George Washington's
Farewell Address, 1796
Friends and Fellow Citizens: 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 in 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 apprise
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.
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. 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 toward 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
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 as his
counsel
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. 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 tranquility 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 immoveable attachment to it; accustoming
yourselves to think and speak of it as 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. 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 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 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. The
North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by
the equal laws of a common Government, finds in the production 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 envigorated; 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
connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
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 neighboring countries, not tied together
by the same government; which their own rival ships alone would be
sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances,
attachments and intrigues would stimulate and imbitter. 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 you to the preservation of the other
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. 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 endeavor to weaken its bands. In contemplating the
causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as a 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 endeavor 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.
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 your 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
Toward 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 your common
interests in a country so extensive as ours a government of as much
vigor 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. 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
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 passion. Thus the policy and the will
of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks
upon the administration of government, and serve to keep alive the
spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and
in governments of a monarchial cast patriotism may look with
indulgence, if not with favor, 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. 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
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. 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 labor 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 connections 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. 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? 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. 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 exertions in time of peace to discharge
the debts which unavoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously
throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to
bear
Observe good faith and justice toward 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 advantage 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? 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 toward all should be cultivated. The nation which
indulges toward 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. So, likewise, a
passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety
of evils. Sympathy for the favorite 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 favorite nation of privileges
denied to others, which is 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 favorite 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
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 defense 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 favorite
are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes
usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their
interests. 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 connection as possible. So far as we have
already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good
faith. Here let us stop. 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. 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. 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, rival ship, interest,
humor, or caprice? 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, therefore, let those
engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it
is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care
always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for
extraordinary emergencies. 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 favors 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 favors
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 favors, and yet being reproached with
ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than
to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is
an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to
discard
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. Relying
on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that
fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it
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-favorite object of
my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares,
labors and dangers.
Geo. Washington.
Note: George Washington never delivered this as a speech, he sent this as a
letter to all the newspapers about 5 months before the end of his second term
as President. He wanted to pass on to America, her voters and politicians,
his vision for her.
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