Thinking Dangerously

09/02/2024

That’s not som**hing you see every day.

A transgender woman who sued her ex-boyfriend for throwing out her balls apparently didn't have a case worth litigating ... 'cause a judge tossed her suit, not to mention the BF's.

21/11/2023

Haha

12/11/2023

Not a surprise.

Venezuela-born Michael Castejon, 39, and his family have been sleeping on the floors of police stations and shelters after he could not afford to pay rent in Chicago

31/10/2023

This only harms the kids - not the teachers pushing the political ideology on kids that don’t know better.

This zero accountability, race identity politics - run by liberal teachers and the unions that protect them while they indoctrinate kids with the idea that the US is an evil, racist country that not only hasn’t ever done any good in the world, but has pushed a racist agenda to systemically disenfranchise poor and minority Americans.

It’s sick - unless Americans wake up and realize the us vs them isn’t white vs black or middle class vs the poor.

It’s madness that we have turned over the education system to the far left. Any teacher pushing any political agenda in class should be terminated with cause, and lose their pension. They are doing damage on that scale to the country, and it’s time they were held accountable for it.

Opponents argued that pausing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma. The state board said the requirement has been an inequitable hurdle and a misuse of state tests.

24/10/2023

29/09/2023

That’ll help a lot of people. Hahahahaha

05/08/2023

Sad but true.

05/08/2023

Act like an animal, you get the brakes beat off you like an animal. Notice he isn’t stealing food to feed his kids, he is stealing ci******es. I hope after he got the beating he richly deserved, he spent time in prison. But if this was in California, Illinois, New York and other states that have lost their minds the criminals have more rights than the store owner. Which is sick.

And this has nothing to do with the race of the criminal. These guys are the same no matter their skin color, when they are together if you closed your eyes you’d hear the same stupidity, the same selfishness and immaturity. These guys think they are entitled to take whatever they want because their life is hard. Join the club, pal. Life is brutally hard at times for everyone. Most of the tike.

When you go into a corner store and steal from them, or when you pump gas and don’t pay for it, you aren’t stealing from Exxon or Shell, you’re stealing from a small business owner. The owners whole life is that store - they earn the money they need to feed, clothe and shelter their families in the store.

And I don’t care about the thief’s life history. He probably never had a relationship with his father, but he’s probably also never held a job. And while it’s difficult to get a job with a felony conviction, these guys get themselves into that situation. I don’t agree personally with how a conviction ruins your life, but that’s just the way it is.

If your life is s**tty because of poor choices tku made, that isn’t society’s fault. It isn’t racism’s fault. It isn’t white peoples fault. More than anything these guys refuse to ever take responsibility for anything. Everything is someone’s else’s fault. And when they have kids they aren’t in their lives, by choice usually, and so the cycles continues. There is no excuse for not being in your children’s lives. None. There is no excuse for not paying child support, or only paying it when the court threatens your freedom or garnish’s your paycheck. I know several guys who don’t work specifically because they feel like a third of what the earn is taken. No concern for the fact the money is supporting your child. They don’t care. I have good friends like this. Their thought process is that their Dads didn’t support them so why should they support anyone else. No one talks about how insanely selfish this is. It’s the actions of a juvenile, it’s not the actions of a man. And the end result is it will be their kid on the next one of these videos. Step up and be a man. If you’re man enough to sleep with a woman, you’re man e nigh to pay child support.

There is no excuse for theft. You are trying to take food from the mouths of these Sikh store owners families. And they weren’t having it.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvgcyLuAM5R/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

03/08/2023

I’m always saying I don’t believe in karma because bad things don’t happen to the worst offenders. (The Chinese Communist Party NOT the Chinese people) but this certainly disproves that.

More than 800,000 people were forced to relocate in and around Beijing after nearly 30 inches of rain triggered some of the worst flooding in the city’s history.

15/07/2023

Who out there is enjoying their Saturday afternoon nap as much as Rockne? Sadly, not me lol.

12/06/2023

How is it a bunch generally peaceful dummies run in to the Capital building, hurt no one, do almost no damage and people are going to prison for a decade or more in many cases labeled as domestic terrorists…

MEANWHILE in Seattle

These people were legitimate terrorists, seized a part of a major American city for days - including the police precinct building, people were murdered, all sorts of serious laws were broken like r**e, murder, assault with a deadly weapon, felony vandalism etc and nothing happened to any of these terrorists?

