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His country’s prophetic father President George WashingtonAs he neared the end of his second term, he gave his Farewell Address.
He celebrated the new nation and his role as its creator, but also warned about the dangers of sectarian and regional conflict.
Washington wrote in an address that appeared in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser.
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Washington was the hero of the American Revolution — and his Abrahamic faith in the cause of independence inspired and held the nation together in the darkest hours of the rebellion.
But during his presidency, there were party divisions in the United States.
In 1796, he warned of their potential to destroy the hard-fought unity over the past 20 years.
Reproduction of a painting showing George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and other signers of the U.S. Constitution. Washington, the beloved war hero would become the first President of the United States with the new Constitution.
(Library of Congress).
Washington stated that one of the ways for a party to gain influence in particular districts was to misrepresent the views and aims of others districts.
“They tend make each other alien when they should be bound together by fraternal love.”
‘The name of American … must always exalt the just pride of patriotism’ – George Washington
He said, “The alternate dominance of one faction over the other, sharpened by a spirit of revenge. This spirit, which has in different ages, countries, perpetrated some of the most horrific enormities, itself is a frightening despotism.”
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After deciding not to run for the third term, Washington gave his farewell speech.
He was the rare leader in history to willingly give up power for many more years.
George Washington’s Farewell Address inspired many generations of people, even during Civil War. The first line of the Farewell Address reads “Upon the couchof death the championof the free”, and the artist who illustrated it is called “Clayton.”
(Photo by Sheridan Libraries/Levy/Gado/Getty Images)
His decision established the precedent for presidents who serve only two terms.
Six years after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, the 22nd Amendment was passed.
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Washington was so beloved during his era that the electoral college unanimously voted him the nation’s first President in late 1788-early 17.89
John Adams was elected as the first vice president.
In 1792, Adams and Washington both won easily re-election.
However, the vice presidential race in that second national election started to split along party lines, setting the stage and Washington’s farewell warning.
Here is George Washington’s farewell address for the nation as shown, as annotated here by John Adams.
(Photo by Tom Allen/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Adams, of the Federalist Party, defeated Thomas Jefferson, of the Democratic-Republican Party, in November 1796, two months after Washington’s farewell.
The father of his ountry invoked pride in his new nation, one unique in the history of mankind, as he left public life.
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He said, “The name American, which you have in your national capacity must always exalt patriotism’s just pride more than any other appellation derived form local discriminations.”
“Washington’s Farewell Address spoke to contemporary concerns that the Union was weak and vulnerable to attacks from internal and external enemies,” writes the library of George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
“But even though the uncertainty of the initial national period was over, his message of unity remained strong.”
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Mount Vernon states that Washington’s words are “still recited each year in the United States Senate. A tradition dating back to before the Civil War.” The Farewell Address is a crucial founding document on issues such as Union, partisanship, and isolationism.
