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The ADDRESS of General WASHINGTON, on his RESIGNATION of the Prefidency of the United States.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Friends, and Fellow Citizens, THE period for a new election of a citizen, to adminifter the executive government of the United States, being not far diflant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in defignating the perfon, who is to be clothed with that important truft, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more diftinct expreflion of the public voice, that I fhould now apprife you of the refolution I have formed, to decline being confidered among the number of thofe out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the fame time, to do me the juftice to be affured, that this resolution has not been taken, without a ftri&t regard to all the confiderations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of fervice which filence in my fituation might imply, I am influenced by no dimimution of zeal for your future intereft; no deficiency of grateful refpect for your paft kindness; but am fupported by a full conviction that the ftep is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office to which your fuffrages have twice called me, have been an uniform facrifice of inclination to the opinion of dusy, and to a deference for what appeared to be your defire. I conftantly hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my power, confiftently with motives which I was not at liberty to difregard, 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 addrels 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 perfons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

The impreffions with which I first undertook the aiduous truft, were explained on the proper occafion. In the discharge of this truft, I will only fay, that I have with good intentions contributed toward the organization and adminiftration of the govern ment, the best exertions of which a very falhble judgment was capable. Not unconfcious, in the outfet, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps, ftill more in the eyes of others, has ftrengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increafing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the fhade of retirement is as neceffary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumftances have given peculiar value to my fervices, they were temporary, I have the confolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political fcene, 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 fufpend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honours it has conferred upon me; ftill more for the stedfaft confidence with which it has fupported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifelting my inviolable at tachment, by fervices faithful and perfevering, though in ufefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have refulted to our coun try from thefe fervices, let it always be remembered to your praife; and as an inftructive example in our annals, that under circunftances in which the paffions, agitated in every direction, were liable to milead, amid appearances fometimes dubious viciffitudes of fortune often di.couraging in fituations in which not unfrequently want of fuccefs has countenanced the fpirit of criticifm-the constancy of your fupport was the effential prop of the efforts, and a I rejoice, that the ftate of your concerns, guarantee of the plans by which they were external as well as internal, no longer ren- effected. Profoundly penetrated with this ders the purfuit of inclination incompatible idea, I fhall carry it with me to my grave, with the fentiment of duty, or propriety: as a strong incitement to unceafing vows, and am perfuaded whatever partiality may that heaven may continue to you the choibe retained for my fervices, that in the pre- cett tokens of its beneficence-that your fent circumstances of our country, you will union and brotherly affection may be pernot difapprove of my determination to re-petual-that the free conftitution, which is the work of your hands, may be facredly

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maintained that its adminiftration in every department may be ftamped with wifdom and virtue-that, in fine, the happiness of the people of thefe ftates, under the aufpices of liberty, may be made complete, by fo carefu! a prefervation and fo prudent a ufe of this bleffing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applaufe, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to flop. But a folicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehenfion of danger, natural to that folicitude, urge me, on an occafion like the prefent, to offer to your folemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, fome fentiments, which are the refult of much reflection of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. Thele will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only fee in them the difinterefted warnings of a parting friend, who can poffibly have no perfonal motives to bias his countel. Nor can I forget as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my fentiments on a former and not diffimilar occafion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is neceffary to fortify or confirm the attachment,

The unity of government which conftitutes you one people, is alfo now dear to you. It is july fo for it is a main pilJar in the edifice of your real independence, the fupport of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your fafety; of your profperity of that very liberty which you i to highly prize. But as it is easy to forefee, that from different caufes, 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 infidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you hould properly eftimate the immenfe value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you fhould cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accultoming yourfelves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political fafety and profperity; watch ing for its prefervation with jealous anxiety; difcountenancing whatever may suggest even afufpicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the

firft dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the reft, or to enfeeble the facred ties which now link together its various parts...

For this you have every inducement of fympathy and intereft. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of America, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the juft pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local difcriminations. With flight shades of difference, you have the fame religious manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common caufe fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberry you poflefs are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts of common dangers, fufferings, and fucceffes.

