Liberalism Cannot Be Defended; I Dare You To Try

Just recently, on this forum, two questions were posited for answer and perusal of those participants whose chose to participate. They were prescient questions deserving of an intelligent, thoughtful response. The two questions in question were these; what is a liberal and what is a conservative? The poster asked for well thought out, specific descriptions of the opposite ends of the political spectrum. As expected, as usual, I not only stepped up to the plate, I knocked it out of the park. I put on a blinding brilliance of literary composition rarely seen in human endeavor. {See my response below}
However, not one little, Lilliputian, liberal lackey bucked up, took the stage and dared to proffer a positive portrayal of the affliction that is modern liberalism. And, I think I know why. It would be much akin to pointing out the benefits of cancer.
Liberalism has no basis in fact, reason or sanity. It is unrealistic, antithetic to the principals and values this country was founded upon and requires the willing suspension of disbelief, “sound familiar?”
Liberals claim to believe in our constitution and derided George W. Bush for violating it by, “torturing” detainees currently living the good life at the renowned vacation retreat in the tropical paradise lovingly referred to as Club Gitmo.
Yet liberals are nuanced in their devotion to the constitution that we conservatives consider sacrosanct. They ignore section two and enumerated powers; they are blind to the tenth amendment limiting federal authority to only those enumerated powers.
If they were honest with themselves, “not bloody likely” they would admit this one truism that is the wooden stake in the heart of Looney liberalism, it is the silver bullet, the Ark of the Covenant. Our founders were conservative. This is inarguable and unassailable. This country was founded on the principals of conservatism and our founding documents reflect that; without doubt. It’s all there, in the words of those brave men whom bore this country. Read them, learn them and then; “if you dare”, argue your liberal point of view and open yourself up to be rhetorically dragged behind my smoke belching SUV, flailing in you flawed ideology. So, let’s just light this firecracker. Liberalism is a false premise and cannot be defended, that’s why no one even tried. Liberalism is the most spineless, yellow-bellied ideology one can ascribe to. It requires no critical thinking or workable solutions. One needs only to appear compassionate.
And there is the crux of the malady known as liberalism. It’s all about feelings. These tweed jackets, pseudo-intellectuals glom on to every Oprah moment to come down the pike and then smugly look down their bifocals at the rest of the great unwashed as characters from Deliverance. Yet; not one damn thing these dust bunnies have ever put forth works. Take the war on poverty; for instance. Since 1964 we have transferred $12TRILLION dollars from the haves, to the have not’s. Yet poverty levels haven’t decreased. We’ve only succeeded in insuring every Joe-No-Lunchbox has a flat screen television in his hovel. Liberals demanded sex education in our public schools. So… what happened? Well; we now have a society where the only virgins are ugly sixth graders and teachers not only teach sex but also turn down the lights and put on Sinatra for their students. The good news is that even though little Suzy is squeezing out her twelfth rug rat those food stamps will keep on coming. Thanks to liberals. Still; we mustn’t examine the outcomes of liberal policies; oh no, we must only focus on their good intentions. Well; spank my ass and call me Judy. I’m done with letting you liberals set the premise and change the measure of success.
You liberal piles of steaming excrement deserve both barrels and I’ve got an itchy trigger finger. In other words; it’s time to barbeque some ass and I’ve got the spit.

1.The energy crisis is your fault. Environmentalists, tree hugging, “arbor perverts” and your PETA pal pundits have blocked, at every turn, our effort to drill in ANWAR, off of our coasts and anywhere we might conceivably increase supply. You have blocked the construction of fuel refineries. Your useful idiots in the, “Sierra Club” have shut down or halted more coal mines and coal power plants than can be counted using basic math. You and your ilk have sued in federal court to halt the construction of nuclear power plants and when you are successful, in doing so, you run to your homes to watch Jane Fonda’s overacting performance in, “The China Syndrome”. And you weep. Well, let me be succinct and blaring. Get over it. We have more oil in this country and off of our coasts than is present in the entire Middle East. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal. We have the greatest nuclear technology in the world. We have more natural gas in this country than all of the hot air you’ve been bellowing for forty years.

