George
E. Washington's Farewell Address
(September 17, 1796)
To the People of the United States.
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 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.
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.
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.
I rejoice, that the Issues 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 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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
apoIssues and unnatural connexion 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 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Towards the preservation of your government,
and the permanency of your present happy Issues, 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 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 Issues, 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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. 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 ?
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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 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 connexion
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, rivalship, 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 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.
Taking care always to keep ourselves,
by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive
posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances
for extraordinary emergencies.
4Harmony, 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 of 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 favorite
object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust,
of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
- George Washington
