In 1796 George Washington, after serving for forty-five years of service to the nation, had firmly decided there would be no third term. The tired patriot would not live three years after he left the presidency. Thomas Jefferson wanted him to run for a third term because the separation of the newly formed Federalist Party and the Democrat-Republican Party and the state of foreign affairs, at the time, threatened to tear the new republic apart. In his farewell address, Alexander Hamilton helped him draft the first version, but the final words were his and his alone.

The farewell address was in the form of an open letter to every citizen and came from the deepest regions of his heart.

 

     “Let me…warn you in the most solemn manner,” he wrote, “against the baneful affects of the Spirit of Party, generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature having it’s root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments….and is truly our worst enemy.”

     “The alternate dominance of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension…is in itself a frightful despotism”

     “There is an opinion, that the parties in free countries are useful checks upon the Administration of the Government…This within certain limits is probably true-and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence…upon the spirit of party. But…in Government purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged….there being a constant danger of excess…A fire not to be quenched; it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent it from bursting into flames, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.”

 

He may be surprised at the division between the two parties now, but at least he could say that he did warn us.

Vaguely plagiarized from: Becoming China’s Bitch – Peter D. Kiernan