WASHINGTON’S

FAREWELL ADDRESS

TO THE PEOPLE 

OF THE UNITED STATES

106TH CONGRESS 2ND SESSION

SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 106–21, WASHINGTON, 2000

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Introduction Page 

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WASHINGTON’S

FAREWELL ADDRESS

TO THE PEOPLE 

OF THE UNITED STATES

106TH CONGRESS 2ND SESSION

SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 106–21, WASHINGTON, 2000
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 generations, the address also set forth Washington’s defense of his administration’s record and embodied a classic statement of Federalist doctrine.

Washington’s principal concern was for the safety of the eight-yearold Constitution. He believed that the stability of the Republic was 

threatened by the forces of geographical sectionalism, political factionalism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation’s domestic affairs. He urged Americans to subordinate sectional jealousies to common national interests. Writing at a time before political parties had 

become accepted as vital extraconstitutional, opinion-focusing agencies, Washington feared that they carried the seeds of the nation’s destruction through petty factionalism. Although Washington was in no

sense the father of American isolationism, since he recognized the necessity 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 subversive of America’s national interest.

Washington did not publicly deliver his Farewell Address. It first appeared 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 thousand citizens of Philadelphia petitioned Congress to commemorate the

forthcoming 130th anniversary of George Washington’s birth by providing that “the Farewell Address of Washington be read aloud on the morning 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 “rendered ‘The Farewell Address’ very effectively,” as one observer recalled.

The practice of reading the Farewell Address did not immediately become a tradition. The address was first read in regular legislative sessions 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 senator inscribes his or her name and brief remarks in a black, leatherbound 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. 
[1]

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL

ADDRESS

To the people of the United States

❧

Friends and Fellow-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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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. 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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, habit-

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
ual, 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 councils 

and joint efforts—of common dangers, sufferings, 

and successes. 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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, benefitting 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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring 

countries not tied together by the same government, which their own rivalships 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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 heart burnings 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 

[11]

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

alliances, 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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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, until 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. 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

councils 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. 

[14]

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 hypotheses 

and opinion exposes to perpetual change from the 

endless variety of hypotheses 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 govern-

[15]

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
ment, 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 coun-

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
tries 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 the 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 find a facilitated access to the 

government itself through the channels of party 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 depositories 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 Constitution designates. 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. 

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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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 exertions 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 cooperate. To facilitate 

to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that to-

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
wards 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 felic-

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
ity 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 an habitual hatred, or an 

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

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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 coun-

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
try 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 

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WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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 re-

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main 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 forgo 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

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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 respectably 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 to 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 inde-

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pendence 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. 

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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 22d of April 1793 is the 

index to 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, perseverence, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to 

hold this conduct it is not necessary on this occa-

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sion 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 

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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

UNITED STATES

19th September 1796

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