Although known as his Farewell
Address, the words Washington selected were never spoken to an audience. The
president arranged with David C. Claypoole, editor and proprietor of the Daily
American Advertiser to print his letter in the Philadelphia newspaper in
September of 1796. As one reads Washington’s words in his Farewell Address, an
adept reader may be astounded at how remarkably prophetic they are. Some of
what Washington conveyed to his countrymen about the divisiveness of political
parties reveals the president’s genuine wisdom:
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 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.
President Washington expressed
genuine concern in that “the alternate domination” of one political party over
another, thereby allowing one party to enjoy temporary power over the
government that would use it to obtain revenge on the other. He seriously felt
that this tendency toward atrocities directed at the party out of power “…is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and
permanent despotism.”
Washington understood what America
would become if “a wise people” did not do their duty to discourage and
restrain the over-zealous development of political parties.
Unfortunately, it may be too late to
restrain the hunger for power evident in America’s political parties in this
day; such power now seems entrenched as it has become evident that both major
political parties have a hard time yielding to the will of the people.
The presidential election of 2016
had offered some hope as a “wise people” to have wised up, and the antics of the 2016 election have helped many a naïve American citizen awaken to the
realities of what “We the People” have allowed over several decades as the two
major political parties “ran the show.” Americans trusted the political
process, but now realize the political system is broken – and it threatens the
existence of the very nation Washington and those of the founding generation
had fought so hard to create.
If enough Americans can awaken in
this time, they may begin to realize that it is not just one political party
that is the problem, it is both political parties that have led to the state of
politics that allows an aristocratic political elite to ignore America’s
founding principles and values. If enough Americans can awaken in this time,
the nation may be able to avoid the “frightful despotism which can lead at
length to a more formal and permanent despotism.”
