Sept. 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 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 apprize 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;
than, 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 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.
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 counsels, 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,
benefiting 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 connexion
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 neighbouring
countries not tied together by the same governments, which
their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce,
but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues
would stimulate and embitter. 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 endeavour to weaken its bands.
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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 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
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 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 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 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.
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 hypothesis and
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety
of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that,
for the efficient management of our 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 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 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 connexions
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 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 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 ?
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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 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 practise 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 connexion 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
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 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.
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 endeavour 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 it in 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, September 17th, 1796
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