The cure for the evils of
democracy is more democracy!
H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926
As
the political class in Washington
begins their summer sojourn en masse, leaving behind issues which still remain
unresolved, the hue and cry has begun to place blame for the ineptitude in
governance. Rather than exert leadership and a sense of national stewardship,
the dialogue has descended into ad hominum assessments of the opposition and
their desire to kill off children and the elderly.
The
Madison Conservative offers forth the following bit of statesmanship. It is
hoped that it reminds the governing class of this type of quality
thought and American perspective.
Its
author is named at the end.
To
wit:
Friends
and 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 citizen 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 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.
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 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 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, habitual, 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 counsels, and joint
efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
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 intercourse 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,
benefiting 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 intercourse with the West, already
finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land
and water, 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 themselves, which so frequently
afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which
their own rival ships 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 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 heartburnings 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 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 alliance, 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 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, till 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.
All
obstructions to the execution 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 counsels 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.
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 method 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 hypothesis and
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis
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 government, 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 countries 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 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 finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels
of party 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 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 depositaries, 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.
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 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
method 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 exertion 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 execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is
necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the
performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in
mind that towards 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 felicity 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 execution 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 a habitual hatred or a 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
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
country, 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 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 remain 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
forego 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 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 respectable
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies.
Harmony,
liberal intercourse 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 trade a stable course, to define the rights of our
merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of
intercourse, 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 independence 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.
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 twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of 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, perseverance, and firmness.
The
considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not
necessary on this occasion 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 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.