But thefe confiderations, however powerfully they addrefs themselves to your fenfibility, are greatly outweighed by thofe which apply more immediately to your intereft. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preferving the union of the whole.

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The North, in an unrestrained intercourfe with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the production of the latter, great additional refources of maritime and commercial enter

prize, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South in the fame intercourfe, benefiting by the agency of the North, fees its agriculture grow, and and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the feamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and encrease the general maís of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime ftrength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The Eaft, in a like intercourie with the Weft, already finds, and in the progreffive 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 Welt derives from the Eaft fupplies requifite to its growth and comfort; and what is, perhaps, of ftill greater confequence, it must of neceffity owe the fecure enjoyment of indifpenfable outlets for its own productions, to the weight, influence, and the future maritime ftrength of the Atlantic fide of the Union, directed by an indiffoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which

the Weft can hold this effential advantage, whether derived from its own feparate itrength, or from an apoftate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinfically precarious.

While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular intereft in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater ftrength, greater resource, proportionably greater fecurity from external danger, a lefs frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations! and what is of ineftimable value! they muft derive from union an exemption of those broils, and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the fame government; which their own rivalfhips alone would be fufficient to produce, but which oppofiteforeign alliances, attachments, and intrigues, would ftimulate and embitter. Hence likewife they will avoid the neceffity of thofe overgrown military eftablifliments, which, under any form of government are inaufpicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hoftile to republican liberty in this fenfe it is, that your union ought to be confidered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the prefervation of the other.

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Thefe confiderations speak a perfuafive language to every reficcting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic defire. Is there a doubt, whether a common government can embrace fo large a phere? Let experience folve it. To liften to mere fpeculations in fuch a cafe were criminal. We are authorised to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the refpective fubdivifions, will afford a happy iffue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With fuch powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience fhall not have demonftrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to disturb the patriotifm of those who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as matter of very ferious concern, that any ground fhould have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical difcriminations -Northern and Southern-Atlantic and Western; whence defigning men may endeavour to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One

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of the expedients of party to acquire influ ence within particular diftricts, is to mifreprefent the opinions and aims of other dif tricts. You cannot fhield yourselves too much against the jealoufies and heartburnings which fpring from thefe mifreprefentations; they tend to render alien to each other thofe who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Weftern country have lately had an ufeful leffon on this head; they have feen, in the negociation by the executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the fenate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the univerfal fatisfaction at the event throughout the United States, a decifive proof how unfounded were the fufpicions propagated among them, of a policy in the general government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interefts in regard to the Miffiflippi: they have been witnetles to the formation of two 'treaties, that with Great Britain and that with Spain, which fecure to them every thing they could defie, in refpect to our foreign relations, toward confirming their profperity! Will it not be their wisdom to rely, for the prefervation of these advantages, on the union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to thofe advifers, if fuch there are, who would fever them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indifpenfable. Noalliance, however ftrict, between the parts, can be an adequate fubititure; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which ali alliances, in all times, have experienced. Senfible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a conftitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This govern ment, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribu tion of its powers, uniting fecurity with energy, and containing within itself a provifion for its own amendment, has a juft claim to your confider.ce and your fupport. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiefcence in its meafures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political fyftems is the right of the people to make and to alter their conftitutions of government; but the conftitution which at any time exifts, till changed by an explicit and authen

tic act of the whole people, is facredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to eftablish government prefuppofes the duty of every individual to obey the established go

vernment.

All obftructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and affociations, under whatever plaufible character, with the real defign to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the conftituted authorities, are deftructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They ferve 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 fmall but artful and enterprizing minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public adminitration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of confittent and wholefome plans, digefted by common councils, and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or affociations of the above description may now and then anfwer popular ends, they are likely, in the courfe of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to fubvert the power of the people, and to ufurp to themfelves the reins of government, deftroying afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Toward the prefervation of your government, and the permanency of your prefent happy ftate, it is requifite, not only that you fteadily discountenance irregular oppofitions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you refilt with care the fpirit of innovation upon its principles, however fpecious the pretexts. One method of affault may be, to effect in the forms of the conftitution alterations which will impair the energy of the fyftem, 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 neceffary to fix the true character of governments as of other human inftitutions that experience is the surest standard, by which to teft the real tendency of the existing conftitution of a country-that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothefis and opinion, from the endless variety of hypothefis and opinion; and, remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country fo extenfive as ours, a govern

