The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5)
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"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace
and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and
can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? it will be
worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great
nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a
people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can
doubt but, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan
would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a
steady adherence to it; can it be that Providence has not connected
the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? the experiment, at
least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature.
Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
"In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and
passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in
place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be
cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is
sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy
in one nation against another, disposes each more readily to offer
insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be
haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of
dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill will and resentment,
sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best
calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the
national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation
subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition,
and other sinister and pernicious motives.--The peace often, sometimes
perhaps the liberty of nations has been the victim.
"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favourite nation,
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the
quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducements or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favourite nation,
of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the
nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what
ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a
disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are
withheld: and it gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens who
devote themselves to the favourite nation, facility to betray or
sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes
even with popularity; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense
of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a
laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of
ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
"As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments
are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent
patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic
factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public
opinion, to influence or awe the public councils!--such an attachment
of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation dooms the
former to be the satellite of the latter.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to
believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be
_constantly_ awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.
But that jealousy, to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence
against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive
dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only
on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence
on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the
favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools
and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to
surrender their interests.
"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is,
in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
_political_ connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.--Here, let
us stop.
"Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a
very remote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our
concerns.--Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her
politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her
friendships or enmities.
"Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a
different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient
government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury
from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will
cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations under the
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard
the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our
interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? why quit our
own to stand upon foreign ground? why, by interweaving our destiny
with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in
the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour, or
caprice?
"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any
portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty
to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less
applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always
the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be
observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary,
and would be unwise to extend them.
"Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on
a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
"Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended
by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy
should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting
exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed,
in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our
merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional
rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual
opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time
abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate;
constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to look for
disinterested favours from another; that it must pay with a portion of
its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that
by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having
given equivalents for nominal favours, and yet of being reproached
with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error
than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from nation to nation.
It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought
to discard.
"In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and
lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual
current of the passions; or prevent our nation from running the course
which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations; but if I may even
flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit,
some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the
fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign
intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism;
this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your
welfare by which they have been dictated.
"How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided
by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and
other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To
myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have, at least,
believed myself to be guided by them.
"In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of
the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your
approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of
congress; the spirit of that measure has continually governed me;
uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
"After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound, in duty
and interest, to take a neutral position.--Having taken it, I
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with
moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
"The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it
is not necessary on this occasion to detail.--I will only observe
that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far
from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually
admitted by all.
"The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without
anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose
on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain
inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
"The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be
referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a
predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country
to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress,
without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own
fortunes.
"Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error; I am nevertheless too sensible of my
defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to
avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry
with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with
indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to
its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities
will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions
of rest.
"Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by
that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views
in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several
generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in
which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment
of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence
of good laws under a free government--the ever favourite object of my
heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours,
and dangers."
The sentiments of veneration with which this address was generally
received, were manifested in almost every part of the union. Some of
the state legislatures directed it to be inserted at large in their
journals; and nearly all of them passed resolutions expressing their
respect for the person of the President, their high sense of his
exalted services, and the emotions with which they contemplated his
retirement from office. Although the leaders of party might rejoice at
this event it produced solemn and anxious reflections in the great
body even of those who belonged to the opposition.
The person in whom alone the voice of the people could be united
having declined a re-election, the two great parties in America
brought forward their respective chiefs; and every possible effort was
made by each, to obtain the victory. Mr. John Adams and Mr. Thomas
Pinckney, the late minister at London, were supported as President and
Vice President by the federalists: the whole force of the opposite
party was exerted in favour of Mr. Jefferson.
Motives of vast influence were added, on this occasion, to those which
usually impel men in a struggle to retain or acquire power. The
continuance or the change not only of those principles on which the
internal affairs of the United States had been administered, but of
the conduct which had been observed towards foreign nations, was
believed to depend on the choice of a chief magistrate. By one party,
the system pursued by the existing administration with regard to the
belligerent powers, had been uniformly approved; by the other, it had
been as uniformly condemned. In the contests therefore which preceded
the choice of electors, the justice of the complaints which were made
on the part of the French republic were minutely discussed, and the
consequences which were to be apprehended from her resentment, or from
yielding to her pretensions, were reciprocally urged as considerations
entitled to great weight in the ensuing election.