2.You are the racists, sexists, bigots and homophobes. It is you leftists who categorize people into groups and then attempt to make them victims. Conservatives don’t give a rat’s rear end about a person’s skin color, their sex or what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms. You left leaning, Leninist liars have taken three of our conservative dictums and completely perverted them. That being the diabolical divergence of affirmative action, our rigidity against gay marriage and our opposition to abortion. My over active grey matter can easily portray these vapid portrayals for the inept pronouncements they are. For those of you being literarily dazzled I have a question, a most prescient one; how much time have you spent lately thinking about my sex life? That’s how much I spent thinking about yours. If you want to be gay, be gay. Marriage however, is a time honored tradition and shouldn’t be adulterated. Affirmative action; we are all created equal. No one should be granted special rights, “or denied them” because of any distinguishing identifier. Abortion; Find a general right to privacy in our constitution and we can talk. The Supreme Court cannot, out of whole cloth, enumerate constitutional text. We’ll throw in that pesky moral dilemma for good measure.

3.It is you that has cheapened what our founders born. Were it so, that the founders of this country existed today, I’m just saying; There would be a lot of liberals, limply lying at the end of a short rope strung from a tall tree. The constitution you so readily hide behind when spouting your socialist rhetoric is the same constitution you treat as, “Charmin” three ply when you stumble across text you find disagreeable. You cite the separation of church and state, where one does not exist. You support limitations on our second amendment. The bastardization of our tenth amendment has your fingerprints all over it. You demand more and more from federal government instead of abiding personal responsibly and rugged individualism. Reflect, if you dare and ponder this; were our founders conservative or liberal? Genuine reflection should make you reach for pharmaceuticals in vast quantities. Prozac anyone?


4.For what you have done to our children there will be a special place in hell. Loony liberals have been running our educational system for 40 years. Juxtapose that statistic with our falling international scholastic test scores America and her children have long endured. The liberal educational system is but one of the few endeavors wherein we accept greater and greater financing without positive result. In Washington D.C. the taxpayers fund each student to the sum of $25,000.00 per student, per year. Yet, 50% still do not graduate. We are told, more money is needed, while, in truth, what is needed is to run these liberal, tweed jacket nerds into the ocean, at high tide. I have a deep faith Mr. Jefferson would approve.


5.You despise the poor. You must, look what you have done to them. The war on poverty began in 1964 by the real idiot from Texas. Trumpeted by leftists it has decimated inner cities and many small towns. You have taken from those you’ve sought to help all self sufficiency, independence, self reliance and dignity god gave them. You have made poverty just comfortable enough to abide in. Benjamin Franklin said that poverty should be uncomfortable and people should be run from it. You have made poverty cozy, ensuring it will be endured.

6.If it’s broken, you broke it. The listing of your liberal transgressions is endless. That statement is all encompassing and meant to be so. By nature, conservatives have a deep reverence for our constitution, for the sacrifice of our founders, for American exceptionalism, manifest destiny and hold unshakable beliefs that God so endowed this country. So, by default, if it’s broken, liberals broke it. Happy Trails.


Conservative Springfield Staff Writer

The Top Myths Foisted Upon the Huddled Masses

The Top Myths Foisted Upon the Huddled Masses



Bill Clinton balanced the budget and left George Bush with a surplus Myth!



Yes; there was actually a balanced budget during the grey days of the Clinton era yet, it had little to do with Bill, or even Monica. Fact; Presidents do submit a budget to congress and routinely congress ignores it. The Presidential budget is merely a political straw dog. The house of Representatives, “per our constitution” is responsible for all legislation that would include spending; including our budget. When Newt Gingrich and the boys rode into town in 1994 Republicans assumed scribing of our Federal budget. Of course; Bill Clinton feared a balanced budget, “on the grounds that it was good for America” and promptly vetoed it, causing a shutdown of the Federal government. Clinton finally caved, signing the Republican balanced budget and later claimed it was He who actually balanced it. The other myth is that Bush came into office with a surplus. Not so skippy; this was simply fuzzy math, combining Social Security revenues with the general operating budget. There was never a surplus.



Roosevelt saved us From the Great Depression Myth!



Right again; it is a myth. The stock market crash of 1929 was caused in large part by, “you guessed it” a Kennedy. Joe Kennedy shorted, manipulated and so corrupted the markets as to single handedly crash the market. It was the fiscal and social engineering policies of Roosevelt that caused the depression. Another myth is that World War Two helped end the depression; it did not. America actually crawled out of the depression when pent up demand in the world markets exceeded supply. It’s as simple as that.



