George Washington: Farewell Address

Questions for Further Study

• 1. How might alliances with foreign powers detract from the best interests of America?
• 2. Compare and contrast Washington's advice in the Farewell Address with Thomas Paine's advice in Common Sense in 1776, Washington's Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission in 1783, and Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address in 1861.
• 3. How do you explain Alexander Hamilton's writing the portions of the Farewell Address in which political parties are attacked when, at the time, Hamilton was the partisan leader of the Federalist Party?
• 4. The Soviet Union dissolved in the late 1980s into several individual nations. Do you think that it would be beneficial for the United States to divide into five or six separate confederations held together by a limited federal government? Why or why not?
• 5. Have recent American administrations followed Washington's advice?