Chapter 12 1797

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

UNITED STATES,  January 4, 1797 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I lay before you for your consideration a treaty which has been
negotiated and concluded on the 29th day of June last by Benjamin
Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, and George Clymer, commissioners on behalf
of the United States, with the Creek Indians, together with the
instructions which were given to the said commissioners and the
proceedings at the place of treaty.

I submit also the proceedings and result of a treaty, held at the city
of New York, on behalf of the State of New York, with certain nations or
tribes of Indians denominating themselves the Seven Nations of Canada.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES,  January 9, 1797 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives :

Herewith I lay before you in confidence reports from the Departments of
State and the Treasury, by which you will see the present situation of
our affairs with the Dey and Regency of Algiers.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES,  January 19, 1797 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives :

At the opening of the present session of Congress I mentioned that some
circumstances of an unwelcome nature had lately occurred in relation
to France; that our trade had suffered, and was suffering, extensive
injuries in the West Indies from the cruisers and agents of the French
Republic, and that communications had been received from its minister
here which indicated danger of a further disturbance of our commerce by
its authority, and that were in other respects far from agreeable, but
that I reserved for a special message a more particular communication
on this interesting subject. This communication I now make.

The complaints of the French minister embraced most of the transactions
of our Government in relation to France from an early period of the
present war, which, therefore, it was necessary carefully to review.
A collection has been formed of letters and papers relating to those
transactions, which I now lay before you, with a letter to Mr. Pinckney,
our minister at Paris, containing an examination of the notes of the
French minister and such information as I thought might be useful to
Mr. Pinckney in any further representations he might find necessary to
be made to the French Government. The immediate object of his mission
was to make to that Government such explanations of the principles and
conduct of our own as, by manifesting our good faith, might remove all
jealousy and discontent and maintain that harmony and good understanding
with the French Republic which it has been my constant solicitude to
preserve. A government which required only a knowledge of the  truth 
to justify its measures could not but be anxious to have this fully
and frankly displayed.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES,  March 2, 1797 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

Application having been made to me to permit a treaty to be held with
the Seneca Nation of Indians to effect the purchase of a parcel of their
land under a preemption right derived from the State of Massachusetts
and situated within the State of New York, and it appearing to me
reasonable that such opportunity should be afforded, provided the
negotiation shall be conducted at the expense of the applicant, and at
the desire and with the consent of the Indians, always considering these
as prerequisites, I now nominate Isaac Smith to be a commissioner to
hold a treaty with the Seneca Nation for the aforesaid purpose.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

VETO MESSAGE.

UNITED STATES,  February 28, 1797 .

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

Having maturely considered the bill to alter and amend an act entitled
"An act to ascertain and fix the military establishment of the United
States," which was presented to me on the 22d day of this month, I now
return it to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with
my objections:

First. If the bill passes into a law, the two companies of light
dragoons will be from that moment  legally  out of service, though they
will afterwards continue  actually  in service; and for their services
during this interval, namely, from the time of  legal  to the time of
 actual  discharge, it will not be lawful to pay them, unless some
future provision be made by law. Though they may be discharged at the
pleasure of Congress, in justice they ought to receive their pay, not
only to the time of passing the law, but at least to the time of their
actual discharge.

Secondly. It will be inconvenient and injurious to the public to dismiss
the light dragoons as soon as notice of the law can be conveyed to them,
one of the companies having been lately destined to a necessary and
important service.

Thirdly. The companies of light dragoons consist of 126 noncommissioned
officers and privates, who are bound to serve as dismounted dragoons
when ordered so to do. They have received in bounties about $2,000. One
of them is completely equipped, and above half of the noncommissioned
officers and privates have yet to serve more than one-third of the time
of their enlistment; and besides, there will in the course of the year
be a considerable deficiency in the complement of infantry intended to
be continued. Under these circumstances, to discharge the dragoons does
not seem to comport with economy.

Fourthly. It is generally agreed that some cavalry, either militia or
regular, will be necessary; and according to the best information I have
been able to obtain, it is my opinion that the latter will be less
expensive and more useful than the former in preserving peace between
the frontier settlers and the Indians, and therefore a part of the
military establishment should consist of cavalry.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

PROCLAMATION.

 (From Senate Journal, vol. 2, p. 397.)

MARCH 1, 1797.

 To the Vice-President and Senators of the United States, respectively .

SIR: It appearing to me proper that the Senate of the United States
should be convened on Saturday, the 4th of March instant, you are
desired to attend in the Chamber of the Senate on that day, at 10
o'clock in the forenoon, to receive any communications which the
President of the United States may then lay before you touching
their interests.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

FAREWELL ADDRESS.

UNITED STATES,  September 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 in 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 apprise 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 toward 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 political 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 guaranty 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; that, 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
can not 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 councils 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 same 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 connection 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 can not 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
neighboring 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 imbitter. 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 endeavor to weaken
its bands.

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 endeavor
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 can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies
and heartburnings 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 everything they could desire in respect to our foreign relations
toward 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.

Toward 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 can not 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 your 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 passion. 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
connections 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 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 toward 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 toward 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?

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 toward all should be cultivated. The
nation which indulges toward 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 practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion,
to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small
or weak toward 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 defense 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  connection 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, 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 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 toward 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, 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 toward 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.