Addrefs of General Washington on his retiring from the Office of Prefident of the United States of America.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED

STATES.

Friends and Fellow Citizens, THE period for a new election of a citizen to adminifter the executive government of the United States being not far diftant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in defignating the perfon who is to be clothed with that important truft, it appears to me proper, efpecially as it may conduce to a more diftin&t expreffion of the public voice, that I thould now apprife you of the refolution I have formed to decline being confidered among the number of thofe out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the fame time, to do me the juftice to be affured, that this refolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the confiderations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country, and that, in withdrawing the tender of fervice, which filence in my fituation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future intereft; no deficiency of grateful refpe&t for your pait kindnefs; but am fupported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office to which your fuffrages have twice called me, have been an uniform facrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your defire. I conftantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power,

confiftently with motives which I was not at liberty to difregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The ftrength of my inclination to do this, previous to my laft election, had even led to the preparation of an addrefs 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 perfons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the fate of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pufuit of inclination incompatible with the fentiment of duty or propriety; and am perfuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my fervices, that in the prefent circumftances of our country, you will not difapprove my determination to retire.

The impreffions with which I firft undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occafion. In the difcharge of this truft I will only fay, that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and adminiftration-of the government, the beft exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconfcious in the outfet of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps ftill more in the eyes of others, has ftrengthened the motives to diffidence of myfelf; and every day the increafing weight of years admonishes ine more and more that the fhade of retirement is as neceffary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my fervices, they were temporary; I

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your peace abroad; of your fafety; of your profperity; of that very liberty which you fo highly prize. But as it is eafy to forefee, that from different caufes, 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 fortrefs against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be moft confiantly and actively (though covertly and infidioufly) directed, it is of infinite moment that you fhould properly estimate the immenfe value of your national union to your collective and individual happnefs; that you fhould cherith a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment to it, accustoming yourselves to think and fpeak of it as of the palladium of your political fafety and profperity; watching for its prefervation with jealous anxiety; difcountenancing whatever may fuggeft even a fufpicion that it can in any event be abandoned and indignantly frowning upon the firit dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the reft, or to enfeeble the facred ties which now link together its various parts.

For this you have every induce ment of fympathy and intereft. 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, muft always exalt the juft pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local difcriminations. With flight fhades of difference, you have the fame religion, manners, habits, and poitical principles. You have in a

common caufe fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you poffefs-are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, fufferings, and fucceffes.

But thefe confiderations, however powerfully they address themfelves to your fenfibility, are greatly outweighed by thofe which apply more immediately to your intereft. Here every portion of our country finds the moft commanding motives for carefully guarding and preferving the union of the whole.

The north, in an unrestrained intercourfe with the fouth, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter, great additional refources of maritime and commercial enterprife, and precious materials of manufacturing induftry. The fouth, in the fame intercourfe, benefiting by the agency of the north, fees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand; turning partly into its own channels the feamen 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 ftrength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The eaft, in a like intercourie with the weft, already finds, and in the progreffive improvement of interior communication by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commoditics which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The wet derives from the eat fupplies requifite to its growth and comfort; U 4

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and what is perhaps of fill greater confequence, it must of neceflity owe the fecure enjoyment of indifpenfable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime ftrength of the Atlantic fide of the union, directed by an indiffoluble community of intereft as one nation. Any other tenure by which the weft can hold this effential advantage, whether derived from its own feparate ftrength, or from an apoftate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, mult be intrinfically precarious.

While every part of our country feels an immediate and particular intereft in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mais of means and efforts, greater frength, greater refource, proportionably greater fecurity from external danger, a lefs frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and what is of ineftimable value! they mufi derive from union an exemption from thofe broils and wars between themfelves, which fo frequently afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the fame government; which their own rival hips alone would be fufficient to produce, but which oppofite foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues, would ftimulate and imbitter. Hence, like wife, they will avoid the neceflity of thofe overgrown eftablishments, which, under any form of government, are inaufpicions to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hoftile to republican liberty; in this fenfe it is that your union ought to be confidered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the profervation of the other.

These confiderations speak a per fuafive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibits the continuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic defire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace fo large a fphere? Let experience folve it. To liften to mere fpeculations in fuch a cafe were criminal. We are authorifed to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the refpective fubdivifions, will afford a happy luc to the experiment. 'Tis well worth a fair and full experiment. With fuch powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience thall not have demonftrated its imprac ticability, there will always be reafon to diftruft the patriotifm of thofe, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the caufes which may disturb our union, it occurs as matter of ferious concern, that any ground fhould have been furnished for characterifing parties by geographical difcriminations, northern and fouthern, Atlantic and western; whence defigning men may endeavour to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interefts and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular diftri&ts, is to mifreprefent the opinions and aims of other diftricts. You cannot fhield yourfeives too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from thefe mifreprefentations: they tend to render alien to each other thofe who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our weftern country

have lately had an useful leffon on this head; they have feen, in the negotiation by the executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the fenate of the treaty with Spain, and in the univerfal fatisfaction at the event throughout the United States, a decifive proof how unfounded were the fufpicions propagated among them of a policy in the general government, and in the Atlantic ftates, unfriendly to their interefts in regard to the Miffilippi: they have been witneffes to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which fecure to them every thing they could defire, in refpect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their profperity. Will it not be their wifdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advilers, if fuch there are, who would fever them from their brethren, and connect with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indifpenfible. No alliances, however ftrict, between the parties, can be an adequate fubfiitute; they muft inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Senfible of this momentous truth you have improved upon your firit ellay, by the adoption of a conflitution 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 inveftigation, and mature deliberation, com

pletely free in its principles, in the diftribution of its powers, uniting fecurity with energy, and containing within itfelf a provifion for its own amendment, has juft claim to your confidence and your fupport. Refpect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiefcence in its meafures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The bafis of our political fyftems is the right of the people to make and to alter their conftitutions of government; but the conftitution, which at any time exifts, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is facredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to eftablith government, prefuppofes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obftructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and affociations, under whatever plaufible character, with the real defign to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the conftituted authorities, are deftructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They ferve 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 fmall but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public adminiftration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of confiftent and wholesome plan, digefted by common councils, and modified by mutual interefts.

However