And I have been saying people were going to sue the city, they should be suing the mayor, attorney general and anyone else that instructed the authorities to leave these actual terrorists alone as they dug in and destroyed more of the city.

Maybe this is about progressive liberal control and not the law…

https://www.foxnews.com/media/dad-teen-killed-seattle-chop-zone-sues-city-encouraged-lawlessness-reign?fbclid=IwAR3ctrzE068d-vRvhOyMOutJfghenpydInyru64-ChCj7_qPOE4gcksRryY_aem_th_ARg-qnOTbhvJ8db3T3eLKbuYJJfPg2uyGrfnOk0fl9ng7xeUms86A-g1jwFbskKUR1s&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

The father of a Black teen who was killed in Seattle's CHOP Zone in the Summer of 2020 is suing the city, claiming that it encouraged lawlessness.

12/06/2023

Please stop encouraging these crazies by humoring them.

17/12/2022

Lolol

24/11/2022

Facts.

01/11/2022

Hahaha. 100% Accurate.

31/10/2022

We take a look at the suspicious attack on Paul Pelosi.

By Tim Platson, TD Co-Founder Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband was attacked in his home this past week with a hammer. The media and the White House ...

03/10/2022

A boy, who because he is mentally ill thinks he’s a girl, who somehow plays on the girls team because Vermont law says he can, after making inappropriate comments in the girls locker room led some girls to speak out. When the girls on the girls volleyball team said they were uncomfortable with a boy in their locker room THE GIRLS were barred from using the GIRLS locker room. This country has lost its damn mind. GIRLS sports are for GIRLS. NOT DUDES who needs mental help, not enabled by liberal lawmakers.

If you’re transgender, which is a recognized mental illness, you do your thing. You can identify as an everything bagel for all I care. But you should not be allowed to play girls sports. And you sure as s**t should not be allowed to change in the girls locker room.

How about the trans kid uses the unisex bathroom to change, and we let the GIRLS use the girls room. Apparently that makes too much sense.

Tim

Most members of a high school volleyball team in Vermont have been barred from their own locker room after a dust-up with a transgender athlete.

10/09/2022

Some technical issues are delaying the first episode, we will have it out shortly, we are making sure it’s worth the wait. We apologize for the delay, but it will be out in the next couple days. There will be an announcement 12-24 hours before release.

Thinking Dangerously

06/09/2022

The first episode of The Thinking Dangerously podcast - “A Speech Only Goebbels Could Love” is finally dropping this week.

Watch as John Pace Jr and I cover Biden’s “Nuremberg” speech, where he called Republican voters semi-fascists, and for a one party state. We feel that it’s critically important to cover this, at this moment in history. We will cover the speech, how the far-left media lapped it up, pushing this hateful, divisive message, it’s fallout and what’s next.

It will be released THIS FRIDAY, 9 September 2022 on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform.

05/09/2022

Now CNN is interested in the story. Where were you on Nov 2020? Oh, yeah. Reporting it as fake news and “Russian Disinformation”.

When people found out this story was real, “how can inchange my vote in the presidential election” and “can I change my vote” were majorly trending online. Think about that - by surprising this story, CNN, MSNBC, Facebook, Twitter, etc significantly influenced that election. On top of all the other ways it was potentially manipulated.

CNN reporter Sara Sidner claimed there are "serious questions" that should be asked about Hunter Biden's "business dealings" and the FBI investigation into them.

02/09/2022

Biden is right about one thing. American values are under attack, but the attack if from the left, not the right.

The “President of the United States”, and leader of one of the 2 major political parties called 74,222,958 Americans semi-fascists, in a speech given by a sitting President, that was ignored by all the major networks.

Let that sink in - the major television networks, by not broadcasting this speech, are openly acknowledging that Joe Biden is NOT the President of the United States. Because a speech given by the President is always afforded the respect of being broadcast nationally. Again, by ignoring this speech, they are acknowledging an open secret that the American people have known for some time now. Joe Biden is NOT the President of the United States. For the first time in the history of the American Republic, we don’t know who is running the country. But after this September 1st speech, where Biden calls the nearly 75 million Americans who voted Republican in 2020 semi-fascists, and the fact it wasn’t broadcast by the networks, we know Joe Biden is not the President.

