---
type: article
status: Published
slug: "washington-farewell"
title: "Farewell Address"
author: "George Washington"
tradition: "american"
language: "en-18c"
genre: "political address"
period: "September 19, 1796"
source_url: "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002"
certainty: observed
source: "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002"
unknowns: none known
---
# Farewell Address

## Original

United States 19th September 1796
Friends & 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 cloathed 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 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, & 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 & 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; & 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 out set, 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 encreasing 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 acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the stedfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful & 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, viscissitudes 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 & brotherly affection my 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 biass his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your endulgent 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 & 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 & insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union, to your collective & individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual & immoveable 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 & political Principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together—the independence & Liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, 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 & 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 & commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South in the same Intercourse, benefitting by the Agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow & its commence 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 & 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 & water, will more & 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 & 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 seperate strength, or from an apostate & unnatural connection with any foreign Power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate & particular Interest in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means & 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 government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments & intriegues would stimulate and imbitter. 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 & 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. ’Tis 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 bands.

In contemplating the causes wch 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 & 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 Negociation 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 wch 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 & 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 distructive 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 modefied by mutual interests. However combinations or Associations of the above description may now & 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, & 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 hypotheses & opinion exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypotheses 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 vigour 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, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseperable 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, controuled, 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 dissention, which in different ages & 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 & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & 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 & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the 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 & insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence & 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 endulgence, if not with favour, 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 & 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 entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power; by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, & constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient & modern; some of them in our country & 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 labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men & citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect & to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private & 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 & experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

’Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength & security cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expence 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 expence, 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 & unpleasant—that the intrinsic embarrassment inseperable 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 & justice towds all Nations cultivate peace & harmony with all—Religion & 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 & benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages wch 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 & 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 & 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 & 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 favourite 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 & Wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification: It leads also to concessions to the favourite Nation of priviledges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions—by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained—& by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom eql priviledges are withheld: And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favourite 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 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 & 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 favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause & 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 & collisions of her friendships, or enmities.

Our detached & 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, Humour or Caprice?

’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world—So far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it—for let me not be understood as capable of patronising infidility 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 respectably 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 favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing & 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, & liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view; that ’tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another—that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character—that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. ’Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my Countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression, I could wish—that they will controul 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 & then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign Intriegue, to guard against the Impostures of pretended patriotism—this hope will be a full recompence 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, perseverence & 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 & experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle & mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength & consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am unconscious of intentional error—I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my Country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that after forty five years of my life dedicated to its Service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several Generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow Citizens, the benign influence of good Laws under a free Government—the ever favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours and dangers.

Go: Washington

## Translation — Mouseia

> Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the authoritative historical English source for fidelity, modern clarity, rhetorical force, and structure.

United States, September 19, 1796
Friends and Fellow Citizens

The time for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States is not far off, and the moment has now arrived when your thoughts must be employed in choosing the person who is to be entrusted with that important charge. It therefore seems proper to me—especially since it may help the public voice express itself more distinctly—that I should now inform you of the resolution I have made: to decline being considered among those from whom the choice is to be made.

At the same time, I ask you to do me the justice of believing that I have not made this decision without strict regard for every consideration belonging to the bond that binds a dutiful citizen to his country—and that, in withdrawing the offer of service which silence in my position might imply, I am influenced by no lessening of zeal for your future welfare, and by no lack of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am sustained by a full conviction that this step is consistent with both.

My acceptance of, and continued service until now in, the office to which your votes have twice called me have been a constant sacrifice of inclination to my sense of duty and to my deference for what appeared to be your desire. I always hoped that, much earlier, I would be able—consistently with motives I was not at liberty to disregard—to return to the retirement from which I had reluctantly been drawn. Before the last election, the strength of my desire to do so had even led me to prepare an address declaring it to you; but mature reflection on the troubled and critical state of our affairs with foreign nations at that time, together with the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, compelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your affairs, external as well as internal, no longer makes the pursuit of inclination incompatible with duty or propriety; and I am persuaded that, whatever partiality may still be felt for my services, you will not disapprove of my decision to retire under the present circumstances of our country.

The impressions with which I first undertook this arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. Regarding my discharge of that trust, I will say only that, with good intentions, I have contributed to the organization and administration of the government the best efforts of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unaware, at the outset, of the inadequacy of my qualifications, experience—both in my own eyes, and perhaps still more in the eyes of others—has strengthened my reasons for distrusting myself; and every day the increasing weight of years warns 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 particular value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation of believing that, while choice and prudence invite me to leave the political stage, patriotism does not forbid it.

As I look forward to the moment intended to end the course of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to postpone a profound acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude 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 thereby enjoyed to demonstrate my inviolable attachment through faithful and persevering services, though their usefulness has not equaled my zeal. If our country has gained benefits from these services, let it always be remembered to your credit, and as an instructive example in our annals, that—under circumstances in which passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead; amid appearances sometimes doubtful; amid turns of fortune often discouraging; and in situations where lack of success has not infrequently encouraged the spirit of criticism—the constancy of your support was the essential prop of my efforts and the guarantee of the plans by which they were carried out. Deeply filled with this thought, I shall carry it with me to my grave as a powerful incentive to unceasing prayers: that Heaven may continue to bestow upon you the choicest signs 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 bear the stamp of wisdom and virtue—that, in short, the happiness of the people of these states, under the protection of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will earn them the glory of recommending it to the applause, affection, and adoption of every nation that is still a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But concern for your welfare, which can end only with my life, and the fear of danger natural to that concern, urge me, on an occasion like this, to offer for your solemn contemplation—and to recommend for your frequent review—certain thoughts. They are the result of much reflection and considerable observation, and they appear to me supremely important to the permanence of your happiness as a people. I will offer them to you all the more freely because you can see in them only the disinterested warnings of a departing friend, who can have no personal motive for biasing his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to offer it, your indulgent reception of my thoughts on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Because the love of liberty is interwoven with every fiber of your hearts, no recommendation from me is needed to strengthen or confirm that attachment.

