Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1900-02-22
GEORGE WASHINGTON
BORN FEBRUARY %. 17s2.
DIED DECEMBER IA, 1893.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE
GREAT BEREAVEMENT.

ONE ID UNDhEO Ears O1NCE n II
GREAT BEREAVEMENT.
THE IMMORTAL FAREWELL ADDRESS OF
THE GREAT FATHER-HIs SOLEMN
WORDS OF ADVICE AND ADMoNI-
TIoN TO THE LAND HE LOVED
AND ITS PEOPLE FOR
ALL TIME
IDterwoYen as is the love of liberty with
every ligament of your hearts, no recon-
mendation of mine is necessary to iortify
or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which consti-
tutes you one people, is also now dear to
you. 1t is justly so for it is 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 differ
ent 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 exter-
nal enemies will be most constantly and
actively Though often covertly and asid-
iously) directed, it is of infinite moment
that you should properly estimate the i'm
mense value of your national Union to
your collective and individual happiness ;
that you should cherish a cordial, habtual,
and imm0vable attachment to il; aceustom-
ing yourselves to think and speak of it as
of the palladium of your political safety
and prosperity; watching for its preserva
tion with jealous anxiety; discountenancing
whatever may suggest even suspicion that
it can, in any event, be abandoned and
Indignantly trowning upon the first dawn
ing of every attempt to ALLEVIATE 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 common country, that coun-
try 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 patriot
ism, more than any appellation derived
from local determinations With slight
shades of difference, you have the same
religion, manners, habits and political
principles You have, in a ommon cause,
fought and triumphed together; the inde-
pendence and liberty you possess are the
work of joint counsels and joint Efforts
of common dangers, sufferings and sue
cesses.
But these considerations, however pow
erfully they address themselves to your
sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those
which apply more Immediately to your in
terest: here every portion of our country
| finds the most commanding motives for
carefully guarding and preserving the
union of the whole. x X
While, then, eYerv part of our country
thus feels an immediate and particular in
terest in UNION, all the parts combined cam
not fail to find, in the uDited mass of means
and efforts, greater strength, greater re-
source, proportionateIy greater security
from external danger, less frequent inter-
ruptlon OF their peace by foreign nations;
and, what is of inestimable value, they
must derive from union an exemption from
those br0ils and wars between themselves
which 80 frequently affiict neighboring
countries, not tied together by the same
government, which their own rivalship
alone would be sufficient to produce, but
which opposite foreign alliances, attach
ments 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 particular
| y hostile to republican liberty; in this
sense it is that your union ought to be con-
sidered 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 persuasive
language to every rejecting and virtuous
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the
Union as primary object of patriotic de-
4 sire
To the efficacy and permanency of your
Union, Government for the whole is in
dispensable. No alliance, however strict
between the parts, can be an adequate sub
stitute; they must inevitably experience
the infractions and interruptions which all
alliances, in all time, have experienced.
Sensible of this momentous truth, you
have improved upon your first essay, by
the adoption of Constitution of Govern
ment better calculated than your former
for an intimate Union, and for the efica-
ci0us management of your common con-
Germs. This Government, the offspring of
our own choice, uninfuenced and unawed,
deiberation, completely free in it's princi.
| Piles, in the distribution of it's powers,
uniting security with energy, and contain
ing within itself provision for its own
amendment, has Just claim to your con-
| idence and your support. Respect for its
authority, compliance with its laws, acqui-
escence in its measures, are duties eDioined
by the fundamental maxims of true liberty.
The basis of our political system is the
| right of the people to make and to alter
their Constitutions of Government; but the
Constitution which at any time exists. till
changed bv an explicit and authenic act of
the whole people, is sacredly obligatory
upon all. The very idea of the power and
the right of the people to establish Govern
ment, presupposes the duty of every indi-
vidual to obey the established Govern
ment
There is an opinion that parties in free
countries, are useful checks upon the ad-
ministration of the Government and serve
to keep alive the spirit OF liberty. This,
within certain limits, is probably true and
in Governments Of monarchical cast pat.
riotism may look with indulgence, if not
with favor, upon the spirit of party. But
in those of the popular character, in Gov
ernments 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 flame, lest, instead of warming, it
should consume.
1t is important, likewise. that the habits
of thinking, in free country, should in
spire caution in those intrnsted with its adj
ministration to confine themselves within
their respective constitutional spheres,
avoiding, in the exercise of one department,
to encroach upon another. The spirit OF