George Washington: Farewell Address

About the Author

George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, into a middle-gentry family. His father died when he was only eleven years old. His elder stepbrother Lawrence married into the prominent Fairfax family, and Washington often visited his brother at the Fairfax estate. It was through this connection that at age seventeen Washington was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County, which was on the fringe of the Virginia frontier. The young surveyor learned how to live in the wilderness and deal with Native Americans. He also made excellent personal and business connections and started to build his own estate by purchasing land.

Unlike most Virginia political leaders who rose to prominence through steady advancement in civilian offices, Washington's popularity came through the military. Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent Washington to order the French to leave an area Virginians considered their territory (the present-day area around Pittsburgh). Several encounters between Washington and the French led to the French and Indian War, which escalated into the Seven Years' War in Europe. In 1755 Washington escaped unscathed from the decimation of General Edward Braddock's British army. At twenty-two, Washington became commander in chief of the Virginia militia (1755–1758). Even though Washington emerged from the war as one of only a few American heroes, the British refused to give him a commission in the regular army.

Washington served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from the western district of Frederick County from 1758 to 1765 and from his home district of Fairfax County from 1766 to 1776. His marriage to the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis in January 1759 brought him added land, slaves, and social prominence.

Washington joined those colonists who opposed the new imperial policy instituted after the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. He served in the First and Second Continental Congresses, arriving at the latter dressed in the uniform of a Virginia militia colonel—the only delegate dressed in a military uniform. On June 15, 1775, Congress elected him commander in chief, a position he held until the end of the war despite several early attempts to remove him.

In March 1783 Washington squelched an uprising among army officers who contemplated marching in on Congress to demand their back pay and pensions, which Congress had promised them in 1780 during the war. In early June 1783 Washington wrote his final circular letter to the chief executives of the states, informing them that he intended to retire to civilian life after the conflict ended and that he would not serve again in public office. The letter outlined what Washington thought was necessary for America to be great as a nation. First, the Union had to be preserved and Congress's powers had to be increased. Second, the country's public credit and public justice had to be maintained by paying the wartime debt both to foreign and domestic public creditors, honoring promises made to the army and its officers, and providing pensions to invalid soldiers and widows and orphans of those who had died during the war. Third, Congress had to provide an appropriate peacetime military establishment. The old militia system had been largely ineffective, thus demonstrating that some kind of standing army was essential. Last, Washington suggested that Americans develop a new respect for government. After eight years attempting to overthrow imperial authorities, Americans had to erect and maintain a new government and foster a sense of nationhood. The sectionalism of states and their animosities toward each other both before and during the war had to give way to a new sense of American unity and citizenry.

When the British army evacuated New York City on November 25, 1783, Washington and Governor George Clinton rode into the city, which had been occupied by the British for seven years. After ten days of peaceful celebrations, Washington met with his officers at Fraunces Tavern to bid them farewell. He hoped that their latter years would be as happy and prosperous as their former ones had been honorable and glorious. He left New York City to perform his last mission as commander in chief. On December 23, 1783, Washington surrendered his commission to Congress, which had assembled in Annapolis, Maryland. He then retired to Mount Vernon, the plantation he had seen only once during the previous eight years.

Washington enjoyed his retirement. He continued to maintain a voluminous correspondence with both Americans and Europeans, and, as a hospitable southern gentleman, he entertained visitors at his home almost daily. He kept busy by improving the five farms that constituted Mount Vernon and developing canal-building enterprises to connect the new western settlements with the Atlantic states via the James and Potomac Rivers.

Unfortunately, Washington's countrymen did not follow his advice. After a short period of prosperity, the country fell into a severe postwar economic depression. State assemblies enacted radical legislation to ease the plight of desperate debtors, while insufficient efforts to relieve the distressed in other states resulted in violence. Congress, under the largely deficient Articles of Confederation, was unable to pass relief measures or suppress violence. In late 1786 and early 1787, calls were issued for a general convention of the states to amend the articles. The Virginia legislature unanimously elected Washington as one of its convention delegates. After repeatedly rejecting the appointment, primarily because of his 1783 promise not to serve in public office again, Washington succumbed to pressure and accepted. He was elected president of the convention and on September 17, 1787, formally signed both the Constitution and a letter from the convention to the president of Congress.

Washington actively worked for ratification of the Constitution behind the scenes from Mount Vernon. He did not, however, become personally involved in the campaign and refused to be a delegate to the Virginia ratifying convention. The entire country knew that if the Constitution were ratified, Washington would be the only person Americans would want as the country's first president. He reluctantly accepted the unanimous election as president and was inaugurated on April 30, 1789. He was ready to retire after one term, but his advisers convinced him that he must continue for a second term, because domestic unrest and war in Europe required his unifying leadership. As the end of his second term neared, Washington decided not to stand for a third term. He made this decision public with his Farewell Address, which was printed first in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796. Widely reprinted, the address was viewed as Washington's legacy to his country.

Washington happily retired to Mount Vernon in March 1797. He actively worked on the plantation and continued his vast correspondence. In 1798 President John Adams appointed Washington commander in chief of the provisional army that was to be raised to defend the country against an expected invasion by France. Some talk arose among Hamilton's supporters that Washington should be brought out of retirement to serve a third term as president, but Washington scuttled such a movement in its infancy. Adams's efforts to maintain peace succeeded and eliminated the threat of war and thus the need for the army.

Healthy and vigorous at sixty-seven, Washington contracted a severe cold on December 10, 1799, after spending hours outdoors exposed to a harsh storm on the plantation. His illness developed into a condition in which he was unable to breathe. Further weakened by attending physicians who bled him of thirty-two ounces of blood, a typical treatment for the times, Washington died on December 14, 1799. He was buried at Mount Vernon.