[Sidenote: The minister of France endeavors to influence the
approaching election.]
In such a struggle, it was not to be expected that foreign powers
could feel absolutely unconcerned. In November, while the parties were
so balanced that neither scale could be perceived to preponderate, Mr.
Adet addressed a letter to the secretary of state, in which he
recapitulated the numerous complaints which had been urged by himself
and his predecessors, against the government of the United States; and
reproached that government, in terms of great asperity, with violating
those treaties which had secured its independence, with ingratitude to
France, and with partiality to England. These wrongs, which commenced
with the "_insidious_" proclamation of neutrality, were said to be so
aggravated by the treaty concluded with Great Britain, that Mr. Adet
announced the orders of the Directory to suspend his ministerial
functions with the federal government. "But the cause," he added,
"which had so long restrained the just resentment of the executive
Directory from bursting forth, now tempered its effects. The name of
America, notwithstanding the wrongs of its government, still excited
sweet emotions in the hearts of Frenchmen; and the executive Directory
wished not to break with a people whom they loved to salute with the
appellation of a friend." This suspension of his functions therefore
was not to be regarded "as a rupture between France and the United
States, but as a mark of just discontent which was to last until the
government of the United States returned to sentiments and to measure
more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and to the sworn
friendship between the two nations."
This letter was concluded in the following terms:
"Alas! Time has not yet demolished the fortifications with which the
English roughened this country--nor those the Americans raised for
their defence; their half rounded summits still appear in every
quarter, amidst plains, on the tops of mountains. The traveller need
not search for the ditch which served to encompass them; it is still
open under his feet. Scattered ruins of houses laid waste, which the
fire had partly respected, in order to leave monuments of British
fury, are still to be found.--Men still exist, who can say, here a
ferocious Englishman slaughtered my father; there my wife tore her
bleeding daughter from the hands of an unbridled Englishman.--Alas!
the soldiers who fell under the sword of the Britons are not yet
reduced to dust: the labourer in turning up his field, still draws
from the bosom of the earth their whitened bones; while the ploughman,
with tears of tenderness and gratitude, still recollects that his
fields, now covered with rich harvests, have been moistened with
French blood. While every thing around the inhabitants of this country
animates them to speak of the tyranny of Great Britain, and of the
generosity of Frenchmen; when England has declared a war of death to
that nation, to avenge herself for its having cemented with its blood
the independence of the United States:--It was at this moment their
government made a treaty of amity with their ancient tyrant, the
implacable enemy of their ancient ally. Oh Americans covered with
noble scars! Oh you who have so often flown to death and to victory
with French soldiers! You who know those generous sentiments which
distinguish the true warrior! whose hearts have always vibrated with
those of your companions in arms! consult them to-day to know what
they experience; recollect at the same time, that if magnanimous souls
with liveliness resent an affront, they also know how to forget one.
Let your government return to itself, and you will still find in
Frenchmen faithful friends and generous allies."
[Illustration: Martha Washington's Bedroom at Mount Vernon
_Returning to their beloved Mount Vernon with General Washington after
his retirement, in 1796, as First President of the United States,
Martha Washington seldom spent a night away from the historic mansion
overlooking the Potomac. There she continued to offer a gracious
hospitality to the many visitors attracted by her distinguished
husband. She never recovered from his death in 1799, and dwelt in deep
mourning until she followed him, May 22, 1802. Her remains rest with
those of Washington in the vault at Mount Vernon._]
As if to remove all doubts respecting the purpose for which this
extraordinary letter was written, a copy was, on the day of its date,
transmitted to a printer for publication.
Whatever motives might have impelled Mr. Adet to make this open and
direct appeal to the American people, in the critical moment of their
election of a chief magistrate, it does not appear, in any material
degree, to have influenced that election. Many reflecting men, who had
condemned the course of the administration, could not approve this
interference in the internal affairs of the United States; and the
opposite party, generally, resented it as an attempt to control the
operations of the American people in the exercise of one of the
highest acts of sovereignty, and to poison the fountain of their
liberty and independence, by mingling foreign intrigue with their
elections. Viewing it as a fulfilment of their most gloomy prognostics
respecting the designs of France to establish an influence in the
councils of America, they believed the best interests of their country
to require that it should be defeated; and their exertions against the
candidate Mr. Adet was understood to favour, were the more determined
and the more vigorous.
[Sidenote: The president's speech to congress.]
