Washington's Farewell Address
... Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of
mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for
it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home,
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize.
But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be
taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, as this is the
point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be
most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment
that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and
individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it;
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and
prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may
suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the
first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the
sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
* * *
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union it occurs as matter of serious concern that
any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations --
Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western -- whence designing men may endeavor to excite a
belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to
acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.
You can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from
these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound
together by fraternal affection...
To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for the whole is indispensable. No
alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably
experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible
of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution
of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union and for the efficacious
management of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice,
uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in
its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself
a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect
for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the
fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to
make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists till
changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The
very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of
every individual to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever
plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular
deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle
and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force;
to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of the party, often a small but artful and
enterprising minority of the community, and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties,
to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction
rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and
modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular
ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines by which cunning,
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp
for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted
them to unjust dominion.
Toward 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 can not be
directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited remember that time and habit
are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that
experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a
country; that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual
change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially that for the
efficient management of your common interests in a country so extensive as ours a government of as
much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find
in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is,
indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of
faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to
maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the
founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view,
and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of
the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled,
or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their
worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to
party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The
disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in
the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own
elevation on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out
of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the
community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against
another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and
corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party
passion. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the
government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true;
and in governments of a monarchical cast patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor,
upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a
spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of
that spirit for every salutary purpose; and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to
be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a
uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those
intrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres,
avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create,
whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and
proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of
this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and
distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against
invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our
country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If in
the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any
particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.
But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of
good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any
time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to
subvert these great pillars of human happiness -- these firmest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A
volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked,
Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert
the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution
indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded
to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule
indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere
friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote,
then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. in
proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving
it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but
remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater
disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable
wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives; but it is necessary
that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty it is
essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be
revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more
or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection
of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a
candid construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence
in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion
and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be
worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the
magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and
benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would
richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be
that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment,
at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! Is it rendered
impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies
against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in
place of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges
toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to
its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its
interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury,
to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling
occasions of dispute occur.
Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation prompted by ill
will and resentment sometimes impels to war the government contrary to the best calculations of
policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through
passion what reason would reject. At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to
projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The
peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.
So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.
Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the
former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is
apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to
have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from
whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who
devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own
country without odium, sometimes even with popularity, gilding with the appearances of a virtuous
sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good
the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to
the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper
with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or
awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation
dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I
conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly
awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for
one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger
only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots
who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its
tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations
to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our
concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or
enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. if we remain
one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material
injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we
may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when
we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign
ground? Why, by interweaving our-destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so
far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs
that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their
genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defense posture,
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor
granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and
diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers
so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to
enable the Government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present
circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time
abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that
it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of
its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance it may
place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being
reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or
calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a
just pride ought to discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend I dare not hope
they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish -- that they will control the usual
current of the passions or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the
destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial
benefit, some occasional good -- that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party
spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended
patriotism -- this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they
have been dictated.
* * *
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 toward it which is
so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several
generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize
without alloy the sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow citizens the benign influence
of good laws under a free government -- the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy
reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
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