easy indeed is it to foresee, that it may involve us in disputes, and finally in war, to fulfil political alliances. Whereas, if there be no engagements on our part, we shall be unembarrassed, and at liberty at all times to act from circumstances, and the dictates of justice, sound policy, and our essential interests.

"That we may be always prepared for war, but never unsheath the sword except in self-defence, so long as justice, and our essential rights and national respectability, can be preserved without it; for without the gift of prophecy it may safely be pronounced, that, if this country can remain in peace twenty years longer (and I devoutly pray, that it may do so to the end of time), such, in all probability, will be its population, riches, and resources, when combined with its peculiarly happy and remote situation from the other quarters of the globe, as to bid defiance, in a just cause, to any earthly power whatsoever.

"That, whensoever and so long as we profess to be neutral, our public conduct, whatever our private affections may be, may accord therewith; without suffering partialities on one hand, or prejudices on the other, to control our actions. A contrary practice is not only incompatible with our declarations, but is pregnant with mischief, embarrassing to the administration, tending to divide us into parties, and ultimately productive of all those evils and horrors, which proceed from faction.

"That our Union may be as lasting as time; for, while we are encircled in one band, we shall possess the strength of a giant, and there will be none who can make us afraid. Divide, and we shall become weak, a prey to foreign intrigues and internal discord, and shall be as miserable and contemptible, as we are now enviable and happy.

"That the several departments of government may be preserved. in their utmost constitutional purity, without any attempt of one to encroach on the rights or privileges of another; that the General and State governments may move in their proper orbits; and that the authorities of our own Constitution may be respected by our

selves, as the most certain means of having them respected by foreigners.

"In expressing these sentiments it will readily be perceived, that I can have no other view now, whatever malevolence might have ascribed to it before, than such as results from a perfect conviction of the utility of the measure. If public servants, in the exercise of their official duties, are found incompetent, or pursuing wrong courses, discontinue them. If they are guilty of malpractices in office, let them be more exemplarily punished. In both cases, the Constitution and laws have made provision; but do not withdraw your confidence from them, the best incentive to a faithful discharge of their duty, without just cause; nor infer, because measures of a complicated nature, which time, opportunity, and close investigation. alone can penetrate,—for these reasons are not easily comprehended by those who do not possess the means,—that it necessarily follows they must be wrong. This would not only be doing injustice to your trustees, but be counteracting your own essential interests, rendering those trustees, if not contemptible in the eyes of the world, little better at least, than ciphers in the administration of the government, and the Constitution of your own choosing would reproach you for such conduct."

[CONCLUSION.J

As this Address, fellow-citizens, will be the last I shall ever make you, and as some of the gazettes of the United States have teemed with all the invective that disappointment, ignorance of facts, and malicious falsehoods could invent, to misrepresent my politics and affections; to wound my reputation and feelings; and to weaken if not entirely destroy the confidence you had been pleased to repose in me; it might be expected at the parting scene of my public life, that I should take some notice of such virulent abuse. But, as heretofore, I shall pass them over in utter silence; never having myself, nor by any other with my participation or knowledge, written, or published a scrap in answer to any of them. My politics have been unconcealed, plain and direct.

They will be found (so far as they relate to the belligerent powers) in the proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793; which, having met your approbation, and the confirmation of Congress, I have uniformly and steadily adhered to, uninfluenced by and regardless of the complaints and attempts of any of those powers or their partisans to change them.

The acts of my administration are on record. By these, which will not change with circumstances nor admit of different interpretations, I expect to be judged. If they will not acquit me, in your estimation, it will be a source of regret; but I shall hope notwithstanding, as I did not seek the office with which you have honored me, that charity may throw her mantle over my want of abilities to do better that the gray hairs of a man who has, excepting the interval between the close of the Revolutionary War and the organization of the new government-either in a civil, or military character, spent five and forty years-All the prime of his life-in serving his country, be suffered to pass quietly to the grave—and that his errors, however numerous, if they are not criminal, may be consigned to the tomb of oblivion, as he himself soon will be to the mansions of retirement.

To err is the lot of humanity, and never for a moment, have I ever had the presumption to suppose that I had not a full proportion of it. Infallibility not being the attribute of man, we ought to be cautious in censuring the opinions and conduct of one another. To avoid intentional error in my public conduct has been my constant endeavor; and I set malice at defiance to charge me justly, with the commission of a wilful one; or, with the neglect of any public duty, which in my opinion ought to have been performed, since I have been in the administration of the government, an administration which I do not hesitate to pronounce-the infancy of the government, and all other circumstances considered-that has been as difficult, delicate, and trying as may occur again in any future period of our history; through the whole of which I have to the best of my judgment, and with the best information and advice I could obtain,

consulted the true and permanent interest of my country without regard to local considerations-to individuals-to parties-or to nations.

To conclude, and I feel proud in having it in my power to do so with truth, that it was not from ambitious views; it was not from ignorance of the hazard to which I knew I was exposing my reputation; it was not from an expectation of pecuniary compensation, that I have yielded to the calls of my country; and that, if my country has derived no benefit from my services, my fortune, in a pecuniary point of view, has received no augmentation from my country. But in delivering this last sentiment, let me be unequivocally understood as not intending to express any discontent on my part, or to imply any reproach on my country on that account. [The first would be untrue-the other ungrateful. And no occasion more fit than the present may ever occur perhaps to declare, as I now do declare, that nothing but the principle upon which I set out, and from which I have in no instance departed, not to receive more from the public than my expenses, has restrained the bounty of several legislatures at the close of the war with Great Britain from adding considerably to my pecuniary resources.]* I retire from the chair of government no otherwise benefitted in this particular than what you have all experienced from the increased value of property, flowing from the peace and prosperity with which our country has been blessed amidst tumults which have harassed and involved other countries in all the horrors of war. I leave you with undefiled hands, an uncorrupted heart, and with ardent vows to Heaven for the welfare and happiness of that country in which I and my forefathers, to the third or fourth progenitor, drew our first breath.

GO. WASHINGTON.

* In the margin of this passage, which is here bracketed, Washington wrote: "This may or not be omitted." The brackets are not in the copy of Washington's draught.

No. II.

FAREWELL ADDRESS.

ABSTRACT OF POINTS TO FORM AN ADDRESS.*

Hamilton's Works, Vol. VII, p. 570.

1796.

I. The period of a new election approaching, it is his duty to announce his intention to decline.

II. He had hoped that long ere this it would have been in his power, and particularly had nearly come to a final resolution in the year 1792 to do it, but the peculiar situation of affairs, and advice of confidential friends, dissuaded.

III. In acquiescing in a further election he still hoped a year or two longer would have enabled him to withdraw, but a continuance of causes has delayed till now, when the position of our country, abroad and at home, justifies him in pursuing his inclination.

IV. In doing it he has not been unmindful of his relations as a dutiful citizen to his country, nor is now influenced by the smallest diminution of zeal for its interest or gratitude for its past kindness, but by a belief that the step is compatible with both.

V. The impressions under which he first accepted were explained on the proper occasion.

VI. In the execution of it he has contributed the best exertions of a very fallible judgment-anticipated his insufficiency-experienced his disqualifications for the difficult trust, and every day a stronger sentiment from that cause to yield the place-advance into the decline of life-every day more sensible of weight of years, of the necessity of repose, of the duty to seek retirement, &c. Add,

* This indorsement, together with the whole of this paper, is copied from a draught in Hamilton's hand.-ED.