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| Life Facts | Papers at the Library of Congress | Biography by David Ramsay |
In
1796, George Washington decided to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon
and the life of a gentleman farmer. In what is now known as Washington’s
Farewell Address, he sought to explain his decision not to seek reelection
to a third term in office. But he also went on to give advice to his fellow
citizens on the future course of the young country. Among the topics Washington
touched upon is foreign affairs, and the address contains the first comprehensive
and authoritative statement of American foreign policy. These ideas would
guide foreign policy debate in the United States for more than a century.
Friends, and fellow citizens
Observe good faith and justice toward
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
felicity 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 toward all should
be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward 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 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 inducements 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 country 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 toward 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 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 nation 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 remain 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 forego 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, therefore, let those engagements
be observed in 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 respectable 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 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 independence 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 of your welfare, by which they
have been dictated.
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, perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the
right to hold this conduct it is not necessary on this occasion 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 toward 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 any 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
the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I
shall also carry with me the hope the 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.