ment of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect fecurity of liberty, is indifpenfable. Liberty itself will find in fuch a government, with powers properly diftributed and adjusted, its furelt guardian. It is, indeed, little elfe than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprizes or factions, to confine each member of the fociety within the limits prefcribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the fecure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of perfon and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the ftate, with particular reference to the founding of them on gec graphical difcriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the moft folemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

This fpirit, unfortunately, is infeparable from our nature, having its root in the ftrongest paffions of the human mind. It exifts under different fhapes in all governmeres, more or lefs ftifled, controlled, or repreffed; but in those of the popular form, it is feen in its greatest ranknefs, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, fharpened by the fpirit of revenge, natural to party diffenfion, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a molt horrid defpotifm: but this leads at length, to a more formal and permanent defpotifm

The diforders and miferies which refult, gradually incline the minds of men to feek fecurity and repofe in the abfolute power of an individual; and fooner or later the chief of fome prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this difpofition 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 fight) the common and continual mifchiefs of the spirit of party are fufficient to make it the intereft and duty of a wife people to difcourage and reftrain it.

It ferves always to diftract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealoufies and falfe alarms kindles the animofity of one part again another, foments occafionally riot and infurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government_itself through the channels of party, paffions. Thus the policy and will of one country

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are fubjected to the policy and will of an

other.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the adminiftration of the government, and ferve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true: and in governments of a monarchical caft, patriotifm may look with indulgence, if not with favour, upon the fpirit of party. But in thofe 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 falutary purpose. And there being conftant danger of excefs, the effects ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and affuage it. A fire not to be quenched; it demands an uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, left, instead of warming, it should confume.

It is important likewife, that the habits of thinking in a free country, fhould infpire caution in thofe entrusted with its adminiftration, to confine themselves within their refpective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercife of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The Ipirit of encroachment tends to confolidate the powers of all departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real defpotifm. A juft eftimate of that love of power, and pronenefs to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is fufficient to fatisfy us of the truth of this pofition. The neceffity of reciprocal checks in the exercife of political power, by dividing and diftributing it into different depofitaries, and conftituting each the guardian of the public weal againft in vafions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preferve them must be as necelfary as to inftitute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the diftribution or modification of the conftitutional power be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the conftitution defignates. But let there be no change by ufurpation; for though this, in one inftance, may be the inftrument of good, it is the cuffomary weapon by which free governments are deftroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or tranfient benefit which the ufe can at any time yield.

Of all the difpofitions and habits which lead to political profperity, religion and morality are indifpenfable fupports. In

vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotifm, who should labour to subvert thefe great pillars of human happiness, these firmeft props of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to refpect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connection with private and public felicity. Let it be fimply afked, where is the fecurity for property, for reputation, for life, if the fenfe of religious obligation defert the oaths which are the inftruments of investigation in courts of juftice? And let us with caution indulge the fuppofition, 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 exclufion of religious principle.

It is fubftantially true, that virtue or morality is a neceffary fpring of popular government, The rule indeed extends with more or lefs force to every fpecies of free government. Who that is a fincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, inftitutions for the general diffufion of knowledge. In proportion as the ftructure of government gives force to public opinion, it is effential that public opinion fhould be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and fecurity cherish public credit. One me thod of preferving it is to ufe it as fparingly as poffible; avoiding occafions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering alfo that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater dif burlements to repel it; avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of debt; not only by hunning occafions of expence, but by vi gorous exertions in time of peace to dif charge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occafioned, not ungenerously throwing upon pofterity the burden which we ourfelves ought to bear. The execu tion of these maxims belongs to your re prefentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion fhould co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is effential that you should practically bear in mind, that toward the payment of debts there must be a revenue; that to have a revenue, there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or lefs inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinfic embarraffment infeparable from the election of their proper objects (which is

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