George Washington's Farewell Address

September 17, 1776 George Washington announced his decision not to seek a third term as President. Washington presented his “Farewell Address” in a newspaper article.

President George Washington was frustrated by French meddling in U.S. politics. He warned the nation to avoid permanent alliances with foreign nations and to rely instead on temporary alliances for emergencies.

This practice is again used in the Biden administration, being resumed, for the most part, after the previous administration broke all alliances with our allies, broke off all treaties, trade agreements, and all other agreements and treaties the Inited States had with all foreign countries.

Washington’s efforts to protect the fragile young republic by steering a neutral course between England and France during the French Revolutionary Wars was made extremely difficult by the intense rhetoric flowing from the pro-English Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the pro-French, personified by Thomas Jefferson.

This, to me, compares with today. There’s the rhetoric being constantly talked by the former president, all of his followers both in public office, those appointed to judgeships, and the sheep who have fell into his trance.

In his farewell address, Washington exhorted Americans to set aside their violent likes and dislikes of foreign nations, lest they be controlled by their passions:

“The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.”

In the below C-SPAN video, Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), in an annual Senate tradition, read President George Washington’s Farewell Address. A public letter announcing his retirement after two terms as president was published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1796.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?525425-2/george-washingtons-1796-farewell-address

Washington’s remarks have served as an inspiration for American isolationism, and his advice against joining a permanent alliance was heeded for more than a century and a half.

Washington’s farewell address was designed to inspire and guide future generations. The address also set forth Washington's defense of his administration's record and embodied a classic statement of Federalist doctrine. Washington's principal concern was for the safety of the eight-year-old Constitution.

In his "Farewell Address," Washington offered his advice to the citizens of the United States. He had several key points for the people:

• Point 1. Remain United.

• Point 2. the right of the people to change the government through amendments to the constitution.

• Point 3. checks and balances and the seperation of powers.

• Point 4. Foreign Relations - warned of the dangers of permanent alliance.

• Point 5. Credit and government borrowing.

Furthermore, Washington warned:

• He warned Americans against the danger of political parties

• To remain neutral in foreign conflicts, and

• To celebrate their achievements.

Washington warned that the forces of geographical sectionalism, political factionalism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation's domestic affairs threatened the stability of the republic.

He warned the American people to be suspicious of anyone who seeks to abandon the Union, secede a portion of the country from the rest, or weaken the bonds that hold together the constitutional union.

Here again, like today. Texas is, has been, talking of succeeding from the United States. Is it possible that Washington had a premonition of things to come 227 years later?

George Washington’s Farewell Address

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf