In 1792, George Washington was prepared
to retire as the first President of the United States. To that end, Washington,
with James Madison, wrote a farewell address to the public of the United States
of America. Faced with the unanimous objections of his Cabinet, however,
Washington agreed to stand for another term. Finally, in 1796, Washington
refused a third term. Dusting off his previous address, Washington and
Alexander Hamilton rewrote the address.
Technically speaking, it was
not an address, or a speech, but an open letter to the public published in
almost all American newspapers. Washington's fellow Americans gave it its title
as the first President's valedictory to public service for the new Republic.
Originally published in
David Claypoole's American Daily
Advertiser on 19th September 1796
under the title "The Address of General Washington To The People of The
United States on his declining of the Presidency of the United States,"
the letter was almost immediately reprinted in newspapers across the country
and later in a pamphlet form. The work was
later named a "Farewell Address," as it was Washington's valedictory
after 45 years of service to the new nation. It is a classic statement of republicanism,
warning Americans of the political dangers they can and must avoid if they are
to remain true to their values.
It is long and 220 year old,
but it is worth the time. There are many matters with which one can take issue,
but on the whole it is an appeal to the American people not to forget what
liberty is really about. He does it with grace and humility.
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“Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the
attachment.”
Would that were so. Today’s
citizens would do well to review and
think about his recommendations.
George Washington's Farewell
Address
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:
1 The period for a new
election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United
States, being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your
thoughts must be employed designating the person, who is to be clothed with
that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to
a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprize you
of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number
of those out of whom a choice is to be made.
2 I beg you at the same time
to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken
without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation
which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the
tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced
by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful
respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the
step is compatible with both.
3 The acceptance of, and
continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called
me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to
a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped, that it
would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives, which I
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement, from which I had
been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to
the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to
you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our
affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to
my confidence impelled me to abandon the idea.
4 I rejoice, that the state
of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit
of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty, or propriety; and am
persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the
present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination
to retire.
5 The impressions, with
which I first undertook the arduous trust, were explained on the proper
occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have, with
good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the
government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.
Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications,
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has
strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing
weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as
necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied, that, if any circumstances
have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the
consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the
political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
6 In looking forward to the
moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my
feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of
gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country for the many honours it has
conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported
me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my
inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in
usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from
these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an
instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the
passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst
appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in
situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the
spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of
the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, 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; than, 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.
7 Here, perhaps I ought to
stop. But a solicitude for your welfare which cannot end but with my life, and
the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion
like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to
your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection,
of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the
permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the
more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a
parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.
Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
8 Interwoven as is the love
of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is
necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
9 The unity of Government,
which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for
it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of
your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your
prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy
to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains
will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction
of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which
the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and
actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite
moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national
Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a
cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to
think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and
prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety;
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event
be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt
to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred
ties which now link together the various parts.
10 For this you have every
inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common
country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of
American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt
the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local
discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion,
manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought
and triumphed together; the Independence and Liberty you possess are the work
of joint counsels, and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and
successes.
11 But these considerations,
however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly
outweighed by those, which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every
portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding
and preserving the Union of the whole.
12 The North, in an
unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a
common government, finds, in the productions of the latter, great additional
resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of
manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the
agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning
partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular
navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to
nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks
forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally
adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in
the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will
more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from
abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies
requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater
consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable
outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future
maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an
indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the
West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion with any foreign power,
must be intrinsically precarious.
13 While, then, every part
of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in Union, all
the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts
greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from
external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations;
and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from Union an exemption
from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict
neighbouring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their
own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign
alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence,
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military
establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to
liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican
Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main
prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation
of the other.
14 These considerations
speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit
the continuance of the union as a primary object of Patriotic desire. Is there
a doubt, whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let
experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were
criminal. We are authorized to hope, that a proper organization of the whole,
with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will
afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full
experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, affecting all
parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its
impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of
those, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands.
15 In contemplating the
causes, which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern,
that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by
Geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western;
whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief, that there is a real
difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to
acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions
and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the
jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations; they
tend to render alien to each other those, who ought to be bound together by
fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a
useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the
Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with
Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United
States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among
them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States
unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been
witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that
with Spain, which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to
our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be
their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by
which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers,
if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them
with aliens?
16 To the efficacy and
permanency of your Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No
alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute;
they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions, which all
alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you
have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of
Government better calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for
the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, the
offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full
investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in
the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing
within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your
confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its
laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental
maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the
people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the
Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and
authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very
idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government
presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.
17 All obstructions to the
execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever
plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or
awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are
destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to
organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in
the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a
small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to
the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration
the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather
than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels,
and modified by mutual interests.
