Washington's Farewell

President George Washington

September 17, 1796
Friends, And Fellow Citizens

   The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive
   government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time
   actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the
   person who is to be clothed with that important trust, 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, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your
   suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of
   inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference 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 and
   critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous
   advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the
   idea.
  
   I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal,
   no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the
   sentiment of duty, or propriety; and 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
   outset, 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 increasing weight of
   years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as
   necessary to me as it will be welcome.  Satisfied that, if any
   circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were
   temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that while choice and
   prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not
   forbid it.
  
   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 acknowledgment 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 steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the
   opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable
   attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though 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, vicissitudes 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 and brotherly affection may be perpetual;  that the free
   constitution which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained;
   that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom
   and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States,
   under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a
   preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to
   them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and
   adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

   Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare which   
   cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to    
   that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your
   solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some       
   sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable  
   observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of
   your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more      
   freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a       
   parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his      
   counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it your indulgent       
   reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

   Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts,
   no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the
   attachment.  The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is
   also now dear to you.  It is justly so: for it is a main pillar in the
   edifice of your real independence, 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 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 immoveable attachment to it;
   accustoming yourself 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 and      
   political principles.  You have in a common cause fought and triumphed     
   together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint   
   councils and joint efforts, of 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 and preserving the union
   of the whole. 
  
   The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by
   the equal Laws of a common government, finds, in the productions of the
   latter, great additional resources of maritime and 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 and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the
   seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and
   while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the
   general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the
   protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. 
   The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the
   progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water,
   will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it
   brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the
   East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and what is perhaps of
   still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment
   of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence,
   and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union,
   directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one Nation. Any other
   tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether
   derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural
   connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

   While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and
   particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find
   in the united mass of means and efforts 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
   neighboring countries not tied together by the same government, which
   their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which
   opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and
   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 and
   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. It is 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 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 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 negotiation by
   the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the
   treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event,
   throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the
   suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the general Government
   and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to
   the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two
   treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to
   them everything 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 advantaged on the UNION by which
   they were procured?  Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers,
   if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect
   them with aliens?

   To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole
   is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be
   an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and
   interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible
   of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the
   adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your
   former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your
   common concerns.  This government, the offspring of our own choice,
   uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature
   deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of
   its powers uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a
   provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and
   your support.  Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws,
   acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental
   maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right
   of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. 
   But the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an
   explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory
   upon all.  The very idea of the power and the right of the people to
   establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the
   established government. 
  
   All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and
   associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design
   to direct, 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 a 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 illconcerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather
   than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common
   councils, and modified by mutual interests.
  
   However combinations or associations of the above description may now and
   then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and
   things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and
   unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and
   to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards
   the very engines which 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
   and 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 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 enterprise 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 dissention, 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 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 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 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, 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.

   '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 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 may 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 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 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 towards 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 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 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 of
   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 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 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 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?
  
   `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 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
   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
   respectable 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 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 `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 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.  '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 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.

   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, perseverance, and
   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 and experience.  With me, a predominant
   motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and
   mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption
   to that degree of strength and 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 favorite object of my heart, and the happy
   reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors and dangers.
  
                                                          George Washington
  
   United States, 17th September 1796