If anyone with any sense was in charge at 1600 Pennsylvania, there is no way Biden would have been allowed to deliver the rambling, you kids get off my lawn, MAGA and Republicans are a threat to the Republic speech, and he certainly wouldn’t have been allowed to insult the half of American electorate that voted Republican in 2020 by calling them semi-fascists in the (hate)speech delivered today.

So one could argue never before has a speech totally ignored by the main stream media defined power more clearly in America. Just not in the way we are accustomed.

If jobs in the administration were being awarded on merit and not simply to appoint another “first”‘with every appointment, you’d have a press secretary who commanded the English language. But instead we have Karine Jean-Pierre - who has atrocious grammar, and who’s only qualification to be press secretary is that she is openly gay and black. Yep, that’s it. She is completely unqualified to hold the position, but she is black and gay, and that is enough to hold any job is this administration. Especially if you can be the first openly black gay … Secretary. Insert cabinet post here. Because she has no idea what she is doing, she went along with the speech Biden gave today, and in so doing, she played a major part in ensuring that Republicans will take back the house come November. So, thank you, Karine. I thought the fact the language she uses as press secretary, while answering media questions, in the fake White House briefing room, makes it seem like she is playing a role as an extra on the Shield credited as “token gang banger”, but no. She did nothing to try and stop this speech yesterday, because she is totally unqualified for the job she holds. And that was a good thing for the country, and a terrible thing for Democrats.

So I will look past the fact she constantly and blatantly lies to the American people. And that her grammar is atrocious. She just helped destroy the progressive movement more certainly than anyone wearing a MAGA cap. Thank you, Karine.

Any recent momentum Democrats had built, and they had built some recently despite themselves, was completely r:lost for the balance of the midterms today. The mostly absurd and wishful drinkingesque notion Democrats could hold the Senate and House this fall, which was unlikely in the former and patently absurd in the latter, is now even more absurd.

A man that isn’t even sure what year it is, or who the President is (he seems to think he is perpetually running for the Senate himself these days) just did som**hing that will rally more Republicans than anything a Republican will do this year. Som**hing that will drive rûmore Republican donations than any action by a Republican. And it is a complete and utter own goal.

You might sense I’m having trouble defining exactly what happened yesterday, and I am. Because there was absolutely no need for this speech, none whatever. But some progressive speech writer apparently decided Biden hadn’t put his foot in his mouth recently enough. So boy howdy has he now.

And he couldn’t tell you why, either, because he clearly didn’t write the speech, or decide to give it. Some progressive in DC did those things, thinking this would help the progressive cause. It did not. The only causes helped by this speech were individual Republican candidate fundraising, Trumps legal defense fundraising, and RNC fundraising.

This speech is the ultimate political bulletin board material, to use a tired sports metaphor. Every Republican attack ad this fall will use a clip from this speech. It was that bad. It will literally be the gift that keeps giving - as in giving House Seats to Republicans at the expense of Democrats.

I would think that someone could have told
Biden no, no you won’t give this speech. Or they could have staged his giving the speech while actually not broadcasting it. That would have been a lot more intelligent than actually allowing him to deliver it.

But it’s done now, to what will be the never ending sorrow of the Democrats. And they have no one to blame but themselves, and the demented geezer they put in the White House.

CNN, MSNBC, and Democrats went out of their way to defend Bidens claim that half of the American electorate is semi-fascist, after refusing to air the speech. That isn’t a mistake.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-cnn-democrats-largely-defend-bidens-semi-fascism-comment-slam-trump-republicans.amp

Biden is right about one thing. American values are under attack, but the attack if from the left, not the right.

02/09/2022

So the current President of the United States, who totally, really, legitimately got the highest number of votes ever - in no part illegitimatly or at all thanks in part to Democrats abusing the Covid non-crisis, making it seem as if it was the most dangerous health crisis since the Spanish Flu so they could justify allowing people to vote remotely just called all Republicans semi-fascists.

The idea of remote voting is so open to cheating and manipulation it had never been tried before, during actual health crisises, Civil War, World Wars etc. But was OK to use in one of the most partisan environments we’ve ever seen in the United States. But it was ok to do, because they double dog promised to only cheat to get “Orange Man Bad” out of office. The result? A man who is so uninspiring, his own son used Door Dash to order his next round of hookers and blow instead of getting out of the tub, somehow got the most votes for President ever. But it was totally legitimate. They promise. And if you want any type of election reform, to make sure this doesn’t happen again, you sir or madam are a [racist/homophobe/transphobe/xenophobe/fascist/misogynist/science denier/etc].