The Constitution abides a separation of church and state. Myth!



There is no such separation in our founding document. In our first amendment appears, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” what isn’t well known is that until the mid 1930’s churches operated all public schools and bible reading was mandated by several state constitutions.



Federal Authority over the States Myth!



Articles one, two and three, enumerated all constitutional, Federal authority. Those powers are to provide for a common defense, negotiate international treaties and to settle disputes in the arena of commerce between the several states. PERIOD! The tenth amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. Nuff Said.



Barack Obama is an American citizen Myth!



I report; you decide. Barry’s’ grandmother claims she was present at Obama’s birth; in Kenya. Obama has admitted to dual citizenship at one point in his life and his record of birth from the state of Hawaii can’t be found. To get a drivers license in this country you have to either present a birth certificate or sneak into this country illegally. Obama was allowed to walk into the highest office in the land without even a cursory look-see at his birth record. The plot thickens when you realize that it was impossible for his parents to have been legally married. Comrade Obama also claims he is now a Christian; yet more of an impossibility. It is know that Barry, as a lad, attended an Islamic school in Indonesia. To attend that school he would have been required to swear a fidelity to Mohamed, Islam and child rape. The penalty under Islamic law for a Muslim converting to Christianity is death. To date; not one Muslim cleric has called for such action.



Islam is a Religion Myth!



This is, “without a doubt” one of the greatest myths ever postulated. Islam is a cult. Mohamed was not a prophet or an inspiration to his people. Under Mohamed one either converted to Islam or died a painful death. Mohamed made an art form out of mutilation, child rape and mass murder. He was a Hitler without tanks, a Stalin without gulags and a huckster pseudo-prophet.



Darwinism is a Myth!



Not even the Huckster Darwin actually believed in evolution in his later years. Yet; his posit theorem lives on. The meaning to this, “supposed science” is nothing more, “or less” than a covert attack on religion. The pinheads that would have us believe that man has origins from a primordial soup discount a creator and posit the abstract notion that humans are simply hairless monkeys. To this I would promote; if we, “humans” derived from apes, why are there still apes? Liberals must discount a creator as to abide “or to acknowledge” one requires a moral code.



Abortion is a Right Myth!



In 1972 the United States Supreme Court found a “general right” to privacy in the constitution where one neither does exist. Read the constitution, “I have” it is nowhere to be found. What the Supreme Court did was to invent a specific right using “emanations of penumbras”. Which; is simply legal speak for the court legislating from the bench. Simply put, the court decided that the bedroom of adults is sacrosanct and cannot be invaded; after all the case before them hinged on birth control and conception. Yet; the bedroom is not inviolate. I.E., try murdering someone in your bedroom.



There is NO Proof that there is a God Myth!

Actually, this is a truism. There is no proof of God; yet, there is evidence. As it’s said; “A child’s birth is Gods acknowledgement that the world should continue”. Look into the night sky, a child’s face, the beauty of nature, our planets great oceans, our snowcapped mountains, mans compassion or any of the millions of planetary wonders. No, there isn’t absolute proof; there isn’t supposed to be. The most common denominator of Christianity is faith and for faith to be absolute there cannot be proof. But; there is evidence.



Our Rights Come From the Constitution Myth!



“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Thomas Jefferson included that sentence in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution, “or more specifically” the Bill of Rights protects those God given rights from government.



The Great Global Warming Myth!



For the past nine years the planet has been cooling. As such, The Global Warming Nazis have changed their nomenclature to, “Climate Change”. Our planet has experienced ice ages, periods of balmy weather and other such idiosyncrasies long before man turned the ignition key in our first SUV. Pay attention; the wizards of smart cannot even predict the weather accurately, seven days out. Yet these same idiots claim to have a monopoly on climate forecasts.



The Civil War was fought to end Slavery Myth!



Do your own investigation. What you’ll find is the states exhorting their constitutional authority over an oppressive federal government. In your search you’ll soon discover the, “Alien and Sedition act”, Federal intrusion into state government and the end of Federalism. A true search will compel you to ask? Why was America the only country on the planet to fight a war to end the scourge of slavery?



Conservative Springfield Staff Writer

Let's Get This Tea Party Started!

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? …Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government! You might be asking of yourself just what you have sacrificed for freedom?



