Introduction Page
(No page folio)
INTRODUCTION
Prepared by the United States Senate Historical Office
In September 1796, worn out by burdens of the presidency and attacks
of political foes, George Washington announced his decision not to seek
a third term. With the assistance of Alexander Hamilton and James
Madison, Washington composed in a “Farewell Address” his political
testament to the nation. Designed to inspire and guide future genera-
tions, the address also set forth Washington’s defense of his administra-
tion’s record and embodied a classic statement of Federalist doctrine.
Washington’s principal concern was for the safety of the eight-year-
old Constitution. He believed that the stability of the Republic was
threatened by the forces of geographical sectionalism, political faction-
alism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation’s domestic af-
fairs. He urged Americans to subordinate sectional jealousies to com-
mon national interests. Writing at a time before political parties had
become accepted as vital extraconstitutional, opinion-focusing agen-
cies, Washington feared that they carried the seeds of the nation’s de-
struction through petty factionalism. Although Washington was in no
sense the father of American isolationism, since he recognized the ne-
cessity of temporary associations for “extraordinary emergencies,” he
did counsel against the establishment of “permanent alliances with
other countries,” connections that he warned would inevitably be sub-
versive of America’s national interest.
Washington did not publicly deliver his Farewell Address. It first ap-
peared on September 19, 1796, in the Philadelphia
Daily American
Advertiser
and then in papers around the country.
In January 1862, with the Constitution endangered by civil war, a thou-
sand citizens of Philadelphia petitioned Congress to commemorate the
forthcoming 130th anniversary of George Washington’s birth by provid-
ing that “the Farewell Address of Washington be read aloud on the morn-
ing of that day in one or the other of the Houses of Congress.” Both
houses agreed and assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber
on February 22, 1862, where Secretary of the Senate John W. Forney “ren-
dered ‘The Farewell Address’ very effectively,” as one observer recalled.
The practice of reading the Farewell Address did not immediately be-
come a tradition. The address was first read in regular legislative ses-
sions of the Senate in 1888 and the House in 1899. (The House continued
the practice until 1984.) Since 1893 the Senate has observed
Washington’s birthday by selecting one of its members to read the
Farewell Address. The assignment alternates between members of each
political party. At the conclusion of each reading, the appointed sena-
tor inscribes his or her name and brief remarks in a black, leather-
bound book maintained by the secretary of the Senate.
The version of the address printed here is taken from the original of
the final manuscript in the New York Public Library provided courtesy
of The Papers of George Washington. The only changes have been to
modernize spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
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