But this must be with the exception of existing engagements, to be preserved but not extended.

XIX. It is not expected that these admonitions can control the course of the human passions, but if they only moderate them in some instances, and now and then excite the reflections of virtuous men heated by party spirit, my endeavor is rewarded.

XX. How far in the administration of my present office my conduct has conformed to these principles, the public records must witness. My conscience assures me that I believed myself to be guided by them.

XXI. Particularly in relation to the present war, the procla mation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the key to my plan.

Touch sentiments with regard to

Approved by your voice and that of your repreconduct of bel- sentatives in Congress, the spirit of that measure has

ligerent powers.

France may es

A wish that continually guided me, uninfluenced by, and regardtablish good gov- less of, the complaints and attempts of any of the powers at war or their partisans to change them.

ernment.

Time every thing.

I thought our country had a right under all the circumstances to take this ground, and I was resolved as far as depended on me to maintain it firmly. XXII. However, in reviewing the course of my administration, I may be unconscious of intentional errors, I am too sensible of my own deficiencies not to believe that I may have fallen into many. I deprecate the evils to which they may tend, and pray Heaven to avert or mitigate and abridge them. with me, nevertheless, the hope that my motives will continue to be viewed with indulgence, that after forty-five years of my life devoted to public service with a good zeal and upright views, the faults of deficient abilities will be consigned to oblivion, and myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

I carry

XXIII. Neither interest nor ambition has been my impelling motive. I never abused the power confided to me--I have not bettered my fortune, retiring with it, no otherwise improved than by the influence on property of the common blessings of my country-I refire with undefiled hands and an uncorrupted heart, and with ardent vows for the welfare of that country, which has been the native soil of myself and my ancestors for four generations.

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.*

Draft by Hamilton.

August, 1796.

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States, being not very 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 for another term, it appears to me proper, and 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, nevertheless,† to be assured that the resolution. which I announce, has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations attached to the relation which, as a dutiful citizen, I bear & to my country, and that in withdrawing the tender of my service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for its future interest, nor by any deficiency of grateful respect for its past kindness, but by a full conviction that such a step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and the continuance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, has been a uniform sacrifice of private inclination to the opinion of public duty coinciding with what appeared to be your wishes. I had constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard,

This is a copy of the original draft in Hamilton's autograph. The notes embrace the final alterations in this draft-but there are many previous erasures which can only be given in a fac-simile.-ED.

† at the same time.

connected with-inseparable from-incident to.
bears.

|| his.

combined with a deference for.

to return to that retirement from which those motives had reluctantly drawn me.

*

The strength of my desire to withdraw previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you, but deliberate + reflection on the very critical and perplexed posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of ment every way entitled to my confidence, obliged § me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your national concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of my inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and that whatever partiality any portion of you may still retain for my services, they, under the existing circumstances of our country, will not disapprove the ¶ resolution ** I have formed.

The impressions under which I first accepted the arduous trust of Chief Magistrate of the United States, were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I can only say that I have, with pure intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable; that conscious at the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications for the station, experience in my own eyes, and perhaps still more in those of others, has not diminished in me the diffidence of myself and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary as it will be welcome to me. Satisfied that if any cir cumstances have given a peculiar value to my services, they were temporary. I have the consolation to believe that while inclination and prudence urge me to recede from the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. May I also have that of knowing in my §§ retreat, that the involuntary errors which I have probably committed, have been the causes of no serious or lasting mischief to my country, and thus be spared the anguish of regrets which would disturb the repose of my retreat and embitter the remnant

of my life! I may then expect to realize, without alloy, the pure enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, of the benign influence of good laws under a free government; the ultimate object of all my wishes, and to which I look as the happy reward* of our mutual labors and dangers.

In looking forward to the moment which is to terminate the career of my public life, my sensations do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgments required by that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me, still more for the distinguished and steadfast confidence it has reposed in me, and for the opportunities it has thus afforded met of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering-however the inadequateness of my faculties may have ill seconded my‡ zeal. If benefits have resulted to you, my fellow-citizens, from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that the constancy of your support amidst appearances§ dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, and in situations in which, not unfrequently, want of success has seconded the criticisms of malevolence, was the essential prop of the efforts and the guarantee of the measures by which they were achieved.

Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my retirement, and to my grave, as a lively incitement to unceasing vows (the only returns I can henceforth make) that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence, merited by national piety and morality-that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual-that the free Constitution, which is the work of your own hands, may be sacredly maintained-that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue-that, in fine, the happiness of

* I hope.

+ I have thence enjoyed.

have rendered their efforts unequal to my-disproportional.

under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to the greatest fluctuations.

|| sometimes.

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 them the glorious satisfaction of recommending it to the affection-the praise-and the 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 fear that there may exist projects unfriendly to it, against which it may be necessary you should be guarded, urge me in taking leave of you to offer to your solemn consideration and frequent review, some sentiments, the result of mature reflection confirmed by observation and experience, which appear to me essential to the perma nency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested advice of a parting friend, who can have no personal motive to tincture or bias his counsel.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every fibre of your hearts, no recommendation is necessary to fortify your attachment TO IT. Next to this, that unity of government which constitutes you one people, claims your vigilant care and guardianship-as a main pillar of your real independence, of your peace, safety, freedom, and happiness.

This being the point in your political fortress, against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively, however covertly and insidiously levelled, it is of the utmost importance that you should appreciate, in its full force, the immense value of your political union to your national and individual happiness-that you should cherish towards it an affectionate and immovable attachment, and that you should watch for its preservation with zealous solicitude.

For this, you have every motive of sympathy and interest. Children for the most part of a common country, that country claims and ought to concentrate your affections. The name of American must always gratify and exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any denomination which can be derived from local discriminations. You have with slight shades of difference