Eleven score and thirteen years ago America was founded on the principals of rugged individualism and inherent freedoms. America began as an idea, an experiment in self determination wherein government derived its limited authority from the people and served at their behest. This young republic assumed upon itself the mantle of the last, best hope for the world. Sadly, at this time and place we mourn her passing. Historians will long debate the passing of the greatest country on earth but few will regale, with wit, the Socialistic virus responsible for her demise. America was first diagnosed with Socialism in the 1960’s and suffered many injustices, trials and relapses throughout the next two decades. In the 80’s America fought back against this usually fatal disease with the help and guidance of “Ronaldus Magnus”, better known as Ronald Reagan. President Reagan attacked Socialism with a fervor not seen by the American electorate since the founding of its great republic. Reagan believed in America and America believed in him. During the 80’s Socialism in America was in remission, and on the run. For a time, far too short, America made sense again and thrived. After Reagan America was never the same. Socialism gradually seeped back in the American lexicon and the virulent strain again masticated democracy throughout the states and across the fruited plain. Finally, in 2009, America heaved her last gasp and departed this world, taking with her the hopes and dreams held dear by her masses. She will be remembered for what could have been; Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Sadly; this postscript is much more than flowery prose and postulation. This could happen. Ask yourself… what have you done to preserve freedom?



“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, “Think Barry’s BBQ ribs in every pot and home ownership for deadbeats”. “The result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy is always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two-hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage.”


—Alexander Fraser Tyler, 1700 Quotation found in SYNERGY Server [Note: The Professor wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic over a thousand years ago, this when America was a British colony.]



Authors Note ** We are not abiding a Democracy; Our government is a representative republic gone mad.



I begin this most prescient posit quoting Professor Tyler primarily for his profound ability to stand askance as to the execution of government when the enumerated powers loaned to the federal government are ignored and/or adulterated. Thomas Paine, “the Rush Limbaugh of his time” said, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one”. This is the state of governance we are compelled to tolerate and endure.



“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” — James Madison, {general author of our constitution}



“A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” — Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801



These quotes from our founders; “whom I believe were rooted in divine inspiration” have been totally filed under, “I” for irrelevant and looked upon by our present day congress and the executive branch as merely a super sized roll of Charmin® three ply in the same men’s room formerly occupied by the toe tapping, wide stance Senator from Idaho; A.K.A Larry, “men seeking men” Craigslist.



When James Madison said that the text of our constitution specifically states that no where in that document was there a codicil or even the intent that our federal government has purview over the distribution of charity; Or taking income from those engaged in productivity and transferring it to baby machines and winos whose preference is to suckle at the teat of earners.



After all; it was James Madison who actually wrote the constitution with the help of Thomas Paine; thus answering once and for all the intent of this sacred parchment.



“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816



Abraham Lincoln, “the object of Barry’s man crush” also had thoughts about spreading the wealth, though his thoughts were diametrically opposed to the temporary lease holder of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.



“Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties”.-President Abraham Lincoln.



As the ratings for the Obama sitcom dwarf those of American Idol; thanks in large part to the Presidents decisions to close club Gitmo and relocate its clients to a halfway house in Crawford Texas, while rescinding the water sports portion of their daily entertainment and limiting the questioning of these misunderstood, peaceful reformers, “ who accidentally go BOOM” on occasion to, “ how can we make you more comfortable” or “ would you like President Obama to sign your Koran” ? We the people are treated to an administration most reminiscent of a three stooges re-run…Nyuk, Nyuk!



Meanwhile; back at the White House, “where the black guy lives”, Obama spends most of his time rating female interns from 1-10 yet, has found time to jimmy the government cash register and pilfer $1 gazillion greenbacks to finance Ass Chaps on Rabid Nuts, or “ACORN”. Abortions for European cheerleaders, their mothers, unwed sheep and that mother in California that just gave birth to eight children; now possessing a football team, complete with backups.



And; as Obama plays Santa Clause for every mega-liberal wet dream, he intends to pay for this shopping spree by placing his picture on the dollar bill and stenciling in twelve zeros next to the $1. That and combining his fight against obesity by taxing Americans by the pound, sending jackbooted IRS thugs out to literally make change by hoisting citizens by their ankles and shaking them; dislodging the change from their pockets, appointing Bernie Made-off as confiscator of wealth from the wealthy, changing the mission of the peace corps to picking up aluminum cans, unionizing the homeless, taxing sex by the inch, “Democrats would be allowed to estimate” taxing children’s allowances and playing the lottery. I’m reminded of the words of very wise men and their thoughts on taxes.







