CDZ GeorgeWashingtons Farewell Address Warning of the Dangers of Partisanship and Faction

[320 Years of History]

.... You forget the people voted.......

So did the people of Iraq. So did the people of Libya. So did the people of the USSR.

So did the people of Germany during Uncle 'Dolf's rise to power

That's correct. Washington understood the inherent danger in one man coveting too much power. Do you disagree?

That's why they called him the Modern Cincinnatus and George III openly admired him when he stepped down.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Indeed, speaking on the spirit of party he said this:

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.

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.

Wise advice that is totally ignored.

"Advice" being the operative word....What Washington offered was none of the following:

• Edict
• Proscription or law
• Demand
• Universal

Advice is something one considers thoughtfully with regard to one's situation and heeds or rejects it as befits the circumstances. Washington's words certainly were well worth heeding in his time, even a century or so later. The world powers of the day acted, to a large degree, at the whim and behest of one or a few individuals who dwelled on the other side of an ocean. Leaving the European monarchies to their own political devices offered few downsides, whereas getting involved in their intra-familial peccadilloes, battles and imbroglios carried with it a ton of risk, especially for a fledgling nation such as the U.S. was at the time. For the U.S. to grow to what it is today, "out of sight, thus out of mind" was a good strategy.

Now the U.S. is, for all intents and purposes, "the" dominant player on the world political stage. Avoiding foreign entanglements is something we can legitimately do on far fewer occasions than we could or should have done in the 18th and 19th centuries. Times change. Sometimes, what was good advice "yesterday" isn't as germane "next week."

 

[GaryDog]

President George Washington's has proven prophetic and we now have a collusion of interests that dominate our party system so that lies are reported as Truths, corruption is over looked and the innocent are accused, and convicted in the court of public opinion and subjected to confiscatory revenge, while foreign interests have come in and set one American against the other..

Our political system needs reform, and a resurgence of knowledge of the thoughts and intent of the Founding Fathers is the surest peaceable way to achieve this reform.

George Washington's Farewell Address on the nature and problem with parties

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..... 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?

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. ...

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...

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.

Doesn't this belong in current events?

 

[Tehon]

So did the people of Iraq. So did the people of Libya. So did the people of the USSR.

So did the people of Germany during Uncle 'Dolf's rise to power

That's correct. Washington understood the inherent danger in one man coveting too much power. Do you disagree?

That's why they called him the Modern Cincinnatus and George III openly admired him when he stepped down.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Indeed, speaking on the spirit of party he said this:

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.

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.

Wise advice that is totally ignored.

"Advice" being the operative word....What Washington offered was none of the following:

• Edict
• Proscription or law
• Demand
• Universal

Advice is something one considers thoughtfully with regard to one's situation and heeds or rejects it as befits the circumstances. Washington's words certainly were well worth heeding in his time, even a century or so later. The world powers of the day acted, to a large degree, at the whim and behest of one or a few individuals who dwelled on the other side of an ocean. Leaving the European monarchies to their own political devices offered few downsides, whereas getting involved in their intra-familial peccadilloes, battles and imbroglios carried with it a ton of risk, especially for a fledgling nation such as the U.S. was at the time. For the U.S. to grow to what it is today, "out of sight, thus out of mind" was a good strategy.

Now the U.S. is, for all intents and purposes, "the" dominant player on the world political stage. Avoiding foreign entanglements is something we can legitimately do on far fewer occasions than we could or should have done in the 18th and 19th centuries. Times change. Sometimes, what was good advice "yesterday" isn't as germane "next week."

And after thoughtful consideration I have concluded that Americans lack the moral clarity to make value judgments pertaining to foreign entanglements therefore Washington's advice ought to be heeded.

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

Avalon Project - Washington's Farewell Address 1796

 

[320 Years of History]

So did the people of Germany during Uncle 'Dolf's rise to power

That's correct. Washington understood the inherent danger in one man coveting too much power. Do you disagree?

That's why they called him the Modern Cincinnatus and George III openly admired him when he stepped down.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Let's also remember Washington warned us about getting entangled in foreign matters. That was wise advice that is now totally ignored.

Indeed, speaking on the spirit of party he said this:

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.

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.

Wise advice that is totally ignored.

"Advice" being the operative word....What Washington offered was none of the following:

• Edict
• Proscription or law
• Demand
• Universal

Advice is something one considers thoughtfully with regard to one's situation and heeds or rejects it as befits the circumstances. Washington's words certainly were well worth heeding in his time, even a century or so later. The world powers of the day acted, to a large degree, at the whim and behest of one or a few individuals who dwelled on the other side of an ocean. Leaving the European monarchies to their own political devices offered few downsides, whereas getting involved in their intra-familial peccadilloes, battles and imbroglios carried with it a ton of risk, especially for a fledgling nation such as the U.S. was at the time. For the U.S. to grow to what it is today, "out of sight, thus out of mind" was a good strategy.

Now the U.S. is, for all intents and purposes, "the" dominant player on the world political stage. Avoiding foreign entanglements is something we can legitimately do on far fewer occasions than we could or should have done in the 18th and 19th centuries. Times change. Sometimes, what was good advice "yesterday" isn't as germane "next week."

And after thoughtful consideration I have concluded that Americans lack the moral clarity to make value judgments pertaining to foreign entanglements therefore Washington's advice ought to be heeded.

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

Avalon Project - Washington's Farewell Address 1796

Blue:
"Moral clarity" is the least of the types of clarity I feel typical Americans lack and need to obtain, be it with regard to foreign entanglements or a host of other matters.

 

[GaryDog]

I really don't agree with deifying people purely because they've been long dead. We do this in small measure with friends who've passed in recent decades, and we definitely do it with regard to the founding fathers of this country.

They were not gods. They were faulty flesh-and-blood humans.

 

[JimBowie1958]

I really don't agree with deifying people purely because they've been long dead.

No one is doing that, Mr Iconoclast.

George Washington did some amazing things as the general of the American forces in the Revolution and he set the critical example of how to be a good President.

His refusal to become a king of dictator when he was offered that power repeatedly, that alone has set him above every other revolutionary leader since Bonaparte.

You plainly know nothing of the man.