In 1792, George Washington, nearing the end of his first term as the President of the United States of America, made the decision to retire from office after only a single term of Presidency. With the help of his good friend James Madison, Washington prepared a letter to the people explaining his reasoning for declining a second term of office and warning them of the political dangers that laid in the future. However, after seeing growing divisions between the newly formed Federalist and Democratic-Republican political parties, Washington decided to hold office for a second term, worried how tensions between the two parties might tear apart this new country and government without his leadership. After four more years of Presidency, Washington again made the decision to decline another term in office, this time concluding his administration for good. As his second term came to a close, Washington returned to the letter he had written at the end of his first term in office and rewrote the final draft, this time with his friend Alexander Hamilton. On September 19th, 1796 (about two months before the Presidental Election of 1796), George Washingtons Farewell Address was published and quickly spread throughout the country. In his letter to the people, George Washington expressed many beliefs (some that I believe in and some that I do not), but it is his strong and moving warning against the formation of political parties that I find inspiration, wisdom, and truth. Today I voted in an election for the first time in my life, but today, I was also reminded of General Washingtons address. Todays election was the Wisconsin Partisan Primary- the election where citizens vote to choose the official canididates for their party. Voters are only allowed to vote in one party, otherwise their ballot will be marked as invalid and their votes not counted. Although I strongly believe that it is every citizens duty and responsibility to their country to participate in every election, I cant help but feel troubled for supporting the despotism it seems political parties have become by voting today. While I cannot expect to change a system that has evolved over time to become prevalent in our countrys elections, I can still express my concern for my countrys government and Constitution as two dominant political parties control and engulf the nobility and purity that was the original democracy of the United States of America. Of course, I can still fulfill my constitutional right and duty to vote by voting in a partisan primary without fully declaring myself to a political party. I can choose to only vote for one or two people whose individual beliefs appeal to me and that I believe in. But part of me still feels the need to share the wisdom of our countrys first president. George Washington knew that with the political parties would come fighting, revenge, greed, and tension that would divide Americas people and result in the decay of the workings of the government. When brothers fight brothers and sisters fight sisters, how can our politicans work together regardless of which political party they may be associated with to solve our countrys problems? How will we solve crises such as Poverty, National Debt, Immigration, Transportaion, etc. without first coming together to create a solution? Our Founding Fathers set out to create a new country where freedom would unite the people together so that we protect that freedom and our futures from anything that would destroy our new system of democracy. By dividing the people, we jeapordize everything our country stood for. We all want to protect this country and our own futures. To do that requires working together. I pledge alligiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands... One nation... Indivisible. -------------------------------------------------------------------- To those of you who stuck with me through this whole rant of mine, thank you for listening to the words of a madwoman. Below is the section of Washingtons letter about the formation of political parties and the damage they can do to any form of government. I would also recommend reading the entire letter if this even remotely interests you. George Washington was a remarkable man and leader, and his writings are precious gems of knowledge that are incredibly inciteful, whether or not you agree with them. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. -President George Washington, September 19th, 1796.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 01:12:03 +0000
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