新SAT阅读必读演讲解析：Washington's Farewell Address

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1796年9月17日，华盛顿在费城《每日新闻报》上一个不显眼的位置发表了告别演说。在演说中，华盛顿忠告美国人民，地方主义需谨慎，政治派系有危险，保持宗教和道德才是人类幸福之源泉。还告诫未来的美国政府避免卷入国外争端(学名“孤立外交”)。尽管今天的美帝不时充当一下世界警察的角色，但自美国成立到第一次世界大战之前的一百多年里，历届美国政府一直遵循这条原则。

有如此深远影响的演说怎能不看?前方预警，篇幅较长，建议搬个板凳，调大字体，并在WI-FI环境下阅读。

Washington's Farewell Address

Friends and 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 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 counsels, 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 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 governments, which

their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite

foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter.

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 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, towards 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 alliance, 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.

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 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 finds 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 depositaries, 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 Constitutiondesignates. 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 exertion 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 co-operate. 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 a habitual hatred or a 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 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 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 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 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

twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of 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, 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.

Geo. Washington.

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