15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File: |thumbnail|left|300px|George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1797]]
To announce his decision not to seek a third term as President, George Washington presented his Farewell Address in a newspaper article on September 17, 1796. Frustrated by French meddling in U.S. politics, Washington warned the nation to avoid permanent alliances with foreign nations and to rely instead on temporary alliances for emergencies. Washington’s efforts to protect the fragile young republic by steering a neutral course between England and France during the French Revolutionary Wars was made extremely difficult by the intense rhetoric flowing from the pro-English Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the pro-French, personified by Thomas Jefferson.
In his farewell address, Washington exhorted Americans to set aside their violent likes and dislikes of foreign nations, lest they be controlled by their passions: “The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.” Washington’s remarks have served as an inspiration for American isolationism, and his advice against joining a permanent alliance was heeded for more than a century and a half.<ref>Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/washington-farewell</ref>
====George Washington's Farewell Adress of 1796====
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.
Republished from the [https://history.state.gov/ Office of the Historian, United States Department of State]
Article: [Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/washington-farewell]
[[Category: Historical Documents]] [[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Wikis]] [[category:US State Department]] [[category: Political History]] [[Category:Diplomatic History]]