“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
—Winston Churchill



“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity. [To approve such spending] would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.”
—President Franklin Pierce (1854)







“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built”.- Abraham Lincoln



So why the historical perspective, why the history of those great men who not only conceived this document, “our constitution” a document we conservatives consider to be divinely inspired and sacrosanct; A document that these great men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, under the penalty of death? Why? Because my friends it is being dismantled, one section at a time, under our very noses.



Sadly; we have become a politically correct, Oprah watching, spoiled, fat, sassy, entitled, lazy, sappy, microwaveable, remote control, blasphemous, fast food, Hollywood worshiping, selfish, non-voting, politically illiterate, government dependent, credit card, sub-prime, ignorant sheep. Quick; what is enumerated in our tenth amendment? What are the names of all nine Supreme Court justices?



These questions were put to a cross section of college seniors with predictable results. Less than 10% could name even five justices, less than 1% could paraphrase our tenth amendment. None of the participants could give even a basic explanation of economics.



Perhaps it’s just my conspiracy, black helicopter, and grassy knoll, nature that believes this is but coincidental and arbitrary. Though, After all; were our founding documents ingrained into our young skulls full of mush, along with a basic understanding of economic principals; the democrat party would be extinct and exhibits of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, ET. Al., would be featured in the Smithsonian next to the Neanderthals.



“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power”.- Thomas Jefferson





The Rhetorical dagger I most often use when skewering you Lilliputian, liberal, bootlicking lackey loons from the left as I Lionize conservatives and belittle the salmonella tainted, peanut size frontal lobes possessed by you water head, short buss, Forrest Gump’s, Is simply common sense combined with my inherent, unequaled, unqualified brilliance.



Even with your diminished liberal mental faculties; I have but one question for you special ED, Special Olympics flunkies. And; it is this. Even taken for granted that the majority of you lack of the gray matter to form a coherent thought, tie your shoes or chew gum at the same time you must accept the gold standard of substantive recumbentibus pertinent thelemic freedoms that we are indeed endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights that do not come from government; but no, our rights are God given and simply loaned to government as a temporary note.



Meaning; what government hasn’t the authority so enumerated to that body in the text of the constitution, they have not the authority to exercise. There is no federal, constitutional, powers which would allow government to empower the treasury secretary to allocate funds, to collect earnings from one taxpayer and deliver them to a slacker, to regulate states exploration of energy, to bailout anyone or anything, to fund abortion, to set, “CAFÉ” standards, to fund education, to apply federal taxes to any goods or services, to regulate anything that does not involve a commercial dispute between the states, or the thousands of duties our federal government has taken upon itself.



Our constitution is clear and unambiguous. The federal government is charged with three and only three duties and is limited by the tenth amendment from straying into other legislative arenas. Those authorities are; to provide for a common defense, to negotiate international treaties and to settle disputes between the several states, only in the context of interstate commerce. All other governing responsibilities reside with the states.



These weren’t simply suggestions postulated by those great men whom born this country by sacrificing blood and treasure. No; our founders actually put quill to parchment and specifically enumerated those edicts as governing principals to be adhered to. And; lest there be any doubt they also affixed their John Hancock’s to their document and swore an oath to protect and defend the principals within the text. By the way; this is the same oath taken by our President and congressional representatives.



Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time for those elected, spoiled, greedy corrupt bastards and bitches who have made a career out of screwing the people they are supposed to be working for, just maybe they should dust off the constitution and give it a look see. For those career politicians with the courage to do so I would expect a speedy resignation. For the document they swore to protect and defend, they have adulterated, bastardized, emasculated and belittled. Now; what will you do about it? What say you?

Conservative Springfield Staff Writer

George Washinton's Final Address to the nation

Washington's Farewell Address 1796

Friends and Citizens:
The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.
I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.
I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
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 dissension, which in different ages and 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 and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and 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 mischief’s 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, and 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.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
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 7 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 a habitual hatred or a 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 practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils 7 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 defense 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 connection 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.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To me, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this con duct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
George Washington, 1796