Washington's Farewell Address
The NEW Bill of Rights
Washington's Farewell address
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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