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 likely 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.

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Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony, 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 "Recithe natural course of things; - diffusing and diversi- procity." fying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with Powers s 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

His benedictions, political and national.

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 relating 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. GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Gazette of the United States, September 17th, 1796.

CONTEMPORARY EXPOSITION

SEWALL (1799)

His address to the people of America, on his retiring from the cares of government, is one of the most invaluable legacies ever left to a people. It has been celebrated in Europe, and compared to that bequeathed by Moses to the nation of Israel.

Let this be our oracle; let us read and study it day and night. In the language of inspiration, "Let us bind it about our necks, and engrave it on the tablet of our hearts." In this invaluable gift, among a variety of other excellent precepts, suffer me to remind you of a few. He most affectionately cautions his countrymen against all immoderate attachments to some, and violent antipathies against other nations. He recommends harmony and liberal intercourse with all, at the same time that he deprecates too close a connection with any. He

exhorts to obedience and submission to government, and a generous confidence in our rulers, whom we ourselves have chosen : while he warns against all combinations, whether open or covert, that tend to weaken government, or to lessen the authority of those who administer it. He inculcates the practice of justice, good faith, temperance and economy, with all the moral virtues; and of religion emphatically, as the basis and foundation of them all. He exhorts us to the utmost of our power, to cultivate peace with every nation on earth; and as the surest means to preserve it, strongly urges the necessity of maintaining the best state of defence in our power, both by sea and land. But, above all, he exhorts to union among ourselves between States and among individuals. On this, he assures us, our prosperity, nay, our very existence as a nation depends. Is the counsel good? Let us follow it. Are these admonitions wise? We will obey them. Thus shall we best prove the sincerity of our gratitude to their author, and fully evidence our veneration for his memory. But if we disregard and disobey them, what are we but hypocrites, or self-deceivers? Obedience will lead us to the highest pinnacle of national glory. A contrary conduct will dishonour, though it cannot injure our greatest benefactor, and end in irremediable ruin. "If we are

wise, we shall be wise for ourselves, but if we scorn, we alone shall bear it."

JONATHAN MITCHELL SEWALL, in Eulogies and Orations on Washington. 35, 42.

PAINE (1800)

The invaluable valediction, bequeathed to the people, who inherited his affections, is the effort of a mind, whose powers, like those of prophecy, could overleap the tardy progress of human reason, and unfold truth without the labour of investigation. Impressed in indelible characters, this Legacy of His Intelligence will descend, unsullied as its purity, to the wonder and instruction of succeeding generations; and, should the mild philosophy of its maxims be ingrafted into the policy of nations, at no distant period will the departed hero, who now lives only in the spotless splendour of his own great actions, exist in the happiness and dignity of mankind.

THOMAS PAINE, in Eulogies and Orations on Washington. 65.