And this man just announced on national television that 75+ million Americans are semi-fascists. This should terrify you. More on Biden’s proclamation in our next post. But j thought it important to highlight how Joe and Democrats totally didn’t manufacturea crisis (Covid) and then misuse it to further their political ambitions. This isn’t to say they stole the election, they may well have won it without manipulating a minor health situation into a global issue that destroyed tens of thousands of small and medium businesses, that every day people like you or me spent decades on, working late nights and weekends, only to have a non elected dictator tell them they couldn’t open their doors for months. Supported by boozy Nancy Pelosi, who was happy to lecture on why you couldn’t open your business, visit with friends or go to church, while she was openly violating those policies to get her hair done at her salon. And when she was exposed for having done this, she went out of her way to destroy the very salon she went to.

The rules are not for ME, of course, to someone like Nancy Pelosi, they are for THEE. Us suckers. And when caught, be sure to blame the right and anyone but yourself. See: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/salvadorhernandez/nancy-pelosi-hair-salon-video-controversy and be sure to have your supporters threaten the life of anyone that exposed your hypocrisy, and also make sure their small business is one of the countless thousands to be permanently closed. See: https://www.fox29.com/news/san-francisco-salon-owner-who-exposed-pelosi-talks-about-losing-her-business-a-year-later.amp

So in order to make sure Trump wasn’t re-elected, in the middle of the greatest economy and lowest unemployment across any metric you looked at during the pre-Covid Trump years (take, 2018 say, as an example) there was the lowest ever African-American unemployment, the lowest Asian-American Unemployment, the lowest Latino-American Unemployment, the lowest Indo-Pacific Unemployment ever. And not just for men, but the lowest female African-American unemployment ever, the lowest female Asian-American Unemployment ever, the lowest female Latino-American Unemployment ever, the lowest female Indo-Pacific Unemployment ever too.

So in the light of all of that terrible news, (if you hate America and Americans anyway) what are you to do?

Well a virus being manipulated in a laboratory, in Wuhan, China, with not only the full knowledge of the National Institute of Health, run by one Anthony Fauci, but also with the NIHs financial backing might just leak out and cause a pandemic. And while you can’t initially admit that you were funding gain of function research, especially not on this particular virus, or even that the virus leaked from a lab eventually that will come out. There are very few real journalists left, but eventually the few left will surely find a story this big. See: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/nih-admits-funding-risky-virus-research-in-wuhan/amp and see also:https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114270/documents/HHRG-117-GO24-20211201-SD004.pdf

And you will attempt to professionally ruin anyone that points out that the genetics of the virus (a little from the bat aisle, a little from the pengolin aisle, a little from a version of the virus specifically created to make it more contagious in humans) make it unlikely, if not impossible for it to have evolved naturally. Ask Bret Weinstein how he was treated when he pointed out that this was almost certainly a lab leak.

You could blow the risks associated with this virus far out of proportion, no matter the facts it would destroy hundreds of thousands of small businesses, representing the life’s work of generations of hard working people globally. And you’d have to ignore the mental health toll sure to be created by locking the entire planet up in their homes, alone, for months on end. And you would have to make sure the media you manipulate, and control, refuses to report on the huge associated uptick in su***des among 18-40 year olds your needlessly locking society down caused.

You’d also have to have the media cover up the huge uptick in drug overdose deaths during the pandemic. Opioid overdose deaths more than doubled from 2029-2022, a direct result of the higher rates of drug use during the pandemic. It’s a fact that use of opioids, m**hampehtimines and co***ne skyrocketed during the pandemic, as people looked for a way to entertain themselves while stuck at home. This significant uptick in use say a correlated uptick in overdose deaths during the pandemic, but also continues to be responsible as those who became addicted during the pandemic continue to fall victim to m**h, coke and other opioids laced with fentanyl. Overdose deaths spiked 30% in 2020, and continued to rise a further 15% on top of 2020s record levels in 2021. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/us/politics/overdose-deaths-fentanyl-m**h.html

Or how reckless liberal policy related to nursing homes would cause the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of the elderly. Because, as it turns out, locking one of the only populations at risk of death from Covid- the elderly, especially morbidly obese elderly with compromised pulmonary systems into close quarters in retirement homes and assisted living communities was a bad idea. Especially when you refuse *BY STATE LAW OR CITY ORDINANCE* to allow those testing positive for the virus in these retirement and assisted living communities to be moved out of them to hospitals, where access to proper PPE and the enaction of appropriate precautions meant they wouldn’t locally spread the disease, while also preventing them from being sent to the to the homes of their children or grandchildren, (you know young people - who would not die, or suffer any real ill effects from infection (in fact more than half of those infected under the age of 50, who were not morbidly obese and with healthy pulmonary systems - WOULD NEVER SHOW SYMPTOMS IF/WHEN INFECTED.

