Abraham Lincoln issued a Presidential
Proclamation on February 19, 1862, requesting that all citizens gather on the 22nd and celebrate
Washington’s Birthday by listening to the words of his Farewell Address:
“It is recommended to the people of the United
States that they assemble in their customary places of
meeting for public solemnities on the twenty-second day of February instant,
and celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Father of His Country by
causing to be read to them his immortal
Farewell address.”[1]
We hear much about "rights" in our
time, but seemingly less of civic duty and individual responsibility. Ironically, though neglected, Washington's Farewell Address not only sets forth true maxims of
liberty, but it effectively constitutes a "handbook of an American citizen's
responsibilities.” He teaches the
importance of union to our republic, loyalty to the Constitution, mutual
respect among people and nations, and the value of honesty. He confirms that
morality and religion are indispensable to our individual and collective
happiness and constitute the “twin pillars” of America's political prosperity. All students and citizens should become familiar with our Founding Father's final counsel to each of us and to our nation. In honor of Washington's 285th Birthday, following are a few of my favorite quotes and wisdom from his timeless Farewell Address (1789).
UNION
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.
[I]t 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, habitual, and
immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as
the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its
preservation with jealous anxiety . . . .
AMERICANS FIRST
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.
LIBERTY HAS A PRICE
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.
RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY; OBEDIENCE TO LAWS
This government, the off‑spring 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 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.
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 counsels and modified by mutual interests.
SEPARATION OF POWERS
Liberty itself will find in such a Government,
with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of
thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its
administration to confirm themselves within their respective constitutional
spheres, avoiding the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon
another. The spirit of 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
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.
DANGERS OF THE “SPRITY OF PARTY”
The alternate domination
of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to
party dissension, which in different ages and countries 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. . . .
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 . . . .
RELIGION, MORALITY AND VIRTUE
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.
'Tis 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 friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to
shake the foundation of the fabric?
EDUCATION
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.
PUBLIC CREDIT
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 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.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
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.
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.
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 . . . .
HONESTY
I hold the maxim no less applicable to public
than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy.
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[1] (Abraham Lincoln, Executive Letter dated February 19, 1862, James D. Richardson, ed., "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," (Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.,1902), 5:3289-90).
