Washington’s Farewell Address
September 19, 1796
Introduction
Sober George Washington daringly made his Farewell Address an open letter of advice and warning to the American people about their long-term safety and happiness. For a great leader to voluntarily relinquish political power and retire from public life was itself unprecedented in the annals of history—an act that contributed to the establishment of republican government in America. But his words on this occasion are no less cherished for, as his biographer and Chief Justice John Marshall put it, “precepts to which the American statesman can not too frequently recur.” With the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Farewell Address constitutes the central statement of the American purpose.
Washington warned of the dangers facing the young republic, chiefly from internal faction and foreign dangers. But he also hailed the greatness that could come from a unity founded on necessity and prosperity, and further graced by the character of its citizens. The Address itself exemplified unity. Drafted in part by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the two collaborators on the Federalist Papers who were now political rivals, the manuscript was revised by Washington and published in Philadelphia’s largest newspaper on September 19, 1796—just nine years after the signing of the Constitution.
