VI The Farewell Address In devising plans Washington was more decided than Ching Shing or Woo Kwang; in winning a country he was braver than Tsau Tsau or Ling Pi. Wielding his four-footed falchion, he extended the frontiers and refused to accept the Royal Dignity. The sentiments of the Three Dynasties have reappeared in him. Can any man of ancient or modern times fail to pronounce Washington peerless? INSCRIPTION ON THE STONE PLACED BY CHINA IN THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. VI The Farewell Address TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES FRIENDS, AND FELLOW-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.1 I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured, that this resolution has not been 1 When Washington laid down the command of the army, he did so with the thought that he was retiring forever from public life. Throughout the Revolution, however, he was so impressed with the inadequacy of the government of the Confederacy, that his military task was no sooner accomplished than he set himself with all his energy to persuading the people to revise the Articles of Confederation and vest the government with sufficient powers to meet the national obligations and 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. perserve the national dignity. The prominent part which he took in the formation and adoption of the Constitution, combined with his previous services, made him the natural choice of the people for the Presidency. When the matter was broached to him, however, he recurred immediately to the declaration that he had made upon the resignation of his military command, and asked if he might not be charged with insincerity if he again entered public life. He was convinced by the arguments of Hamilton, Madison, and others that circum |