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Volume: I Pages:
213-224
UNITED STATES, September 17,
1796
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 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
apprize 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
political 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; than, 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 tranquillity 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 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 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 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 every thing
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 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.
Toward 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 our
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.
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