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WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

An exact transfer to print of the autograph copy. The interlineations, erasures, alterations, and substitutions of words or sentences are indicated by numbered foot-notes.

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,1 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 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 2 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 of 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 3 am persuaded whatever partiality may be retained for my services, 5 that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determination to retire."

7

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, 10 perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has 11 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.12

In looking forward to the moment, which is 13 intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment 14 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 stedfast 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 15 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, 16 under circumstances in which the Passions,

1 erased "for another term."

3 sub. am persuaded " for "that."

2 substitute "am supported by " for "act under."

4 sub. "may be retained" for “ any portion of you may yet retain."

5 sub. "that" for "even they.'

7 sub. "with" for "under."

9 sub. "towards" for " to."

11 sub. "strengthened for "not lessened."

6 interlined "you."

8 sub. "undertook" for "accepted." 10 int." perhaps."

12 era. "May I also have that of knowing in my retreat, that the involuntary errors I have probably committed, have been the sources of no serious or lasting mischief to our country. I may then expect 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, I trust, of our mutual cares, dangers and labours."

(In the margin, opposite the above paragraph, the following note in Washington's handwriting, also erased, “obliterated to avoid the imputation of affected modesty.") 13 int. 14 sub. of" for "demanded by." unequal in usefulness."

intended."

15 sub. in usefulness unequal" for “

agitated in every direction, were liable to 1 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 2 the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts and 3 à guarantee of the plans by which they were effected, — Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to the 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.

6

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 counsels. 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; 10 the support of your tranquillity at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; 11 of your prosperity; 12 of that very Liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from 13 different causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employ 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 15 a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment 16 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 eyen 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 17 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 18 derived from local discriminations. — With slight shades of difference, you have the same Religion, Manners, Habits, and political Principles. -You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together. The Independence and Liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts of cominon 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.

6 sub. "urge me on an occasion like the present, to offer" for "encouraged by the remembrance of your indulgent reception of my sentiments on an occasion not dissimilar to the present, urge me to offer."

7 era. "and experience."

8 int. "possibly."

int. "Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.'

11 era. in every relation."

10 int. the support."
15 sub. "different" for "various."
14 int." political."

12 era. "in every shape."

15 era. "towards it."

16 sub. the balance of paragraph as it reads, for "that you should accustom yourselves to reverence it as the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity, adapting constantly your words and actions to that momentous idea; that you should watch for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenance whatever may suggest a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and frown 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 several parts.

17 sub. by birth or choice of a common country." for "of a common country by birth or choice." 18 era, to be."

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 2 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 envigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. -The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, - and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must, of necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest, as one Nation.-3 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 10 greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their Peace by foreign Nations; and, 11 what is of inestimable value! they must derive from Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which 12 so frequently afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce; but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues would stimulate and 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 13 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 14 every reflecting and virtuous mind, 15 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. 16 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. 'Tis well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, 18 affecting all parts of our country 19 while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be 20 reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.21

1 sub. "unrestrained " for "unfettered."

3 sub. "Any other " for "The."

2 era. "many of the peculiar."

4 sub. "whether derived" for "either."

5 era. "liable every moment to be disturbed by the fluctuating combinations of the pri mary interests of Europe, which must be expected to regulate the conduct of the Nations of which it is composed.'

era. "And."

7 int. "then."

9 sub. "combined cannot fail to find" for "of it." 11 sub. "what is " for " which is an advantage."

12 sub. so frequently" for "inevitably."

8 sub. "feels " for "finds." cannot fail to find."

10 era.

13 sub. "are to be regarded for "there is reason to regard."

14 sub. " every" for any."

15 sub. "and" for "they."

16 sub. "We are authorized" for ""Tis natural."

17 era. "It may not impossibly be found, that the spirit of party, the machinations of foreign powers, the corruption and ambition of individual citizens are more formidable adversaries to the Unity of our Empire than any inherent difficulties in the scheme. Against these mounds of national opinion, national sympathy and national jealousy ought to be raised." 18 sub. affecting" for "as. 19 era. "have." 20 sub. "reason" for "cause in the fact itself."

21 era. "Besides the more serious causes already united as threatening our Union, there is one less dangerous, but sufficiently dangerous to make it prudent to be upon our guard against it. I allude to the petulance of party differences of opinion. It is not uncommon to hear the irritations which these excite vent themselves in declarations that the different parts of the United States are ill affected to each other, in menaces that the Union will be dissolved by this or that measure. Intimations like these are as indiscreet as they are intemperate. Though frequently made with levity and without any really evil intention, they have a tendency to produce the consequence which they indicate. They teach the minds of men to consider the Union as precarious; as an object to which they ought not to attach their hopes and fortunes:And thus chill the sentiment in its favour. By

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; 2 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 3 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 G. 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, controul, 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 enterprizing 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 enabled to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards the very engines which had lifted them to unjust dominion. --

6

alarmning the pride of those to whom they are addressed, they set ingenuity at work to deprecate the value of the thing, and to discover reasons of indifference towards it. This is not wise. It will be much wiser to habituate ourselves to reverence the Union as the paliadium of our national happiness; to accommodate constantly our words and actions to that idea, and to discountenance whatever may suggest a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned."

[In the margin, opposite the above paragraph, are the words "not important enough."] I sub. "any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by" for "our parties for some time past have been too much characterized by."

2 sub. "whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views for These discriminations- the mere contrivance of the spirit of Party, (always dexterous to seize every handle by which the passions can be wielded, and too skilful to turn to account the sympathy of neighborhood), have furnished an argument against the Union as evidence of a real difference of local interests and views; and serve to hazard it by organizing larger districts of country, under the leaders of contending factions: whose rivalships, prejudices and schemes of ambition rather than the true interests of the Country, will direct the use of their influence. If it be possible to correct this poison in the habit of our body politic, it is worthy the endeavours of the moderate and the good to effect it." S sub. "head" for "subject." 4 int. the real."

5 era. "it."

6 era. "and purposes."