 1812 A Forgotten Conflict by Donald Hickey p300.