Washington’s Farewell Address
535
be perpetual that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands,
may be sacredly maintained that its administration in every department
may be stamped with wisdom and virtue that, in fine, the happiness of
the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause,
the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which
cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to
that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present, to offer to your
solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some
sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable
observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of
your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting
friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.—
Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of
my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts,
no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.—
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. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and
from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is
the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal
and external enemies will be most constantly and (though often covertly
and insidiously) directed, it 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 attachmen ЁѼ