18 However combinations or
associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends,
they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by
which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the
power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government;
destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust
dominion.
19 Towards the preservation
of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is
requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to
its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of
innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of
assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations, which
will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be
directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember
that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of
governments, as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest
standard, by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a
country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis
and opinion; and remember, especially, that, for the efficient management of
our common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as
much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is
indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers
properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little
else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the
enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits
prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil
enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
20 I have already intimated
to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the
founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more
comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful
effects of the spirit of party, generally.
21 This spirit,
unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest
passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all
governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of
the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst
enemy.
22 The alternate domination
of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to
party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most
horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to
a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the
absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some
prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns
this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public
Liberty.
23 Without looking forward
to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out
of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are
sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and
restrain it.
24 It serves always to distract
the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the
Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity
of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It
opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated
access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus
the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of
another.
25 There is an opinion, that
parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the
Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain
limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism
may look with indulgence, if not with favour, upon the spirit of party. But in
those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit
not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will
always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being
constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion,
to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform
vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it
should consume.
26 It is important,
likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution,
in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their
respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of
one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to
consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create,
whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love
of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is
sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of
reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and
distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the Guardian
of the Public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by
experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own
eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the
opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional
powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the
way, which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by
usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good,
it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The
precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or
transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
27 Of all the dispositions
and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are
indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism,
who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these
firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally
with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not
trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be
asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of
investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the
supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be
conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure,
reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
28 It is substantially true,
that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule,
indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.
Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts
to shake the foundation of the fabric ?
29 Promote, then, as an
object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of
knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
30 As a very important
source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of
preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of
expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to
prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it;
avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of
expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts,
which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon
posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these
maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion
should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is
essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of
debts there must be Revenue; that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no
taxes can be devised, which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant;
that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper
objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive
motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it,
and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which
the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
31 Observe good faith and
justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and
Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally
enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period,
a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a
people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt,
that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly
repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to
it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation
with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its
vices ?
32 In the execution of such
a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies
against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be
excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all
should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to
its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it
astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another
disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight
causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or
trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate,
envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment,
sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of
policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and
adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the
animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by
pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often,
sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.
33 So likewise, a passionate
attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for
the favourite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common
interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one
the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the
quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification.
It leads also to concessions to the favourite Nation of privileges denied to
others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily
parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy,
ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal
privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded
citizens, (who devote themselves to the favourite nation,) facility to betray
or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even
with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of
obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for
public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or
infatuation.
34 As avenues to foreign
influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to
the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they
afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to
mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an
attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the
former to be the satellite of the latter.
35 Against the insidious
wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the
jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and
experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else
it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a
defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive
dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one
side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other.
Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to
become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and
confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
36 The great rule of conduct
for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial
relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far
as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good
faith. Here let us stop.
37 Europe has a set of
primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially
foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or
the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
38 Our detached and distant
situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one
people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may
defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude
as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of
making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation;
when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall
counsel.
39 Why forego the advantages
of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why,
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace
and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour,
or caprice?
40 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. I hold the maxim no
less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the
best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their
genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to
extend them.
41 Taking care always to
keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture,
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
42 Harmony, liberal
intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and
interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial
hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting
the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so
disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our
merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of
intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will
permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied,
as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that
it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favours from another; that
it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under
that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition
of having given equivalents for nominal favours, and yet of being reproached
with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to
expect or calculate upon real favours from nation to nation. It is an illusion,
which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
[43-50 omitted from some
newspaper printings.]
43 In offering to you, my
countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope
they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will
control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running
the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may
even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some
occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party
spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the
impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the
solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
44 How far in the discharge
of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been
delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness
to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that
I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
45 In relation to the still
subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April 1793, is the
index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your
Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me
from it.
46 After deliberate
examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well
satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a
right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position.
Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it,
with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
47 The considerations, which
respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to
detail. I will only observe, that, according to my understanding of the matter,
that right, so far from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, has been
virtually admitted by all.
48 The duty of holding a
neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which
justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to
act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other
nations.
49 The inducements of
interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections
and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain
time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to
progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency, which
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
50 Though, in reviewing the
incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am
nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may
have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the
Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also
carry with me the hope, that my Country will never cease to view them with
indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its
service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be
consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
51 Relying on its kindness
in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which
is so natural to a man, who views it in the native soil of himself and his
progenitors for several generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation
that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment
of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good
laws under a free government, the ever favourite object of my heart, and the
happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours, and dangers.
George Washington
United States - September
17, 1796
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