The unity of government that makes you one people is now also dear to you. Justly so; for it is a chief pillar in the structure of your true independence—the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, your safety, your prosperity, and that very liberty which you value so highly. But it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and different quarters, great efforts will be made and many artifices employed to weaken your conviction of this truth. This is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively directed, though often covertly and insidiously. It is therefore infinitely important that you properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you cherish a heartfelt, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; that you accustom yourselves to think and speak of it as the safeguard of your political security and prosperity; that you watch over its preservation with vigilant concern; that you discourage whatever might suggest even a suspicion that it can ever be abandoned; and that you indignantly frown upon the first appearance of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to weaken the sacred ties that now bind its various parts together.

For this, you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of one common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always elevate the just pride of patriotism more than any name derived from local distinctions. With slight shades of difference, you share the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have fought and triumphed together in a common cause—the independence and liberty you possess are the work of shared counsels and shared efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they appeal to your feelings, are greatly outweighed by those that apply more directly to your interests. Here, every section of our country finds the most compelling motives for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole.

The North, through unrestricted intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the South’s products great additional resources for maritime and commercial enterprise, and valuable materials for manufacturing industry. The South, through the same intercourse, benefiting from the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. By drawing some of the North’s seamen into its own channels, it finds its own navigation strengthened; and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase the general body of national shipping, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime power for which it is itself less well suited. The East, through similar intercourse with the West, already finds—and, as internal communications by land and water progressively improve, will increasingly find—a valuable outlet for the goods it imports from abroad or manufactures at home. The West receives from the East the supplies necessary for its growth and comfort—and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must necessarily owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own products to the weight, influence, and future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed as one nation by an indissoluble community of interest. Any other basis on which the West might hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be inherently precarious.

While 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 resources and efforts, greater strength, greater resources, proportionally greater security from external danger, and less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations. And—what is of inestimable value—they must derive from Union an exemption from those quarrels and wars among themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not bound together by the same government; quarrels and wars that their rivalries alone would be enough to produce, but which opposing foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would inflame and embitter. In this way, too, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are unfavorable to liberty, and which must be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense, your Union ought to be considered a chief support of your liberty, and your love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak persuasively to every thoughtful and virtuous mind, and present the continuation of the UNION as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there any doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a territory? Let experience answer it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case would be criminal. We are entitled to hope that a proper organization of the whole, aided by governments for the respective subdivisions, will bring the experiment to a happy outcome. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives for Union affecting every part of our country, so long as experience has not demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may try to weaken its bonds.

In considering the causes that may disturb our Union, it is a matter of serious concern that any basis should have been provided for defining parties by geographical distinctions—Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western—from which designing men may try to create a belief that real differences exist among local interests and aims. One device by which a party gains influence within particular regions is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other regions. You cannot guard yourselves too carefully against the jealousies and resentments that spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to estrange from one another those who ought to be bound together by brotherly affection. The inhabitants of our western country have recently received a useful lesson on this point. In the executive negotiation and the Senate’s unanimous ratification of the treaty with Spain—and in the universal satisfaction with that event throughout the United States—they have seen decisive proof of how groundless were the suspicions spread among them that the general government and the Atlantic states pursued a policy unfriendly to their interests regarding the Mississippi. They have witnessed the formation of two treaties, one with Great Britain and one with Spain, which secure for them everything they could desire from our foreign relations toward establishing their prosperity. Will it not be wise for them to rely, for the preservation of these advantages, on the Union through which they were obtained? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if any such exist, who would separate them from their brethren and connect them with foreigners?

For the effectiveness and permanence of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances between the parts, however strict, can be an adequate substitute. They would inevitably suffer the violations and interruptions that all alliances in all ages have suffered. Conscious of this momentous truth, you improved upon your first attempt by adopting a Constitution of government better designed than the former one for an intimate Union and for the effective management of your common concerns. This government—the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed; adopted after full investigation and mature deliberation; wholly free in its principles and 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 support. Respect for its authority, obedience to its laws, and acceptance of its measures are duties commanded by the fundamental principles of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the people’s right to make and alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution that exists at any time, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly binding upon all. The very idea of the people’s power and right to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

Every obstruction to the execution of the laws, and every combination or association—whatever plausible character it may assume—whose real purpose is to direct, control, counteract, or intimidate the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, is destructive of this fundamental principle and fatal in tendency. Such combinations serve to organize faction and give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to substitute the will of a party, often a small but cunning and enterprising minority of the community, for the delegated will of the nation—and, according to the alternating triumphs of different parties, to make public administration the mirror of faction’s ill-conceived and conflicting schemes rather than the instrument of consistent and wholesome plans developed by common counsel and shaped by mutual interests. However such combinations or associations may now and then serve popular ends, in the course of time and events they are likely to become powerful engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to overthrow the power of the people and seize for themselves the reins of government—afterward destroying the very engines that raised them to unjust dominion.

