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GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE
OF THE
UNITED STATES This address was written primarily to eliminate himself as a candidate
for a third term. It was never read by the President in public, but it was
printed in Claypoole's AMERICAN DAILY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia,
September 19, 1796. The address is in two parts: In the first, Washington
declines a third term, gives his reasons, and acknowledges a debt
of gratitude for the honors conferred upon him and for the confident
support of the people. In the second more important part, he presents,
as a result of his experience and as a last legacy of advice, thoughts
upon the government.
George Washington gave Claypoole a manuscript which he called "his copy"
and it was from this manuscript that the type was set in the newspaper.
After Claypoole's death, the manuscript was ordered to be sold at auction
on February 12, 1850. Senator Henry Clay on January 24 offered a joint
resolution for its purchase by the government, but the resolution was not
signed by President Taylor until the day of the sale. The manuscript was
sold to James Lenox for $2,300, and passed, with his library, to the New
York Public Library. There is no evidence of any bid on behalf of the
national government.
The following is an exact word for word text of the original. Nothing has
been changed or omitted except old English spelling and punctuation.
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Friends, And Fellow Citizens
................
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 of
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
practice 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
connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let
them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very
remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the
causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore,
it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and
collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a
different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government,
the period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external
annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality
we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when
belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon
us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose
peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to
stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of
any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
`Tis 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 `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 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 endeavor 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 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, 17th September 1796