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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 judgement 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.
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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.
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Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no
recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
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 appelation 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, benefitting
by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand.
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its
particular navigation 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 rivalships 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 crdit 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.
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It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.
It agitates the community with illfounded 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.
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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.
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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 enobles 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 quarrles 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.
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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 beligerent 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, 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.
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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.
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