[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2907-S2911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                READING OF WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the order of the Senate of January 
24, 1901, as modified on February 16, 1995, the Senator from Wyoming 
[Mr. Thomas] is recognized to read Washington's Farewell Address.
  Mr. THOMAS, at the rostrum, read the Farewell Address, as follows:

To the people of the United States.
  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 apprise 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 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 to terminate the career of 
my political life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep 
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I 
[[Page S2908]] 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--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 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 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 movement, 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 same 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 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 rivalship 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 endeavor to 
weaken its hands.
  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 
[[Page S2909]] 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 yourself 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 the 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 everything 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 they 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, until 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 deliberations 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 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 councils, 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 enable to subvert the power of the people, 
and to usurp for themselves the reigns 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 opposition to its acknowledged authority, but 
also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its 
principles, however specious the pretext. 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 
enterprises of fraction, 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 references to the founding them on geographical 
discrimination. 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 purpose 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 in 
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; forments occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door 
to foreign influence and corruption, which finds 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 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 
[[Page S2910]] demands a uniform vigilance to prevent it 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 
predominate 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 of 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 through 
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 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 burden which we ourselves ought to bear. 
The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it 
is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. 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 object (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 debate.
  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 but, 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 attachment 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's 
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 inducements or 
justifications. It leads also to concessions, to the favorite nation, 
or 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 jealously, 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 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 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 jealously, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the 
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense 
against it. 
[[Page S2911]] Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and 
excessive dislike for 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?
  It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance 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 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, and a 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 is 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, 
uninfuenced 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 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.
  United States,
      17th September, 1796.
  

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