To preserve your government and perpetuate your present happy condition, you must not only steadily discourage irregular resistance to its acknowledged authority, but also carefully resist the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however attractive the pretexts. One method of attack may be to bring about, through constitutional forms, alterations that impair the energy of the system, and thus undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In every change you may be invited to make, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to establish the true character of governments as they are of other human institutions—that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of a country’s existing Constitution—that readiness to make changes on the strength of mere hypotheses and opinions exposes a nation to perpetual alteration because of the endless variety of hypotheses and opinions. And remember especially that, for the effective management of your common interests in a country as extensive as ours, a government possessing as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find its surest guardian in such a government, with its powers properly distributed and balanced. Liberty is indeed little more than a name where the government is too weak to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine every member of society within the limits prescribed by law, and to maintain everyone in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of personal and property rights.

I have already pointed out to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to their foundation upon geographical distinctions. Let me now take a broader view and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the harmful effects of the spirit of party in general.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, for it has its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists in different forms in every government, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in governments of the popular form it is seen in its greatest luxuriance and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternating domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party conflict—which in different ages and countries has committed the most horrible atrocities—is itself a terrifying despotism. But this ultimately leads to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries that result gradually incline people’s minds to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the leader of some prevailing faction, more capable or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this inclination to the purposes of his own elevation upon the ruins of public liberty.

Even without looking ahead to an extreme of this kind—which nevertheless ought not to be entirely lost from view—the ordinary and continual harms caused by the spirit of party are enough to make it both the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It always serves to distract the public councils and weaken the public administration. It agitates the community with groundless jealousies and false alarms, kindles the hostility of one part against another, and occasionally foments riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which gain easier access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and 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 government and serve to keep the spirit of liberty alive. Within certain limits, this is probably true—and in governments of a monarchical character, patriotism may look indulgently, if not favorably, upon the spirit of party. But in governments of a popular character, in purely elective governments, it is not a spirit to be encouraged. Given its natural tendency, it is certain that there will always be enough of that spirit for every beneficial purpose. And because there is a constant danger of excess, the effort should be to moderate and soothe it through the force of public opinion. It is a fire that cannot be extinguished; it demands constant vigilance to prevent it from bursting into flame, lest, instead of warming, it consume.

It is likewise important that habits of thought in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, so that they confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres and avoid, in exercising the powers of one department, encroaching upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments into one, and thus to create—whatever the form of government—a real despotism. A proper understanding of the love of power and the inclination to abuse it that predominate in the human heart is enough to convince us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power—dividing and distributing it among different repositories and making each the guardian of the public welfare against invasions by the others—has been demonstrated by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our own country and before our own eyes. Preserving these checks must be as necessary as establishing them. If, in the people’s opinion, the distribution or arrangement of the constitutional powers is wrong in any particular, let it be corrected by an amendment in the manner prescribed by the Constitution. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though usurpation may, in one instance, be an instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The lasting evil of the precedent must always greatly outweigh any partial or temporary benefit its use may ever produce.

Of all the attitudes and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. That person would claim the tribute of patriotism in vain who labored to overthrow these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest supports of the duties of human beings and citizens. The mere politician, no less than the devout person, ought to respect and cherish them. An entire volume could not trace all their connections with private and public happiness. Let us simply ask: Where is the security for property, reputation, or life if the sense of religious obligation abandons the oaths that are instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us be cautious about indulging the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education upon minds of a particular character, both reason and experience forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue, or morality, is a necessary driving force of popular government. The rule indeed applies with more or less force to every kind of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the structure?

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives power 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 for expense by cultivating peace, but also remembering that timely expenditures to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater expenditures to repel it; likewise avoiding the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions for expense, but by making vigorous efforts in times of peace to pay the debts that unavoidable wars may have caused, rather than ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden we ourselves ought to bear. Carrying out these principles belongs to your representatives, but public opinion must cooperate. To make it easier for them to perform their duty, it is essential that you keep practically in mind that payment of debts requires revenue—that revenue requires taxes—that no taxes can be devised that are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant—and that the inherent difficulty inseparable from selecting the proper objects of taxation, which is always a choice among difficulties, ought to be a decisive reason for interpreting the government’s conduct in making that selection fairly, and for a spirit of acceptance toward the measures for obtaining revenue that public necessities may at any time require.

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality command this conduct—and can it be that sound policy does not equally command it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, before long, great nation to give humanity the noble and still too novel example of a people always guided by exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and events, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages that might be lost through steadfast adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the lasting happiness of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment that ennobles human nature. Alas! Is it made impossible by human vices?

In carrying out such a plan, nothing is more essential than excluding permanent, deep-rooted antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments to others, and cultivating in their place just and friendly feelings toward all. The nation that indulges a habitual hatred or habitual fondness toward another is, to some degree, a slave. It is a slave to its hostility or its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and interest. Antipathy in one nation against another makes each more ready to offer insult and injury, to seize upon slight causes of offense, and to be proud and unyielding when accidental or trivial occasions of dispute arise. Hence come frequent collisions and obstinate, venomous, and bloody conflicts. Prompted by ill will and resentment, the nation sometimes drives the government into war, contrary to the soundest calculations of policy. The government sometimes shares the national inclination and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the nation’s hostility serve projects of aggression inspired by pride, ambition, and other sinister and destructive motives. The peace—and often, perhaps, the liberty—of nations has been the victim.

