When George Washington decided that he didn’t want to be President anymore, he wrote a surprisingly lovely and heartfelt farewell address to the American People.
I pulled out a few quotes, and I urge you to read them, bearing in mind current events and your place in history as an American in 2017.
1. I shall carry it with me to my grave ... 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.
2. It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness.
3. 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.
4. Your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and the love of the one ought to endear you to the preservation of the other.
5. Let me … warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.
6. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissention … is itself a frightful despotism.
7. The disorders and miseries [from the spirit of party] 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.
8. 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.
9. Cultivate good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.
10. ...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.
Today, I sometimes hear the cry that we need to respect our founding fathers’ wishes; they knew best for our country; we ought abide by the Constitution and other founding documents. …But I normally only hear that sort of argument pulled out when gun rights are up for debate.
Here I encourage you to consider a founding father’s words in the context of all American politics.
In this letter, Washington does not address Congress nor the President nor the Supreme Court: his suggestions read like fatherly advice to the American people. His ideal for us (even, I believe, in 2017) is to place the physical and political unity of America higher than any other thing in this world.
He condemns a split of the American people into political parties. He warns against corruption, passionate (therefore divisive) party differences, strong feelings toward other nations, the meddling of other nations in our politics, a passionate, thoughtless faction of Americans encouraging the uprising of a national leader who is only in his position because of fortunate circumstances – whose leadership could risk imposing on the liberty of certain Americans…
Just ponder this. Think about George Washington. Would he oppose or support protests? What does valuing unity in our nation look like? Do we tend to act with brotherly love, wisdom and virtue as Americans? What would he say to us as American people about the status of our government and presidential administration?
Would George Washington be pleased with us or ashamed of us?
