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| George Washington the first President of the United States |
This is what George
Washington had to say about partisan politics
in his farewell address to Congress.
What he said then still stands almost a quarter millennia later.
“The unity of government which constitutes
you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a 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 as 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;
as this 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, it is of infinite moment that you
should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your
collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial,
habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and
speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity;
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever
may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and
indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any
portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now
link together the various parts.
In contemplating the causes which may
disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground
should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical
discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing
men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local
interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within
particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other
districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and
heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render
alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal
affection.
The 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. But this leads at length to a more
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result
gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute
power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this
disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public
liberty.”
