George Washington Farewell Address Revivification & Preservation Project: FAREWELL ADDRESS WAS INTENDED TO BE READ IN DISTANT TIMES

The Lansdowne Portrait >>

In his book, “Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation” [pg. 277] in which he references Alexander Hamilton’s editorial assistance, renowned U.S. presidential historian Richard Norton Smith states that he “dissented (the need to raise the issue of a national university), arguing that the Farewell Address was intended to be read in distant times” [pg. 281].

“A BRILLIANTLY DRAWN ROAD MAP TO NATIONAL SURVIVAL ... INTENDED TO BE READ IN DISTANT TIMES”

He goes on to say that; “in defining the essence of American liberty as the people’s right to make and alter their fundamental charter, Washington captured in a sentence both the fluidity and permanence of true republicanism” [pg. 283]. That single sentence being, of course;

“The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government.”

I then found it rather disturbing that the tradition of annual readings in the House of Representatives had been abandoned in the 1970’s because they

“... no longer had the time to listen, much less heed … No paper that ever came from his hand so thoroughly reflected Washington’s personal qualities of balance, restraint, and justice, nor his insights into the folly of emotionalism as a determinant of policy. Today, the Farewell Address is justly famed, not merely as the capstone of Washington’s political philosophy, but as a brilliantly drawn road map to national survival and a fully realized independence.”

In his own equally brilliant Farewell Address, President Andrew Jackson said;