You couldn’t allow that to become public information at the time, because if it had, people would have known that you knew it really wasn’t a serious threat to public health, and therefore you wouldn’t need to lock society down, and if you didn’t need the lockdowns you couldn’t justify stay at home voting - the Casus Belli for the entire mess.

So instead of throwing in the towel to 4 more years of a successful Trump administration, to progressives and democrats it clearly seemed a better option to crash the World Economy, destroy countless small and medium businesses, risk the loss of countless young people to su***de and drug abuse, and do anything else to prevent it.

02/09/2022

So Biden’s Propaganda Chief, Karine Jean-Pierre, recently defined what “extremists” are. These horrible people like Jean-Pierre, Don Lemon, and Biden himself lie to you on CNN, MSNBC, etc - telling you that those that don’t agree with them are evil? semi-fascists, even that they are dangerous and trying to destroy the democracy. The define an extremist as anyone with an opinion different than the majority. It should frighten you that this is the position of the Government, being espoused by the media. This is an act straight out of the “Ministry of Truth” in 1984 - it literally is almost verbatim from scenes in the book. And yet the media is still not only silent on this, they are complicit, actively participating in the destruction of democracy and free speech by warning that if they don’t, democracy and free speech will be destroyed. You should be very afraid.

Also, with Biden’s approval rating in the 38% range - clearly a majority don’t agree with him - who are the actual extremists?!?

08/08/2022

Meet Trevor Reed, a former Marine and native Texan. Trevor was held by Russia as an actual political prisoner after traveling to Russia, with his Russian girlfriend, to learn the Russian language.

Arrested for a minor offense - public intoxication, som**hing that is excessively common in Russia. The corruption of the government leads to very little opportunity for 99.9% of the Russian people, so Putin and a few of his cronies can be among the richest men in the world. Drinking heavily is common as a means of escape, the only means for many Russians. Trevor was then significantly overcharged, with the Russians claiming he endangered the safety of Russian public officials. This was som**hing even the Russian prosecutor is said to have admitted was a bogus charge. Trevor was overcharged simply because he is an American. Trevor was held by the Russians in their worst prisons where he was subjected to torture for NEARLY TWO YEARS.

Yet no one protested his wrongful incarceration. No one threatened to stop working, or claimed America was an awful country for not “rescuing” him. The Biden administration swapped him for a Russian drug and weapons smuggler at the end of April 2022. We’re glad you’re home brother.

06/08/2022

Coming soon: The first Thinking Dangerously podcast, will be about Washington's Farewell address. The message of his address is as if not more applicable today than when it was published 19 September 1796. If you haven't read it, do so (text in our previous post) or head to YouTube and watch one of the great reenactors deliver it. This is a message the American people need to hear in 2022, just as they needed the reassuring words of our first President as he finally got to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon. Read it, or reread it, and get ready as Thinking Dangerously covers what was said, what it meant then - and now. And why it matters today more than ever.

