George Washington's Farewell Address
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George Washington's Farewell Address was written to the people of the United States at the end of his second term as President of the United States. It appeared in many American newspapers on September 19, 1796. Technically speaking, it was not an address, but an open letter to the public published in the form of a speech. Washington's fellow Americans gave it the title of "Farewell Address" to recognize it as the President's valedictory to public service for the new republic.
In 1792, Washington was prepared to retire after one term as the President of the United States. To that end, Washington, with James Madison, wrote a farewell address to the public of the United States of America. Faced with the unanimous objections of his Cabinet, Washington agreed to stand for another term. In 1796, Washington refused a third term. Starting with his 1792 draft, Washington rewrote the text to better fit the problems that were emerging in the new political landscape. He had much help from Alexander Hamilton, but all the key ideas were those of Washington, not Hamilton or Madison.
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[edit] Themes
[edit] Political factionalism
There were three notable themes from the speech. The first described what Washington saw as a potentially harmful political factionalism throughout the country. He urged Americans to unite for the good of the whole country. Two political factions had developed into political parties in the early 1790s: the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans. The Federalists, and Washington himself, backed Hamilton's plan for a central bank and other strong central economic plans based on manufacturing, while the Jeffersonian Republicans opposed the strong government inherent in the Hamiltonian plan and favored farmers as opposed to city people. Washington foresaw that this intense political polarization would play significantly in the new government as these two sides attempted to further craft and guide the nation.
[edit] Foreign alliances
The second theme was a warning to the nation to avoid foreign alliances, particularly in Europe. Both parties wanted to stay out of the wars between France and Britain. The Federalists favored stronger ties with the British, while the Republicans insisted on adhering to the Treaty of Alliance the U.S. had already signed with France in 1778.
[edit] Political prosperity
Tranquility abroad and neutrality at home. The third theme considered Washington's view of preserving "political prosperity" through morality and religion. He called morality "a necessary spring of popular government," and stated:
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.
[edit] Legacy
The Address quickly became a basic political document for the new nation. It was reprinted as part of the membership paraphernalia of the Washington Benevolent Societies that sprang up after his death in 1799. It was printed in children's primers, engraved on watches, woven into tapestries and read annually before Congress. The Address received widespread fame and became a symbol of American republicanism, the nation's guiding political philosophy. It was used as a benchmark with which to judge the two-party political structure, foreign affairs, and national morality. The Address was invariably cited whenever an alliance was discussed. Not until 1949, with the signing of the treaty that established NATO, did the United States again enter into a military alliance.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Source material for this article and partial text for Washington's farewell address: U.S. State Department
[edit] Further reading
- Deconde, Alexander. "Washington's Farewell, the French Alliance, and the Election of 1796." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1957 43(4): 641-658. ISSN 0161-391X Fulltext in JSTOR; sees address as partisan defense of Jay Treaty
- Burton I. Kaufman, ed. Washington's Farewell Address: The View from the 20th Century (1969)
- Gilbert, Felix. To the Farewell Address: Ideas of Early American Foreign Policy. (1961)
- Pessen, Edward. "George Washington's Farewell Address, the Cold War, and the Timeless National." Journal of the Early Republic 1987 7(1): 1-27. ISSN 0275-1275 Fulltext in JSTOR
- Spalding, Matthew and Patrick J. Garrity. A Sacred Union of Citizens: George Washington's Farewell Address and the American Character (Roman & Littlefield, 1996); address was timeless and not partisan
- Spalding, Matthew. "George Washington's Farewell Address." The Wilson Quarterly v20#4 Autumn 1996. pp 65+.
- Paul A. Varg, Foreign Policies of the Founding Fathers (1963)
