Washington's Farewell Address: Unity, Liberty, and the Preservation of the United States, Lecture notes of Printing

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WASHINGTON’S

FAREWELL ADDRESS

TO THE PEOPLE

OF THE UNITED STATES

105 TH CONGRESS 2ND SESSION

SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 105–22, WASHINGTON, 1998

WASHINGTON’S

FAREWELL ADDRESS

TO THE PEOPLE

OF THE UNITED STATES

105 TH CONGRESS 2ND SESSION

SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 105–22, WASHINGTON, 1998

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing OfficeWashington, D.C. 20402

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS To the people of the United States § Friends and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the execu- tive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the per- son who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may con- duce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolu- tion I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 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 ap- pertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citi-

zen 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 grate- ful respect for your past kindness, but am sup- ported by a full conviction that the step is compat- ible with both. 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 ap- peared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consis- tently with motives which I was not at liberty to dis- regard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my in- clination 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 per- sons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external

In looking forward to the moment which is in- tended 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 honors 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 mani- festing 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 an- nals that, under circumstances in which the pas- sions agitated in every direction were liable to mis- lead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situa- tions 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 ef- fected. 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 adminis- tration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of lib- erty, may be made complete by so careful a preser- vation 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. 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 so- licitude, urge me on an occasion like the present to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recom- mend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no in- considerable 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 dis- interested warnings of a parting friend, who can

ual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palla- dium of your political safety and prosperity; watch- ing for its preservation with jealous anxiety; dis- countenancing 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. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a com- mon country, that country has a right to concen- trate 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 discrimi- nations. 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 councils and joint efforts—of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more im- mediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole. 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 com- mercial enterprise and precious materials of manu- facturing industry. The South in the same inter- course, benefitting 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 invigo- rated; and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the na- tional 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 improve- ment of interior communications by land and water

themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same govern- ment, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimu- late and embitter. Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establish- ments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be re- garded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be con- sidered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preser- vation of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive lan- guage to every reflecting and virtuous mind and ex- hibit the continuance of the Union as a primary ob- ject 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 au- thorized 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 ex- periment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union affecting all parts of our country, while ex- perience shall not have demonstrated its impracti- cability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may en- deavor to weaken its bands. 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 discrimina- tions—northern and southern—Atlantic and western ; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local inter- ests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other dis- tricts. 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 inhabi- tants of our western country have lately had a use- ful lesson on this head. They have seen in the

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 gov- ernment, the offspring of our own choice uninflu- enced and unawed, adopted upon full investiga- tion 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 sup- port. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties en- joined 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, until changed by an explicit and au- thentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obliga- tory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government pre- supposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plau- sible character with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and ac- tion 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 administra- tion the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consis- tent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above descrip- tion may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to be- come 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.

ment, with powers properly distributed and ad- justed, 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 pre- scribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the se- cure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. 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. 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. The alternate domination of one faction over an- other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and coun-

tries 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 in- cline 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 eleva- tion on the ruins of public liberty. 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 in- terest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 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 insurrec- tion. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party