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 and 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 anything 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, humanely 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. EVENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. 870. Iceland discovered by the Northmen. 876 or 877. Greenland discovered by the Northman Gunnbjorn. 983. First colony in the New World planted by Eric the Red, at Ericsford, Greenland. 1000. North America discovered by Leif, the son of Eric the Red. 1002. Voyage of Thorvald, brother of Leif, to Vinland. 1007. Expedition under Thorfinn to Vinland, with birth of Snorri, first European child in North America. 1436. Christopher Columbus born in Genoa, Italy. 1492. August 3. Columbus sailed with his fleet from Palos, Spain, for the New World. 1492. October 12. The New World (Watling's Island) discovered by Columbus. 1492. December 6. Hayti discovered by Columbus, who founded at Isabella the first Spanish colony in America. 1496. August 4. Santo Domingo, Hayti, the oldest permanent settlement in the New. World, founded. 1497. June 24. North America discovered by John and Sebastian Cabot, probably the coast of Labrador. 1498. August 1. South America discovered by Columbus during his third voyage. 1499. First voyage of Amerigo Vespucci to the New World. 1506. First French expedition under Jean Denys explored the coast of the New World. 1507. The New World first called America in Cosmographie Introductio. 1512. April 2. Florida discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon. 1513. September 25. Pacific Ocean discovered by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. 1519. March 4. Conquest of Mexico begun by landing of Hernando Cortes. 1524. March 10. Verrazzano, with a French expedition, arrived off the New World near Cape Fear, North Carolina. 1541. May 1. The Mississippi River discovered by Fernando de Soto. 1565. September 8. St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest town in the United States, founded by Pedro Menendez. 1578-79. The western coast of North America explored by Sir Francis Drake, who I called it New Albion. 1587. July. Settlement on Roanoke Island of colonists under John White sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. 1587. August 18. Virginia Dare, first child of English parents born in the New World. 1603. March 15. Samuel de Champlain left France to explore America. 1606. April 10. 1607. May 14. Patents granted by James I. of England to Virginia companies. First permanent English settlement made in Jamestown, Virginia. 1608. July 3. First permanent French settlement made in Quebec, Canada. 1609. September 11. The Hudson River discovered by Henry Hudson, who entered New York Bay on September 3. 1614. A fort erected on Manhattan Island by the Dutch. 1620. December 21. The Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, making the first permanent English settlement in New England. 1621. July 1. The Dutch West India Company incorporated. 1622. First iron made in America by John Berkeley near Richmond, Virginia. 1623. May. First permanent Dutch settlement made in New York city. 1623. First permanent settlement by the Dutch (Walloons) in Brooklyn, New York. 1630. The colony of Connecticut granted to the Earl of Warwick. 1630. September 7. First permanent settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. 1631. First iron mill built in New England in Lynn, Massachusetts. 1632. June 20. Maryland granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles I. 1634. March 25. First permanent settlement of Maryland, in St. Mary's, by Leonard Calvert. 1635. October. Roger Williams exiled by the General Court of Massachusetts. 1636. June. Providence, Rhode Island, founded by Roger Williams. 1636. October 28. Harvard College founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1638. April 18. Colony of New Haven founded by Puritans. It continued separate till 1665. 1638. April. First permanent Swedish settlement made, near Wilmington, Delaware. 1639. The first printing-press in the colonies erected in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1643. The colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, formed "The United Colonies of New England." 1645. Direct slave trade between New England and West Africa begun. 1647. First execution for witchcraft in New England. 1661. Publication by John Eliot of the New Testament in the Indian dialect of Massachusetts. 1664. September 5. The New Netherlands surrendered to the English by Governor Stuyvesant. 1670. The Hudson Bay Company formed by grant to Prince Rupert and others from Charles II. 1675. June 24. King Philip's war broke out. It lasted a year. 1676. July. Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against Governor Berkeley in Virginia. 1681. Second printing-press in the colonies erected in Williamsburg, Virginia. 1681. February 24. Charles II. granted a patent to William Penn of territory known as Pennsylvania. 1682. April 9. La Salle reached the Gulf of Mexico after having descended the Mississippi River from its junction with the Illinois River. 1682. October. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn. |