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Republican Statesmanship · Address
Farewell Address
by George Washington · The Republic's First Example · American Founding, 1732-1799
Washington's central warning about national unity, faction, foreign entanglements, and the habits required for republican survival.
- Intermediate
- 1796
- ~30 min read
- 6 chapter guides
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the Retirement and Parting Counsel guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
A Republic on Its Own
Washington's Farewell Address was not delivered from a platform. It appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper in September 1796, announcing that the first president would not seek a third term. Washington shaped it through years of thought and drafts prepared with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. His departure put a question into practice: could a republic continue without the person whose reputation had helped hold it together?
The revolution had been won and the Constitution adopted, but the harder experiment was still young. Could a large republic survive sectional jealousy, organized faction, debt, foreign pressure, and the temptation to place party above country? Washington writes as a retiring executive who has watched each danger move from theory into government.
The affection of a parting friend and the record of a president speak in the same voice. His warnings carry the authority of experience, but also the urgency of someone whose choices have met opposition. Citizens are being asked to weigh that counsel while preparing to entrust the office to another person.
The opening pages
Retirement and Parting Counsel
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.
Chapter guides · 6
Retirement and Parting Counsel
Leaving Power Is Part of the Argument
Washington's retirement turns private preference into a republican precedent.
A retirement defended
Washington announces that he will not stand for another term, thanks the country, and begins the counsel he cannot bring himself to withhold. He presents retirement as both a personal longing and a judgment that the republic no longer needs his continued service.
Authority in departure
Washington grounds some of his authority in his willingness to leave. He distinguishes enduring attachment to the country from the temporary need for his own services. Retirement can therefore satisfy duty instead of betraying it.
Counsel without an office
At “Here, perhaps, I ought to stop,” gratitude gives way to advice. Washington presents himself as a parting friend without a personal motive to bias his counsel. This is his claim to disinterestedness, not proof that a retiring president’s political judgments are beyond dispute.
The Union as Liberty's Main Prop
Union Is the Main Prop
National unity is not sentiment alone; Washington treats it as the working condition of liberty.
Regions that need one another
Washington argues that every region gains concrete security and prosperity from the Union. He answers sectional suspicion with shared history, interdependence, and the claim that a common government prevents both internal war and dangerous military buildup.
Security as a condition of liberty
Union and liberty are often treated as competing values. Washington binds them together: without union, regional rivalries and foreign alliances would create the insecurity that makes free government harder to preserve.
Suspicion turned into a weapon
Washington fears geographical labels used to misrepresent one region’s aims to another. He invokes the treaties with Britain and Spain, especially western access to the Mississippi, as evidence against suspicions that the Atlantic states neglect the West. His account defends the administration’s diplomacy as well as the principle of union.
Constitution and the Spirit of Party
Party Can Become a Machine
A movement that claims to speak for the people can learn to replace their delegated will.
The Supports of Public Prosperity
Liberty Needs Supports
Institutions cannot carry a republic without habits that sustain trust and judgment.
Foreign Influence and Independence
Attachment Is Another Form of Dependence
Hatred and favoritism can surrender judgment as surely as formal submission.
Neutrality and the Final Farewell
Neutrality Buys Time
Washington closes by explaining what restraint was meant to make possible.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read Farewell Address?
- About 30 min in total.
- How difficult is Farewell Address?
- Intermediate. A short address; about 30 minutes of reading.
- Can I read Farewell Address for free?
- Yes. Farewell Address is free to read with a Nexus account.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- 6 chapter guides, written by the Nexus editors. Two open in full here; the rest show their opening line.
About George Washington
George Washington was commander of the Continental Army, presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, and the first president of the United States. His importance lies not only in winning power, but in limiting it, defining the presidency, and making republican self-government credible.
“What does power look like when it chooses restraint?”
Washington gave the American republic its first model of executive power, military restraint, and peaceful legitimacy. He made the presidency powerful, but not kingly.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. Farewell Address is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.