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The Farewell Address of President George Washington
Sept. 17, 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 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 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 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 apostate 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 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 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.
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.
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 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
United States, September 17th, 1796
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