George Washington's Farewell Address

George Washington's Farewell Address was a written address by George Washington 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 into the new political landscape. He had much help from Alexander Hamilton but all the key ideas were those of Washington, not Hamilton or Madison.

There are three themes from the speech which are particularly important. The first describes what Washington sees as rising sectionalism and political factionalism in the country. He urges Americans to unite for the good of the whole country. Two political factions that developed into political parties in the early 1790s were the Federalists, and the Jeffersonian Republicans. The Federalists, and Washington himself, backed Hamilton's plan for a central bank and other strong central economic plan 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 be the largest issue in the new government, as these two sides attempted to further craft and guide the nation.

The second theme consists of harsh words warning to avoid entanglements with foreign powers, particularly in Europe. Both parties wanted to stay out of the wars between France and Britain. The Federalists favored stronger ties to the British, while the Republicans insisted on adhering to the treaty the U.S. had already signed with France in 1778. Washington thus was warning everyone that partisanship might drag the United States into this fray.

The third theme considers 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.

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. With the widespread fame, the address became a benchmark of American republicanism, the nation's guiding political philosophy, used as a benchmark to judge the two party political structure, foreign affairs, and national morality. Specifically, 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.

Reference

• Source material for this article and complete text for Washington's farewell address: U.S. State Department

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 Treay
• 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 Interest." 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)