Below is the link to the entire farewell address of George Washington that includes both an outline and a glossary of terms that may be unfamiliar to us as they are no longer common.
V/R
Dave
Dave
George Washington
(There is an outline and a select dictionary at the end of
this Address.)
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.
I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be
assured, that this resolution has not been 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. I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well
as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the
sentiment of duty, or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be
retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country, you
will not disapprove my determination to retire.
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous
trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I
will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the
organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a
very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the
inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more
in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself;
and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied
that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services they were
temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence
invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
(Continued at the link below)
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=62
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