Excerpts from George Washington's
Fairwell Address, 1796
Observe good faith and justice
towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and
Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no
distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too
novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and
benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, the
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which
might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has
not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? The
experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human
nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan,
nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies
against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be
excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all
should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to
its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it
astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against
another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold
of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when
accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent
collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted
by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary
to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in
the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to
projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and
pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of
Nations has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate
attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy
for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common
interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into
one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in
the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making
the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been
retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to
retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it
gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves
to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of
their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding,
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base
or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in
innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly
enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford
to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to
mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an
attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms
the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of
foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the
jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and
experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial;
else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead
of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and
excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger
only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on
the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are
liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the
applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us,
in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to
have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have
already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary
interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must
be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially
foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her
politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or
enmities.
Our detached and distant situation
invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one
people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we
may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an
attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to
be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility
of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us
provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by
justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so
peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by
interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace
and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest,
humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer
clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far,
I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as
capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim
no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always
the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed
in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be
unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep
ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture,
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
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; establishing, with powers so disposed, in
order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants,
and to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of
intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will
permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or
varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in
view, that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from
another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it
may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place
itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and
yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be
no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to
nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride
ought to discard.
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