06/08/2022

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL
ADDRESS
To the people of the United States
❧
Friends and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a
new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far
distant, and the time actually arrived when your
thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust,
it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public
voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered
among the number of those out of whom a choice
is to be made.
I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to
be assured that this resolution has not been taken
without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citi067-155*WashFarewell.qrk 3/29/01 6:16 AM Page 1
zen to his country—and that, in withdrawing the
tender of service which silence in my situation
might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of
zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in,
the office to which your suffrages have twice called
me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to
the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it
would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I
had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election,
had even led to the preparation of an address to
declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with
foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to
abandon the idea.
I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external
[2]
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of
inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty
or propriety and am persuaded, whatever partiality
may be retained for my services, that in the present
circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
The impressions with which I first undertook
the arduous trust were explained on the proper
occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only
say that I have, with good intentions, contributed
towards the organization and administration of
the government the best exertions of which a very
fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in
the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications,
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in
the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives
to diffidence of myself, and every day the increasing
weight of years admonishes me more and more that
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it
will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances
have given peculiar value to my services, they were
temporary, I have the consolation to believe that,
while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
[3]
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
067-155*WashFarewell.qrk 3/29/01 6:16 AM Page 3
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life,
my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I
owe to my beloved country for the many honors it
has conferred upon me, still more for the steadfast
confidence with which it has supported me and for
the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faithful
and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to
my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country
from these services, let it always be remembered to
your praise and as an instructive example in our
annals that, under circumstances in which the passions agitated in every direction were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations
in which not unfrequently want of success has
countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy
of your support was the essential prop of the efforts
and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall
carry it with me to my grave as a strong incitement
to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you
[4]
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
067-155*WashFarewell.qrk 3/29/01 6:16 AM Page 4
the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your
union and brotherly affection may 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
[5]
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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 actively (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, habit-
[6]
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
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ual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming
yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a
suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned;
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of
every attempt to alienate any portion of our country
from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which
now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy
and interest. 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. With slight shades of difference, you have
the same religion, manners, habits, and political
principles. 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.
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But these considerations, however powerfully
they address themselves to your sensibility, are
greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of
our country finds the most commanding motives
for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of
the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained in*******se with
the South, protected by the equal laws of a common
government, finds in the productions of the latter
great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South in the same intercourse, benefitting by the agency of the North, sees
its agriculture grow and its commerce expand.
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of
the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes, in different ways, to
nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection
of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally
adapted. The East, in a like in*******se with the
West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water
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will more and more find a valuable vent for the
commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East
supplies requisite to its growth and comfort—and
what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must
of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight,
influence, and the future maritime strength of the
Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any
other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own
separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be
intrinsically precarious.
While then every part of our country thus feels
an immediate and particular interest in union, all
the parts combined cannot fail to find in the
united mass of means and efforts greater strength,
greater resource, proportionably greater security
from external danger, a less frequent interruption
of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value! they must derive from union an
exemption from those broils and wars between
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themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring
countries not tied together by the same government, which their own rivalships alone would be
sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign
alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence likewise they will avoid
the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the
love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a
common government can embrace so large a
sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere
speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the
whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for
the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue
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to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives
to union affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the
patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb
our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern
that any ground should have been furnished for
characterizing parties by geographical discriminations—northern and southern—Atlantic and western;
whence designing men may endeavor to excite a
belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to
acquire influence within particular districts is to
misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much
against the jealousies and heart burnings which
spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to
render alien to each other those who ought to be
bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. They have seen in the
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negotiation by the executive—and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate—of the treaty with
Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how
unfounded were the suspicions propagated among
them of a policy in the general government and in
the Atlantic states unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi. They have been witnesses to
the formation of two treaties, that with Great
Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them
everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity.
Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which
they were procured? Will they not henceforth be
deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would
sever them from their brethren and connect them
with aliens?
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union,
a government for the whole is indispensable. No
alliances, however strict, between the parts can be
an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all
alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of
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this momentous truth, you have improved upon
your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution
of government better calculated than your former
for an intimate Union and for the efficacious
management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring 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 basis of our political systems is the right of
the people to make and to alter their constitutions
of government. But the Constitution which at any
time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. 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.
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All obstructions to the ex*****on 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
councils and modified by mutual interests. 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 enabled to subvert the
power of the people and to usurp for themselves the
reins of government, destroying afterwards the very
engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
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Towards the preservation of your government
and the permanency of your present happy state, it
is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority but also that you resist with care the spirit of
innovation upon its principles, however specious
the pretexts. One m**hod of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations
which will impair the energy of the system and thus
to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.
In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of
other human institutions, that experience is the
surest standard by which to test the real tendency
of the existing constitution of a country, that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypotheses
and opinion exposes to perpetual change from the
endless variety of hypotheses and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is
consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable; liberty itself will find in such a govern-
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ment, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is indeed little else
than a name, where the government is too feeble
to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine
each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person
and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of
parties in the state, with particular reference to the
founding of them on geographical discriminations.
Let me now take a more comprehensive view and
warn you in the most solemn manner against the
baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of