Likewise, a passionate attachment by one nation to another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favored nation makes it easier to imagine a common interest where no real common interest exists, and, by infusing one nation with the hostilities of the other, betrays the former into taking part in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It also leads to granting the favored nation privileges denied to others, which is likely to injure the nation making the concessions in two ways—by unnecessarily surrendering what ought to have been retained, and by arousing jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate among the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it enables ambitious, corrupt, or deluded citizens who devote themselves to the favored nation to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without incurring hatred, and sometimes even with popularity—gilding the base or foolish concessions of ambition, corruption, or infatuation with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference to public opinion, or a praiseworthy zeal for the public good.

As avenues for foreign influence in countless ways, such attachments are especially alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities they provide to tamper with domestic factions, practice the arts of seduction, mislead public opinion, and influence or intimidate the public councils! Such an attachment by a small or weak nation toward a great and powerful one condemns the former to become the latter’s satellite.

Against the insidious schemes of foreign influence—I implore you to believe me, fellow citizens—the vigilance of a free people ought to remain constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most destructive enemies of republican government. But for that vigilance to be useful, it must be impartial; otherwise, instead of defending against the very influence to be avoided, it becomes that influence’s instrument. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those moved by them to see danger only on one side, and serve to conceal and even assist the arts of influence on the other. True patriots who resist the intrigues of the favored nation are liable to become suspected and hated, while its tools and dupes seize the people’s applause and confidence in order to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us regarding foreign nations is this: in extending our commercial relations, we should have as little political connection with them as possible. So far as we have already made commitments, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. There let us stop.

Europe has a set of primary interests that have no relation to us, or only a very remote one. She must therefore be involved in frequent controversies whose causes are essentially foreign to our concerns. It must consequently be unwise for us to involve ourselves, through artificial ties, in the ordinary changes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships and hostilities.

Our detached and distant position invites and enables us to follow a different course. If we remain one people under an effective government, the time is not far off when we may defy serious injury from external aggression; when we may adopt such a position that whatever neutrality we may resolve upon will be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, unable to make gains at our expense, will not lightly risk provoking us; and when we may choose peace or war as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why give up the advantages of so distinctive a position? Why leave our own ground to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the snares of European ambition, rivalry, interest, temperament, or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with every part of the foreign world—so far, I mean, as we are now free to do so—for let me not be understood as capable of supporting unfaithfulness to existing commitments. I hold the principle no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy. I therefore repeat: let those commitments be honored in their genuine meaning. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

Taking care always to maintain, through suitable institutions, a respectably defensive position, we may safely rely upon temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony and open intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should maintain an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of events; spreading and diversifying the streams of commerce by gentle means, but forcing nothing; and establishing with powers so disposed—in order to give trade a stable course, define the rights of our merchants, and enable the government to support them—agreed rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable from time to time to be abandoned or altered as experience and circumstances dictate. We must constantly keep in view that it is folly for one nation to expect disinterested favors from another—that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it accepts under that description—and that, by accepting it, the nation may place itself in the position of having given equivalent value for merely nominal favors, yet still being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or count upon, real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion that experience must cure, and that a proper pride ought to reject.

In offering you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope that 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 following the course that has thus far marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they may produce some partial benefit, some occasional good—that they may now and then return to mind to moderate the fury of party spirit, warn against the harms of foreign intrigue, and guard against the deceptions of pretended patriotism—this hope will fully repay the concern for your welfare by which they have been inspired.

How far, in discharging my official duties, I have been guided by the principles outlined here, the public records and other evidence of my conduct must testify to you and to the world. For myself, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

Regarding the war still continuing in Europe, my proclamation of April 22, 1793, is the key 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 me from it or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, aided by the best information I could obtain, I was fully satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take—and was bound by duty and interest to take—a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, so far as it depended upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations concerning our right to follow this conduct need not be detailed on this occasion. I will observe only that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been implicitly admitted by all.

The duty of maintaining neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation that justice and humanity impose upon every nation, in cases where it is free to act, to preserve inviolate the relations of peace and friendship toward other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct are best left to your own reflections and experience. For me, a predominant motive has been to try to gain time for our country to settle and mature its still-recent institutions, and to advance without interruption toward that degree of strength and stability necessary to give it, humanly speaking, command of its own fortunes.

Although, in reviewing the events of my administration, I am conscious of no intentional error, I am nevertheless too aware of my shortcomings not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or lessen the evils toward which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to regard them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with upright zeal, the faults of inadequate abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be consigned to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and moved by that fervent love for it which is so natural to a man who sees in it the native soil of himself and his ancestors for several generations, I look forward with pleasing expectation to that retreat in which I promise myself the pure, sweet enjoyment of sharing, among my fellow citizens, in the benevolent influence of good laws under a free government—the ever-favorite object of my heart, and, as I trust, the happy reward of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

Go: Washington

## Translation — Mouseia

> Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the authoritative historical English source.

United States, 19 September 1796
Friends and Fellow Citizens

The time for electing a new citizen to administer the executive government of the United States is not far away, and the moment has now arrived when you must turn your thoughts to choosing the person who will be entrusted with that important responsibility. It therefore seems proper to me, especially because it may help the public voice express itself more clearly, that I should now inform you of my decision not to be considered among those from whom the choice is to be made.

At the same time, I ask you to do me the justice of believing that I have not made this decision without carefully considering everything involved in the relationship that binds a dutiful citizen to his country—and that, in withdrawing the offer of service that my silence in this situation might imply, I am influenced by no decline in concern for your future welfare and no lack of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that this step is consistent with both.

