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Washington’s Farewell Address Assignment
In his final term as the country's first president, George Washington wrote his farewell
speech to the American people in 1796. He articulated his reasons for wanting to leave public
and political forums. Washington continued by outlining many ideas that he thought would offer
guidance for upcoming presidents, elections, and the nation as a whole. Washington's Farewell
Address became a well-known political document in the country and is currently spoken
throughout legislative sessions on the anniversary of Washington's birth (U.S. Senate, 2022).
The main focus of Washington's Farewell Address at its very beginning is his motivation
for retiring. Washington admitted that he intended to step down from office after his first term
and had even written an address at the time but owing to the dreadful state of international affairs
and the overwhelming support for his leadership, he decided to continue serving (Washington,
1796, para. 3). Washington felt he had to retire as his second term was coming to a close because
of the toll that the political and public spheres had taken on him.
Washington expressed his expectations for the future of American leadership even if his
stint as president was coming to an end. He pleaded for harmony and peace between the North
and the South and emphasized how they could rely on one another to strengthen the country as a
whole. Washington emphasized the value of morals and religion. He warned the country about
political parties and about debt. "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 able to
subvert the Power of the People, to usurp for themselves the reins of Government, and to destroy
afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion," he said in reference to
the dangers of their formation (Washington, 1796, para. 17). He urged peace between the United
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States and all other countries, especially in light of the country's recent formation.
Washington emphasized the value of religion and its relationship to morality in his
farewell speech. He asserted that morality is a religious duty and is unavoidably required. "Let it
simply be asked where the security for property is, for reputation, for life, if the sense of
religious obligation deserts the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of
Justice," Washington said. And let us accept the idea that virtue can be upheld without religion
with prudence (Washington, 1796, para. 26). If a political figure lacked religious principles, the
government as a whole would be susceptible to corruption and would not be guided in the way
that the founding fathers had originally intended.
George Washington's Farewell addressed the issue of national debt. Washington discussed
several justifications for our debt, such as necessary war. He also emphasized ways to prevent it
or minimize it, saying, "One way to preserve it is to use it as sparingly as possible. Avoiding
occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely expenditures to
prepare for danger often prevent much greater expenditures to repel it—avoiding also the
accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous efforts in time
of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have created” (Washington, 1796,
para. 29). Washington emphasized the significance of maintaining a low level of national debt
and the dangers of doing otherwise.
Currently, political parties are a significant source of conflict among Americans. "The
alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to
party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities,
is itself a frightful despotism," was the warning issued by George Washington to the country
(Washington, 1796, para. 21). He listed the several ways that the creation of political parties
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would put the country in peril.
Working to prevent and eliminate the national debt before it constituted a threat to our
country was a recommendation made by Washington that hasn't stood up to this day. We
currently owe $33 trillion according to the U.S. National Debt Clock (United States National
Debt Clock, 2023). Religion and moral principles are slowly vanishing from our nation. Despite
the fact that the majority of Americans still identify as Christians, it is conceivable and even
likely that by 2070, the majority of them will no longer do so (Levitt, 2022). Ever since they
were founded many years ago, political parties have caused division in the nation. It always
serves to weaken the public administration and divert public councils, as George Washington
predicted would happen. It fosters tensions between groups, raises irrational fears that alarmed
the neighborhood, and occasionally instigates violence and uprising. Through the channels of
party loyalty, it offers a mechanism for corruption and outside influence to directly penetrate the
administration. As a result, the policies and will of one country are susceptible to those of
another (Washington, 1796, para. 23). Here is the situation as it stands in our nation now.
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References
Levitt, M. (2022, September 17). America's Christian majority is on track to end. NPR.
end. NPR. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
Retrieved October 15, 2023, from
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/17/1123508069/religion-christianity-muslim-atheist-
agnostic-church-lds-pew
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time. (15, October 2023). Retrieved
October 15, 2023, from https://www.usdebtclock.org/
U.S. Senate. (2022, August 10). About Traditions & Symbols: Washington's
Farewell Address. U.S. Senate: About Traditions & Symbols |
Farewell Address. Retrieved October 15, 2023, from
https://www.senate.gov/about/traditions-symbols/washingtons-
farewell-address.html
Washington, G. (1796, September 19). Founders online: Farewell address, 19
September 1796. National Archives and Records Administration.
September 1796. National Archives and Records Administration.
Retrieved October 15, 2023, from
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002
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