The Farewell Address of President George WashingtonDelivered before the Federal Assembly, and in witness of the Hall of Breath and Binding, Philadelphia, March the Third, 1797
The Farewell Address of President George Washington
Delivered before the Federal Assembly, and in witness of the Hall of Breath and Binding, Philadelphia, March the Third, 1797
Fellow citizens,
It is with measured humility and the fullness of years that I now withdraw from the high trust you have placed in me. The charge I have borne these past two terms—first as General in war, then as President in peace—has been heavier than most men ought to carry. That I have done so without presuming permanence, or claiming wisdom beyond the time afforded to me, I leave for Providence and posterity to judge.
You have not chosen me to be king, nor conjurer, nor patriarch of a people. You chose me to serve, and now, I return to private station with the same silence I once knew beneath the oaks of Mount Vernon, and with a soul unbound by the temptations of dominion.
In this republic, the sword does not reign, nor does the sigil. Neither spirit nor statesman shall hold sovereignty above the consent of the governed. The liberty for which we strove was not of the flesh alone, but of the mind and soul—and liberty must be watched, not merely with laws and ledgers, but with conscience, with ritual, and with restraint.
We have made, in our Constitution, a compact not only of men but of principles—principles overseen by both the visible and the veiled. That great instrument lives now, as we intended it, watched by oaths, and whispered to by the breath of those who remember. It will grow. It must. But I caution you: growth untempered becomes corruption, and zeal ungoverned invites ruin.
Let no office, temporal or arcane, become a throne. Let no summoner mistake the spirit for a servant, nor the people for a mob. Let the laws be plain, the bindings fair, and the rites always open to review.
Though I have declined to bind spirit to self in the course of my service, I have not declined counsel. Spirits wise and free have walked beside this administration—never above it—and their counsel, when honest and unforced, has strengthened this Union more than sabers or coin. Yet beware: not all who whisper seek the good. In every age there arise those who would trade liberty for power, or certainty for command. Some wear the garb of man; others do not wear flesh at all.
Hold fast to your compact, O citizens. Shield it with vigilance, with ritual clarity, and with that most sacred ward: the capacity to doubt one’s own desire for power.
Avoid factions that divide spirit from citizen, or creed from conscience. Favor not North nor South, nor East nor West, nor the plane of ancestors over the street of the living. This government belongs to no order, no circle, no lodge—it belongs to the common soul, in whose image both man and spirit are made.
My prayers now turn to the Almighty—whoever and however He or She or They are known—and to the guardians who neither sleep nor lie. May they guide you when your sight fails. May they still your hand when it trembles toward injustice. May they remind you that freedom, once summoned, must be fed not with fire, but with memory.
I take my leave without bitterness, without enchantment, and without regret.
May this Republic endure beyond my bones, beyond my name, and even beyond your reckoning.
I remain, your most obedient and humble servant,
George Washington
Philadelphia, the Third of March, Anno Republicae Decimo Quinta
(Fifteenth Year of the Republic)