My acceptance of, and continued service until now in, the office to which your votes have twice called me have consistently required me to sacrifice my own wishes to my sense of duty and to my respect for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that, much earlier, I would be able, consistently with motives that I was not free to disregard, to return to the retirement from which I had reluctantly been drawn. Before the last election, the strength of my wish to do this had even led me to prepare an address declaring it to you; but mature reflection on the confused and critical state of our affairs with foreign nations at that time, and the unanimous advice of people entitled to my confidence, compelled me to abandon the idea.

I am glad that the state of your affairs, both foreign and domestic, no longer makes following my wishes inconsistent with duty or propriety; and I am convinced that, whatever partiality you may still feel toward my services, you will not disapprove of my decision to retire under the present circumstances of our country.

The feelings with which I first undertook this difficult responsibility were explained on the proper occasion. Concerning my performance of this trust, I will say only that, with good intentions, I have contributed to the organization and administration of the government the best efforts of which my very fallible judgment was capable. From the beginning, I was aware that my qualifications were limited. Experience, in my own view and perhaps even more in the view of others, has strengthened my reasons for lacking confidence in myself; and every day the increasing weight of age warns me more and more that the shelter of retirement is as necessary for me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances gave special value to my services, those circumstances were temporary, I have the comfort of believing that, while personal choice and prudence invite me to leave the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

As I look forward to the moment intended to end the course of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to delay deeply acknowledging the debt of gratitude I owe my beloved country for the many honors it has given me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have therefore enjoyed to demonstrate my unbreakable devotion through faithful and persistent services, though their usefulness did not equal my zeal. If our country has benefited from these services, let it always be remembered to your credit, and as an instructive example in our history, that under circumstances in which passions stirred in every direction could easily mislead; amid appearances that were sometimes doubtful; changes of fortune that were often discouraging; and situations in which lack of success frequently encouraged criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential foundation of my efforts and a guarantee for the plans through which they were carried out. Deeply moved by this thought, I will carry it with me to my grave as a powerful motive for constant prayers that Heaven may continue to grant you the finest signs of its goodness—that your Union and brotherly affection may last forever—that the free Constitution, which is the work of your own hands, may be faithfully preserved—that its administration in every department may be marked by wisdom and virtue—and that, finally, the happiness of the people of these states under the protection of liberty may be made complete by preserving this blessing so carefully and using it so wisely that they will gain the glory of recommending it to the approval, affection, and adoption of every nation still unfamiliar with it.

Perhaps I should stop here. But concern for your welfare, which can end only with my life, and the fear of danger natural to that concern urge me, on an occasion like this, to offer for your serious consideration, and to recommend for your frequent review, some convictions that result from much reflection and considerable observation, and that appear to me vitally important to the lasting happiness of you as a people. I offer them to you more freely because you can see in them only the unselfish warnings of a departing friend who can have no personal motive to bias his advice. Nor can I forget, as encouragement for doing so, your generous reception of my views on an earlier and not very different occasion.

Because the love of liberty is woven into every fiber of your hearts, no recommendation from me is needed to strengthen or confirm that devotion.

The unity of government that makes you one people is also now dear to you. It is right that it should be, because it is a principal pillar in the structure of your true independence, supporting your peace at home, your peace abroad, your safety, your prosperity, and that very liberty which you value so highly. But it is easy to foresee that, for different reasons and from different directions, great efforts and many schemes will be used to weaken your conviction of this truth. This is the point in your political fortress against which the attacks of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively directed, though often secretly and deceptively. It is therefore infinitely important that you should properly understand the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should maintain a heartfelt, habitual, and unshakable devotion to it; that you should accustom yourselves to think and speak of it as the safeguard of your political security and prosperity; that you should watch over its preservation with vigilant concern; that you should reject anything suggesting even a suspicion that it could ever be abandoned; and that you should indignantly condemn the first appearance of every attempt to separate any part of our country from the rest or to weaken the sacred ties that now link its various parts together.

You have every motive of shared feeling and interest to do this. Whether citizens by birth or by choice of a common country, that country has a right to unite your affections. The name AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national identity, must always raise the rightful pride of patriotism more than any name based on regional distinctions. With slight differences, you share the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have fought and triumphed together in a common cause—the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint deliberations and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But however powerfully these considerations appeal to your feelings, they are greatly outweighed by those that apply more directly to your interests. Here every part of our country finds the strongest reasons for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole.

Through unrestricted relations with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, the North finds in the South’s products great additional resources for maritime and commercial enterprise and valuable materials for manufacturing industry. Through the same relations, the South benefits from the services of the North and sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. By directing some Northern sailors into its own channels, it finds its own navigation strengthened; and while it contributes in different ways to sustaining and increasing the overall volume of national shipping, it looks forward to the protection of a naval strength for which it is itself less well suited. Through similar relations with the West, the East already finds, and through the continuing improvement of inland transportation by land and water will increasingly find, a valuable market for the goods it imports from abroad or manufactures at home. The West receives from the East the supplies required for its growth and comfort—and, perhaps even more importantly, it must necessarily owe its secure enjoyment of essential outlets for its own products to the weight, influence, and future naval strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed as one nation by an inseparable community of interest. Any other basis on which the West might possess this essential advantage, whether arising from its own separate strength or from a disloyal and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be insecure by its very nature.

