President George Washington,“Farewell Address to the Nation” (September 19, 1796)
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
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.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the 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.
Source: Avalon Project-Yale Law School
Published in a newspaper as an open letter to the American people on September 19, 1796, “Washington’s Farewell” was first drafted with the assistance of James Madison near the end of Washington’s first term in office. At the end of his second term, as he decided against a third term, it was redrafted by Alexander Hamilton, the now-disgraced former secretary of the Treasury. It is well-known for its warning againt “foreign entanglements” and the dangers of party factionalism. Although its warnings about party were unambiguous, Hamilton used the text to attack the rival Jeffersonian “Republicans.”
As Ron Chernow noted in his biography of Hamilton, “the Republican reaction was venomous and unwittingly underscored its urgent plea for unity.” (Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, p. 507)
