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   This address was written primarily to eliminate himself as a candidate 
   for a third term. It was never read by the President in public, but it was
   printed in Claypoole's AMERICAN DAILY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia,
   September 19, 1796. The address is in two parts: In the first, Washington 
   declines a third term, gives his reasons, and acknowledges a debt 
   of gratitude for the honors conferred upon him and for the confident 
   support of the people. In the second more important part, he presents, 
   as a result of his experience and as a last legacy of advice, thoughts 
   upon the government.

   George Washington gave Claypoole a manuscript which he called "his copy" 
   and it was from this manuscript that the type was set in the newspaper. 
   After Claypoole's death, the manuscript was ordered to be sold at auction
   on February 12, 1850.  Senator Henry Clay on January 24 offered a joint     
   resolution for its purchase by the government, but the resolution was not   
   signed by President Taylor until the day of the sale. The manuscript was
   sold to James Lenox for $2,300, and passed, with his library, to the New 
   York Public Library.  There is no evidence of any bid on behalf of the 
   national government.

   The following is an exact word for word text of the original.  Nothing has  
   been changed or omitted except old English spelling and punctuation. 
   
                               -------------

   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 towards 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 public 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 guarantee 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    
   cannot 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 tranquility 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 immoveable attachment to it; 
   accustoming yourself 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, benefitting by the 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 cannot 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 government, 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 cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies 
   and heart burnings 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, 
   towards confirming their prosperity.  Will it not be their wisdom to 
   rely for the preservation of these advantaged 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 illconcerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather 
   than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common 
   councils, 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.

   Towards 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 cannot 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 hypotheses 
   and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of 
   hypotheses 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 enterprise 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 dissention, 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 passions. 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 entrusted 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.

   'Tis 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 may have occasioned, 
   not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden 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 towards 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 towards 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 towards all should be cultivated.  The 
   nation which indulges towards 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 of 
   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, towards 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 defence 
   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?
   
   `Tis 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 
   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 `tis 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.  'Tis 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 any thing 
   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, 
   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 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
   
   United States, 17th September 1796