Therefore, while every part of our country feels an immediate and particular interest in Union, all the parts together cannot fail to find in the combined total of their resources and efforts greater strength, greater resources, proportionately greater security from external danger, and less frequent disturbance of their peace by foreign nations. And, what is of priceless value, through Union they must gain freedom from those conflicts and wars among themselves that so often afflict neighboring countries not joined under the same government—conflicts that their own rivalries alone would be sufficient to produce, but that opposing foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would provoke and embitter. They will likewise avoid the need for those oversized military establishments that, under any form of government, threaten liberty and must be regarded as especially hostile to republican liberty. In this sense, your Union should be considered a principal support of your liberty, and your love of one should make the preservation of the other dear to you.

These considerations speak persuasively to every thoughtful and virtuous mind and show the continuation of the UNION to be a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there doubt about whether a common government can cover so large an area? Let experience answer it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case would be irresponsible. We are justified in hoping that the proper organization of the whole, assisted by governments for the respective subdivisions, will bring the experiment to a successful outcome. It is well worth a fair and complete trial. With such powerful and obvious motives for Union affecting every part of our country, and until experience has shown it to be impractical, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who may try, in any region, to weaken its bonds.

In considering the causes that may disturb our Union, it is a matter of serious concern that any basis has been provided for defining parties by geographical distinctions—Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western—from which calculating men may try to create the belief that real differences exist between regional interests and views. One method used by a party to gain influence within particular regions is to misrepresent the opinions and goals of other regions. You cannot guard yourselves too carefully against the jealousies and resentments that arise from these misrepresentations. They tend to make strangers of people who should be bound together by brotherly affection. The inhabitants of our western country have recently received a useful lesson on this subject. In the executive branch’s negotiation of the Treaty with Spain, in its unanimous ratification by the Senate, and in the universal satisfaction with that event throughout the United States, they have seen decisive proof of how baseless were the suspicions spread among them that the general government and the Atlantic states followed a policy hostile to their interests concerning the Mississippi. They have witnessed the formation of two treaties, one with Great Britain and one with Spain, which secure for them everything they could desire from our foreign relations to support their prosperity. Would it not be wise for them to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union through which they were obtained? Will they not from now on refuse to listen to those advisers, if any exist, who would separate them from their brothers and connect them with foreigners?

For your Union to be effective and permanent, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances among the parts, however close, can adequately replace it. They would inevitably suffer the violations and interruptions that all alliances throughout history have suffered. Aware of this extremely important truth, you improved on your first attempt by adopting a Constitution of government better designed than your former one for close Union and effective management of your common concerns. This government—the result of our own free and unpressured choice, adopted after full investigation and mature deliberation, entirely free in its principles and in the distribution of its powers, combining security with strength, and containing within itself a procedure for its own amendment—has a rightful claim to your confidence and support. Respect for its authority, obedience to its laws, and acceptance of its measures are duties required by the fundamental principles of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the people’s right to make and alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution that exists at any time, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly binding on everyone. The very idea that the people have the power and right to establish government assumes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the enforcement of the laws, and all combinations and associations, whatever plausible appearance they may assume, that are really intended to direct, control, oppose, or intimidate the regular deliberation and action of the established authorities, destroy this fundamental principle and have fatal tendencies. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary power—to replace the delegated will of the nation with the will of a party, often a small but cunning and aggressive minority of the community—and, as different parties alternately triumph, to make public administration reflect faction’s poorly coordinated and inconsistent projects rather than serve as the instrument of consistent and beneficial plans developed through common deliberation and adjusted by mutual interests. Although combinations or associations of this kind may occasionally accomplish popular goals, over time and through changing circumstances they are likely to become powerful tools by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be able to overthrow the power of the people and seize control of the government for themselves, afterward destroying the very tools that raised them to unjust rule.

To preserve your government and ensure the continuation of your present happy condition, it is necessary not only that you consistently reject irregular opposition to its recognized authority, but also that you carefully resist the spirit of innovation directed against its principles, however attractive the excuses may be. One method of attack may be to make changes through the forms of the Constitution that will weaken the energy of the system and thus undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes you may be invited to make, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to establish the true character of governments as of other human institutions—that experience is the surest standard for testing the real tendency of a country’s existing Constitution—that readiness to make changes based merely on theories and opinions exposes the system to continual change because theories and opinions vary endlessly. Remember especially that, for the effective management of your common interests in a country as large as ours, a government possessing as much strength as is consistent with the complete security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find its surest guardian in such a government, with its powers properly distributed and balanced. Liberty is indeed little more than a name where the government is too weak to resist the schemes of faction, to keep every member of society within the limits set by the laws, and to preserve everyone in the secure and peaceful enjoyment of personal and property rights.

I have already pointed out to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to basing them on geographical distinctions. Let me now take a broader view and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the harmful effects of the spirit of party in general.

Unfortunately, this spirit is inseparable from our nature, with its roots in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists in different forms in all governments, where it is more or less stifled, controlled, or restrained; but in governments based on popular rule, it is seen in its greatest intensity and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternating domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the desire for revenge natural to party conflict—which in different ages and countries has committed the most horrifying atrocities—is itself a terrible despotism. But this eventually leads to a more formal and permanent despotism. The resulting disorder and misery gradually incline people’s minds to seek security and peace in the absolute power of one individual; and sooner or later the leader of some dominant faction, more capable or more fortunate than his competitors, uses this inclination to raise himself to power on the ruins of public liberty.

Even without looking ahead to an extreme of this kind, which nevertheless should not be entirely forgotten, the common and continual harms caused by the spirit of party are enough to make discouraging and restraining it both the interest and the duty of a wise people.

It always serves to distract public councils and weaken public administration. It agitates the community with baseless jealousies and false alarms, kindles the hostility of one part against another, and sometimes encourages riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which gain easier access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. In this way, the policy and will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful restraints on the government’s administration and help keep the spirit of liberty alive. Within certain limits, this is probably true—and in governments with a monarchical character, patriotism may view the spirit of party with tolerance, if not with favor. But in governments based on popular rule, in purely elective governments, it is not a spirit to be encouraged. Because of their natural tendency, there will certainly always be enough of that spirit to serve every beneficial purpose. And because there is constant danger of excess, the effort should be to reduce and calm it through the force of public opinion. Like a fire that cannot be extinguished, it requires constant vigilance to prevent it from bursting into flames and consuming instead of warming.

It is likewise important that habits of thought in a free country should inspire those entrusted with its administration to be cautious, keeping themselves within their respective constitutional spheres and avoiding, when exercising the powers of one department, any encroachment on another. The spirit of encroachment tends to combine the powers of all departments into one and thus, whatever the form of government, to create a real despotism. A fair understanding of the love of power and tendency to abuse it that dominate the human heart is enough to convince us of the truth of this statement. The need for mutual restraints in the exercise of political power—by dividing and distributing it among different bodies and making each the guardian of the public welfare against invasion by the others—has been demonstrated by ancient and modern experiments, including some in our own country and before our own eyes. Preserving these restraints must be as necessary as establishing them. If, in the people’s opinion, the distribution or definition of the constitutional powers is wrong in any respect, let it be corrected by an amendment through the method specified by the Constitution. But let there be no change through usurpation; for although usurpation may in one instance be used to do good, it is the usual weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The lasting evil of the precedent must always greatly outweigh any limited or temporary benefit that its use can ever provide.

Of all the attitudes and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. A person who worked to overthrow these great pillars of human happiness, these strongest supports of the duties of people and citizens, would claim the honor of patriotism in vain. The ordinary politician, just as much as the devout person, ought to respect and cherish them. An entire volume could not trace all their connections with private and public happiness. Let us simply ask: What security is there for property, reputation, or life if a sense of religious obligation abandons the oaths used as instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us be cautious about accepting the belief that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be granted concerning the influence of refined education on minds of a special character, both reason and experience forbid us to expect national morality to prevail when religious principle is excluded.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary driving force of popular government. The rule applies with greater or lesser force to every kind of free government. Who that is a sincere friend of free government can look with indifference on attempts to shake the foundation of the structure?

Therefore, promote as an object of primary importance institutions for spreading knowledge generally. To the extent that the structure of a government gives power to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Cherish public credit as a very important source of strength and security. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions for expense by cultivating peace, but also remembering that timely spending to prepare for danger often prevents much greater spending to repel it—likewise avoiding the accumulation of debt, not only by avoiding occasions for expense, but through vigorous efforts in times of peace to repay debts that unavoidable wars may have caused, rather than unfairly placing on future generations the burden that we ourselves ought to bear. Carrying out these principles belongs to your representatives, but public opinion must cooperate. To make it easier for them to perform their duty, it is essential that you keep in mind in practical terms that paying debts requires revenue—that obtaining revenue requires taxes—that no taxes can be created that are not inconvenient and unpleasant to some degree—and that the inherent difficulty inseparable from selecting the proper things to tax, which is always a choice among difficulties, should be a decisive reason for interpreting the government’s conduct in making that choice fairly and for willingly accepting the measures for obtaining revenue that public needs may at any time require.

Act with good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all—religion and morality require this conduct, and could it be that good policy does not equally require it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, before long, great nation to give humanity the noble and all-too-unfamiliar example of a people always guided by elevated justice and kindness. Who can doubt that, over time and in the course of events, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages that might be lost by faithfully adhering to it? Could it be that Providence has not connected a nation’s lasting happiness with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every feeling that ennobles human nature. Sadly, is it made impossible by human vices?

In carrying out such a plan, nothing is more essential than excluding permanent, deep-rooted hatred toward particular nations and passionate attachments to others, and cultivating in their place fair and friendly feelings toward all. A nation that habitually hates or habitually favors another is, to some degree, a slave. It is a slave to its hostility or its affection, either of which is enough to lead it away from its duty and interest. One nation’s hatred of another makes each more ready to offer insult and injury, to seize on slight causes of offense, and to be arrogant and uncooperative when accidental or trivial disputes arise. This produces frequent clashes and stubborn, bitter, and bloody conflicts. Prompted by ill will and resentment, the nation sometimes drives the government into war against the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes shares the nation’s tendency and, through passion, adopts what reason would reject; at other times, it uses the nation’s hostility to serve plans of aggression inspired by pride, ambition, and other corrupt and harmful motives. The peace, and perhaps sometimes the liberty, of nations has been the victim.

Likewise, one nation’s passionate attachment to another produces many evils. Sympathy for the favored nation makes it easier to imagine a common interest where no real common interest exists and transfers the hostilities of the favored nation to the other, betraying the latter into taking part in the quarrels and wars of the former without adequate reason or justification. It also leads to granting the favored nation privileges denied to others, which is likely to harm the nation making the concessions twice—by needlessly giving up what should have been retained, and by provoking jealousy, ill will, and a desire for retaliation among those from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it makes it easier for ambitious, corrupted, or deceived citizens who devote themselves to the favored nation to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without attracting hatred, and sometimes even while gaining popularity. They disguise the shameful or foolish compromises of ambition, corruption, or delusion with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, commendable respect for public opinion, or praiseworthy concern for the public good.