the human mind. It exists under different shapes in
all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or
repressed; but in those of the popular form it is
seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst
enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to
party dissension, which in different ages and coun-
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tries 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.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this
kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely
out of sight) the common and continual mischiefs
of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage
and restrain it.
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, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and
corruption, which find a facilitated access to the
government itself through the channels of party
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passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries
are useful checks upon the administration of the
government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true—
and in governments of a monarchical cast patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor,
upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular
character, in governments purely elective, it is a
spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of
that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there
being constant danger of excess, the effort ought
to be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a
uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a
flame, lest instead of warming it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those
entrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres,
avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of
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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 the
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. If in the opinion of
the people the distribution or modification of the
constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let
it be corrected by an amendment in the way which
the Constitution designates. But let there be no
change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly
overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.
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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.
It is 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
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friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
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.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One m**hod 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 may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves
ought to bear. The ex*****on of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary
that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate
to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that to-
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wards the payment of debts there must be revenue;
that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no
taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the
proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the
measures for obtaining revenue which the public
exigencies may at any time dictate.
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. Who can doubt that in the course of time
and things the fruits of such a plan would richly
repay any temporary advantages which might be
lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that
Providence has not connected the permanent felic-
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ity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at
least, is recommended by every sentiment which
ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
In the ex*****on 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 towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an
habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of
which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and
its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another
disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to
be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent
collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government,
contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national
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propensity and adopts through passion what reason
would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity
of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition and other sinister and
pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes
perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.
Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases
where no real common interest exists and infusing
into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of
the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt
doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to
have been retained and by exciting jealousy, ill will,
and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from
whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to
ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to
betray or sacrifice the interests of their own coun-
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try without odium, sometimes even with popularity,
gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of
obligation, a commendable deference for public
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the
base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable
ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to
the truly enlightened and independent patriot.
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper
with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe
the public councils! Such an attachment of a small
or weak towards a great and powerful nation
dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
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. But that jealousy to be useful
must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument
of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign
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nation and excessive dislike of another cause those
whom they actuate to see danger only on one side,
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the
intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp
the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect
good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us
have none or a very remote relation. Hence she
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the
causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary
vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and
enables us to pursue a different course. If we re-
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main one people under an efficient government,
the period is not far off when we may defy material
injury from external annoyance; when we may take
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may
at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we
may choose peace or war, as our interest guided by
justice shall counsel.
Why forgo the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign
ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that
of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent
alliances with any portion of the foreign world—so
far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it, for let
me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements (I hold the maxim
no less applicable to public than to private affairs,
that honesty is always the best policy)—I repeat it
therefore, let those engagements be observed in
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their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable
establishments, on a respectably defensive posture,
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal in*******se with all nations, are
recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.
But even our commercial policy should hold an
equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor
granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting
the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce but
forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed—in order to give to trade a stable course, to
define the rights of our merchants, and to enable
the government to support them—conventional
rules of in*******se, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned
or varied, as experience and circumstances shall
dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in
one nation to look for disinterested favors from another—that it must pay with a portion of its inde-
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pendence for whatever it may accept under that
character—that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for
nominal favors and yet of being reproached with
ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no
greater error than to expect or calculate upon real
favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which
experience must cure, which a just pride ought to
discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not
hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish—that they will control the usual
current of the passions or prevent our nation from
running the course which has hitherto marked the
destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself
that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good, that they may now and
then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to
warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to
guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism—this hope will be a full recompense for the
solicitude for your welfare by which they have been
dictated.
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How far in the discharge of my official duties I
have been guided by the principles which have
been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to
the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least believed myself to be
guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe,
my proclamation of the 22d of April 1793 is the
index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving
voice and by that of your representatives in both
houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination with the aid of the
best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that
our country, under all the circumstances of the
case, had a right to take—and was bound in duty
and interest to take—a neutral position. Having
taken it, I determined, as far as should depend
upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverence, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to
hold this conduct it is not necessary on this occa-
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sion to detail. I will only observe that, according to
my understanding of the matter, that right, so far
from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation
which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain
inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards
other nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that
conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant
motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our
country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions and to progress without interruption to that
degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of
its own fortunes.
Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I
am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to
think it probable that I may have committed many
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech
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the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which
they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope
that my country will never cease to view them with
indulgence and that, after forty-five years of my
life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal,
the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the
mansions of rest.
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.
GEO. WASHINGTON
UNITED STATES
19th September 1796