On the 7th of December, while this dubious and ardently contested
election was depending, the President, for the last time, met the
national legislature in the senate chamber. His address on the
occasion was comprehensive, temperate, and dignified. In presenting a
full and clear view of the situation of the United States, and in
recommending those great national measures, in the utility of which he
felt a confidence, no personal considerations could induce the
omission of those, to which open and extensive hostility had been
avowed.
After congratulating congress on the internal situation of the United
States, and on the progress of that humane system which had been
adopted for the preservation of peace with their Indian neighbours;
after stating the measures which had been taken in execution of the
treaties with Great Britain, Spain, and Algiers, and the negotiations
which were pending with Tunis and Tripoli; he proceeded to say:
"To an active external commerce, the protection of a naval force is
indispensable--this is manifest with regard to wars in which a state
is itself a party--but besides this, it is in our own experience, that
the most sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard against the
depredations of nations at war. To secure respect to a neutral flag,
requires a naval force, organized and ready to vindicate it from
insult or aggression--this may even prevent the necessity of going to
war, by discouraging belligerent powers from committing such
violations of the rights of the neutral party, as may first or last,
leave no other option. From the best information I have been able to
obtain, it would seem as if our trade to the Mediterranean, without a
protecting force, will always be insecure; and our citizens exposed to
the calamities from which numbers of them have but just been relieved.
"These considerations invite the United States to look to the means,
and to set about the gradual creation of a navy. The increasing
progress of their navigation promises them, at no distant period, the
requisite supply of seamen; and their means, in other respects, favour
the undertaking. It is an encouragement likewise, that their
particular situation will give weight, and influence, to a moderate
naval force in their hands. Will it not then be adviseable, to begin
without delay, to provide and lay up the materials for the building
and equipping of ships of war; and to proceed in the work by degrees,
in proportion as our resources shall render it practicable, without
inconvenience; so that a future war of Europe may not find our
commerce in the same unprotected state, in which it was found by the
present?"
The speech next proceeded earnestly to recommend the establishment of
national works for manufacturing such articles as were necessary for
the defence of the country; and also of an institution which should
grow up under the patronage of the public, and be devoted to the
improvement of agriculture. The advantages of a military academy,[47]
and of a national university, were also urged; and the necessity of
augmenting the compensations to the officers of the United States, in
various instances, was explicitly stated.
[Footnote 47: The constitutional power of congress to
appropriate money to objects of the description here
recommended was denied by the opposition.]
Adverting to the dissatisfaction which had been expressed by one of
the great powers of Europe, the President said, "while in our external
relations some serious inconveniences and embarrassments have been
overcome, and others lessened, it is with much pain and deep regret I
mention, that circumstances of a very unwelcome nature have lately
occurred. Our trade has suffered, and is suffering extensive injuries
in the West Indies from the cruisers and agents of the French
republic; and communications have been received from its minister
here, which indicate the danger of a further disturbance of our
commerce by its authority; and which are, in other respects, far from
agreeable.
"It has been my constant, sincere and earnest wish, in conformity with
that of our nation, to maintain cordial harmony, and a perfectly
friendly understanding with that republic. This wish remains unabated;
and I shall persevere in the endeavour to fulfil it to the utmost
extent of what shall be consistent with a just and indispensable
regard to the rights and honour of our country; nor will I easily
cease to cherish the expectation, that a spirit of justice, candour
and friendship, on the part of the republic, will eventually ensure
success.
"In pursuing this course, however, I can not forget what is due to the
character of our government and nation; or to a full and entire
confidence in the good sense, patriotism, self-respect, and fortitude
of my countrymen.
"I reserve for a special message, a more particular communication on
this interesting subject."
The flourishing state of the revenue, the expectation that the system
for the gradual extinction of the national debt would be completed at
this session, the anxiety which he felt respecting the militia, were
successively mentioned, and the speech was concluded in the following
terms:
"The situation in which I now stand, for the last time, in the midst
of the representatives of the people of the United States, naturally
recalls the period when the administration of the present form of
government commenced; and I can not omit the occasion to congratulate
you, and my country, on the success of the experiment; nor to repeat
my fervent supplications to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and
sovereign arbiter of nations, that his providential care may still be
extended to the United States;--that the virtue and happiness of the
people may be preserved; and that the government, which they have
instituted for the protection of their liberties, may be perpetual."