[Pages S979-S984]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
READING OF WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the Senator from
New Jersey, Mr. Corzine, is recognized to read George Washington's
Farewell Address.
Mr. CORZINE. In September 1796, worn out by burdens of the presidency
and attacks of political foes, George Washington announced his decision
not to seek a third term. With the assistance of Alexander Hamilton and
James Madison, Washington composed in a ``Farewell Address'' his
political testament to the nation. Designed to inspire and guide future
generations, the address also set forth Washington's defense of his
administration's record and embodied a classic statement of Federalist
doctrine.
Washington's principal concern was for the safety of the eight-year-
old Constitution. He believed that the stability of the Republic was
threatened by the forces of geographical sectionalism, political
factionalism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation's
domestic affairs. He urged Americans to subordinate sectional
jealousies to common national interests. Writing at a time before
political parties had become accepted as vital extraconstitutional,
opinion-focusing agencies, Washington feared that they carried the
seeds of the nation's destruction through petty factionalism. Although
Washington was in no sense the father of American isolationism, since
he recognized the necessity of temporary associations for
``extraordinary emergencies,'' he did counsel against the establishment
of ``permanent alliances with other countries,'' connections that he
warned would inevitably be subversive of America's national interest.
Washington did not publicly deliver his Farewell Address. It first
appeared on September 19, 1796, in the Philadelphia Daily American
Advertiser and then in papers around the country.
In January 1862, with the Constitution endangered by civil war, a
thousand citizens of Philadelphia petitioned Congress to commemorate
the forthcoming 130th anniversary of George Washington's birth by
providing that ``the Farewell Address of Washington be read aloud on
the morning of that day in one or the other of the Houses of
Congress.'' Both houses agreed and assembled in the House of
Representatives' chamber on February 22, 1862, where Secretary of the
Senate John W. Forney ``rendered `The Farewell Address' very
effectively,'' as one observer recalled.
The practice of reading the Farewell Address did not immediately
become a tradition. The address was first read in regular legislative
sessions of the Senate in 1888 and the House in 1899. (The House
continued the practice until
[[Page S980]]
1984.) Since 1893 the Senate has observed Washington's birthday by
selecting one of its members to read the Farewell Address. The
assignment alternates between members of each political party. At the
conclusion of each reading, the appointed senator inscribes his or her
name and brief remarks in a black, leather-bound book maintained by the
secretary of the Senate.
The version of the address printed here is taken from the original of
the final manuscript in the New York Public Library provided courtesy
of The Papers of George Washington. The only changes have been to
modernize spelling, capitalization, and punctuation [note foot].
Mr. CORZINE, at the rostrum, read the Farewell Address, as follows:
Sen. Corzine's entry in GWFA notebook..
NOTE: :The only changes have been to modernize spelling, capitalization, and punctuation:
THANKS TO YOUR HUMBLE FOUNDER OF THE GWFA R&PP
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