The Grim
10th November 2001, 20:22
Gone For the Weekend
George Washington: Farmer, General, Founding Father, Leader of a Nation.
He was and is all these things to the citizens of the United States of America, so why have we ignored his ideas?
I recently discovered a copy of the Farwell Address written by George Washington at the end of his second term as President. In this piece, he attempted to guide his young nation ahead; he attempted to warn us of certain evil that would tear apart the Union. We ignored him.
How could we, a people who seemed to record, like holy gospel, every phrase or word uttered by this remarkable man, just forget his last public words. Perhaps it was convenient
In Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means & efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionally greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their Peace by foreign Nations; and 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 government; which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments & intrigues would stimulate & 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.
An overgrown military: a threat to liberty. If this should be the case, I challenge anyone to defend Bushs campaign promises and national budget.
He continues:
One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions & aims of other Districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies & 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.
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally.
This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseperable 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, controuled, 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 dissention, which in different ages & 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 & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & 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.
Again our First President warns of a present evil: the Party system of government. Only two opinions control the American government, Republican and Democratic. What of those who do not belong to either party? Do we have no voice?
Ill end for now with these comments made by this most sacred figure of American History:
The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government.
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.
I must thank Mr. Washington for A.) Defending my right to write this article and B.) Essentially writing half of this article for me.
George Washington: Farmer, General, Founding Father, Leader of a Nation.
He was and is all these things to the citizens of the United States of America, so why have we ignored his ideas?
I recently discovered a copy of the Farwell Address written by George Washington at the end of his second term as President. In this piece, he attempted to guide his young nation ahead; he attempted to warn us of certain evil that would tear apart the Union. We ignored him.
How could we, a people who seemed to record, like holy gospel, every phrase or word uttered by this remarkable man, just forget his last public words. Perhaps it was convenient
In Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means & efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionally greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their Peace by foreign Nations; and 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 government; which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments & intrigues would stimulate & 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.
An overgrown military: a threat to liberty. If this should be the case, I challenge anyone to defend Bushs campaign promises and national budget.
He continues:
One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions & aims of other Districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies & 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.
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally.
This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseperable 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, controuled, 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 dissention, which in different ages & 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 & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & 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.
Again our First President warns of a present evil: the Party system of government. Only two opinions control the American government, Republican and Democratic. What of those who do not belong to either party? Do we have no voice?
Ill end for now with these comments made by this most sacred figure of American History:
The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government.
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.
I must thank Mr. Washington for A.) Defending my right to write this article and B.) Essentially writing half of this article for me.