In May, 1796, Washington sent to Hamilton a rough draft of his
farewell address, asking him for his criticism. After much revision from both,
the document was published on September 19th. and was read to the House of
Representatives. The advice contained in it has ever since exercised a
profound influence on the policy of the nation, The following exerpt was taken
from his address as printed in the Harvard Classics, volume 43, of American
Historical Documents, published in 1910.
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS (1796)
Friends and Fellow Citizens:
The period for a new election of a Citizen, to administer the Executive
Government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time actually
arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person, who is
to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially
as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice that I
should now apprize you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being
considered among the 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
past kindness; but am supported by a fell 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, have even led to the
preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection of the
then perplexed 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 retain 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 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 admonished 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 to 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
acknowledgement 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 infrequently want of success
has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was
the essential prop of 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, that, 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 warning of a parting friend, who can possible
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 tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of
your safety; of your prosperity in every shape; 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 of a 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 concentration your
affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national
capacity, must always exalt the just price of Patriotism, more than
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 as a 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
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 in the united mass of means and
efforts cannot fail to find a greater strength, greater resource,
proportionally 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 rival-ships 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 to 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. 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 many
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 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. They 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
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 councils, and modified by
mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above
descriptions may now and then answer to popular ends, they are likely, in the
course of time and things, 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 resists with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles,
however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the
forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the
system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the
changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least
as necessary to fix the true character of Governments, as of other human
institutions---that experience is the surest standard, by which to test the
real tendency of the existing Constitution of a Country---that facility in
changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual
change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion: and remember,
especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a
country so extensive as ours, a Government of as much vigor as is consistent
with the perfect security of Liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will
find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its
surest Guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the Government
is too feeble to withstand the enterprise 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 form 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 the 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 will 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 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 entrusted 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 invasion by the others, has been
evidenced by experiments ancient and modern; some 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, thee 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.
‘Tis 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 should 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 the
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 snot 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 contest.
The Nation prompted by ill-wind 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 give
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, 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 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
favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and
dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their
interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations, is, in
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little Political
connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them
be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote
relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of
which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be
unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties in the ordinary
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of
her friendships, or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a
different course. If we remain one People, under an efficient government, the
period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external
annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we
may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected. When belligerent
nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation when we may choose peace or war, as
our interest, guided by our justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to
stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any
part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European
ambition, rival ship, interest, humor, or caprice?
‘This 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 or 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 alliance 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, by forcing nothing;
established 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 ‘tis 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. ‘Tis an illusion, which experience must
cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
In offering 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
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 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 22nd
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 had 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 in it the
native soul 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.
END