As pathways for foreign influence in countless ways, such attachments are especially alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities they provide to interfere with domestic factions, practice the arts of temptation, mislead public opinion, and influence or intimidate the public councils! Such an attachment by a small or weak nation toward a great and powerful nation condemns the former to become the satellite of the latter.

Against the deceptive schemes of foreign influence—I urge you to believe me, fellow citizens—the vigilance of a free people should be constantly awake, because history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most harmful enemies of republican government. But to be useful, that vigilance must be impartial; otherwise it becomes an instrument of the very influence that should be avoided instead of a defense against it. Excessive favoritism toward one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause the people driven by those feelings to see danger only on one side and help hide and even support the methods of influence on the other. True patriots who resist the intrigues of the favored nation are likely to become suspected and hated, while its tools and dupes seize the people’s praise and confidence in order to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us regarding foreign nations is that, while extending our commercial relations, we should have as little political connection with them as possible. To the extent that we have already made commitments, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Let us stop there.

Europe has a set of primary interests that have no relation, or only a very distant relation, to us. She must therefore become involved in frequent controversies whose causes are essentially unrelated to our concerns. It must therefore be unwise for us to involve ourselves through artificial ties in the ordinary changes of her politics or in the ordinary combinations and clashes of her friendships and hostilities.

Our separate and distant position invites and enables us to follow a different course. If we remain one people under an effective government, the time is not far away when we may defy serious injury from external harassment; when we may take a position that will cause any neutrality we may choose to be strictly respected; when nations at war, unable to gain anything from us, will not lightly risk provoking us; and when we may choose peace or war according to the advice of our interest guided by justice.

Why give up the advantages of so unusual a position? Why leave our own ground to stand on foreign ground? Why, by weaving our destiny together with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the traps of European ambition, rivalry, interest, mood, or whim?

Our true policy is to stay clear of permanent alliances with every part of the foreign world—at least to the extent that we are now free to do so—for I must not be understood as capable of supporting bad faith toward existing commitments. I consider the principle that honesty is always the best policy no less applicable to public affairs than to private ones. I therefore repeat: Let those commitments be honored according to their true meaning. But in my opinion, extending them is unnecessary and would be unwise.

By always taking care, through suitable institutions, to keep ourselves in a respectably defensive position, we may safely rely on temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony and open relations with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should be equal and impartial: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; respecting the natural course of events; gently spreading and diversifying the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; and establishing with willing powers—in order to give trade a stable course, define the rights of our merchants, and enable the government to support them—agreed rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual judgment will permit, but temporary and subject to being abandoned or changed from time to time as experience and circumstances require. We should constantly keep in mind that it is foolish for one nation to expect unselfish favors from another—that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it accepts as such a favor—and that by accepting it, the nation may put itself in the position of having given equivalent value for favors that exist only in name, while still being accused of ingratitude for not giving more. No error can be greater than expecting or counting on real favors from one nation to another. It is an illusion that experience must cure and that a proper pride should reject.

In offering you, my countrymen, this advice from an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope that it will make the strong and lasting impression I would wish—that it will control the usual current of the passions or prevent our nation from following the course that has until now marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even hope that it might produce some limited benefit, some occasional good—that it may now and then come to mind to moderate the fury of party spirit, warn against the harms of foreign intrigue, and guard against the deceptions of false patriotism—this hope will fully repay the concern for your welfare that has inspired it.

The public records and other evidence of my conduct must testify to you and to the world how far I have been guided, in performing my official duties, by the principles described here. My own conscience assures me that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

Regarding the war still continuing in Europe, my Proclamation of 22 April 1793 is the guide to my plan. Approved by your voice and by that of your representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, unaffected by any attempts to frighten or divert me from it.

After careful examination, aided by the best information I could obtain, I was fully satisfied that, under all the circumstances of the case, our country had a right to take a neutral position and was bound by duty and interest to take it. Having taken that position, I determined, as far as it depended on me, to maintain it with moderation, persistence, and firmness.

It is unnecessary on this occasion to explain in detail the considerations concerning our right to follow this course. I will only observe that, as I understand the matter, far from being denied by any of the powers at war, that right has effectively been admitted by all.

The duty to remain neutral may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation that justice and humanity place on every nation, in cases where it is free to act, to preserve unchanged its relations of peace and friendship toward other nations.

The motives of interest for observing that course are best left to your own reflection and experience. For me, a leading motive has been to try to give our country time to establish and mature its still-recent institutions and to advance without interruption toward the degree of strength and stability necessary to give it, humanly speaking, command of its own fortunes.

Although, in reviewing the events of my administration, I am not aware of any intentional error, I am nevertheless too conscious of my faults not to think it likely that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I earnestly beg the Almighty to prevent or reduce the evils toward which they may tend. I will also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with understanding, and that after forty-five years of my life devoted to its service with sincere zeal, the faults of inadequate ability will be given to oblivion, as I myself must soon be given to the dwelling places of rest.

Relying on my country’s kindness in this as in other matters, and moved by that passionate love toward it which is so natural to a man who sees in it the native soil of himself and his ancestors for several generations, I look forward with pleasant expectation to that retirement in which I promise myself the pure, sweet enjoyment of sharing, among my fellow citizens, the kind influence of good laws under a free government—the always-favored object of my heart and, as I trust, the happy reward of our shared cares, labors, and dangers.

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