A 1797 portrait of George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some remarks on factionalism from George Washington\u2019s famous \u201cFarewell Address,\u201d delivered on 19 September 1796:<\/p>\n
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Let me \u2026 warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 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.<\/span><\/p>\nThe 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n[The spirit of party] 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.<\/span><\/p>\n[Factions]\u00a0are 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe unity of government which constitutes you one people is . . . \u00a0a 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 . . . 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; . . .\u00a0this 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.<\/span><\/p>\nIt is of infinite moment\u00a0that you should properly estimate\u00a0the immense value of your national union\u00a0to your collective and individual happiness;\u00a0that you should cherish a cordial, habitual,\u00a0and immovable attachment to it;\u00a0accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it\u00a0as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity;\u00a0watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety;\u00a0discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion\u00a0that it can in any event be abandoned;\u00a0and indignantly frowning upon\u00a0the first dawning of every attempt\u00a0to alienate any portion of our country from the rest,\u00a0or to enfeeble the sacred ties\u00a0which now link together the various parts.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 Some remarks on factionalism from George Washington\u2019s famous \u201cFarewell Address,\u201d delivered on 19 September 1796: \u00a0 Let me \u2026 warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.\u00a0 The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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