We read but don’t heed Washington’s ‘Farewell Address’
Each year, in commemoration of President George Washington’s Birthday, his 1796 Farewell Address is read on the floor of the U.S. Senate. But does anybody heed these words to which we give annual lipservice?
On Monday, Feb. 26, Senator Gary Peters (DMichigan) is scheduled to read the famous address. Following the reading, Peters will enter his signature in a leather-bound book, along with the signatures of other privileged senators who have read the famous address before Congress (the Senate in more recent years) since the late 1800s when the Address was first reread there during the height of the Civil War.
I admire the gesture. But I ask myself whenever I hear this great address has been read again in the Capitol, “Is anybody listening to its words?” And, of course, it is sometimes read in an almost empty chamber because many senators simply don’t attend the reading.
What’s in the address? In addition to Washington’s explanation as to why he was retiring from public life after his second term as president — something more politicians ought to consider — Washington offers some guiding advice to a young nation.
As our nation’s only true nonpartisan president, Washington outlined the dangers of geographical and political factions and parties. He warned against factions between North and South, East and West, and urged the nation to work together in unity for the common good. His advice went unheeded as political parties and factions struggled for power. Not only was the nation divided North versus South for a season, it still struggles with a two-party system which often does more for the sake of political power than for the nation’s good.
Washington urged strict adherence to the nation’s new constitution and warned against overstepping constitutional authority and the division of powers spelled out in the U.S. Constitution — even when the cause seems good and right. Rather than violating the provisions of the document upon which our nation is founded, Washington urged taking time and following constitutional guidelines for altering the document if changes were deemed absolutely necessary.
Yet, today, the executive branch violates the constitutional provisions put in place to protect citizens from government intrusion into their private lives. Instead of submitting to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, it looks for ways to circumvent the Constitutional protections and allows the government to eavesdrop on its citizens in its “war against terror.” When the president can’t get Congress to enact the laws he wants, he seeks to legislate his own agendas through executive orders. And how many recent military actions in which we send our young men to foreign soil to fight and to die are legitimate wars declared so by Congress?
The legislative branch has ignored the Constitution’s provisions regarding a direct tax, has often trampled on rights of citizens to keep and bear arms and “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”; and it continues to exceed constitutional duties and limitations.
The judicial branch in effect legislates by its decisions based on opinion and bias rather than on sound interpretations of the Constitution. Thus we have protections for the murder of the unborn and for same-sex marriage.
Washington said that religion and morality are the “indispensable supports” of our nation and that
there can be no morality and justice apart from religion. Since so many deny religion’s role in the founding and preservation of our nation, I’ll include his words to prove my point:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
Apparently, no one is listening to our first president. Our nation’s government, both through its courts and laws, has attempted to completely separate religion and religion-based morality from our nation’s laws and public duties. And Washington was right, it can’t be done. Citizens and public officials lie under oath, and less and less respect is shown for human life, for marriage and families and for the rights of individuals to use and own property.
And did you catch those words of Washington, those of you who would do away with religious morals? You are not a patriot!
Washington cautioned against government borrowing and added that, if it needed to be done in times of war, the debt should quickly be repaid so that the burden of one generation is not passed down to the next. He even urged avoiding such occasions of expense (wars) by pursuing peace.
Need I even say that no one has been listening. Our national debt has soared beyond my ability to count. I learned what a billion and a trillion were when the government debt reached that mark. What comes after a trillion? I expect I’ll soon learn what it is when reading about our government’s ever-growing debt.
Taxes are already unbearable for many. What will it be like for our children? I hate to think about it. I suppose the government will finally seize everyone’s property in lieu of unpaid taxes, and we’ll all become — even more than we already are — the servants of a tyrannical government.
Washington urged neutrality in dealing with foreign nations and the avoiding of any permanent foreign alliances. He stated his belief that our nation would fare much better if it were fair and impartial in its dealings with other nations and that it could avoid devastating and costly wars by neutrality in the conflicts of other nations.
Who is listening to this wise president? Who is heeding his advice? It seems our nation is so entangled in the affairs of other nations that we can’t handle our own anymore. There is a time for peace and a time for war, but it seems our leaders don’t count the costs and don’t carefully consider the outcomes of war — even if we should win.
I am happy the Senate still reads, each year, the wise advice of our first president. What great advice he gives! What troubles me is that, while Washington’s Farewell Address is read each year, it’s quite obvious our government leaders aren’t listening. In essence, Congress honors and builds up the tomb of one of our nation’s greatest leaders. But, like much of what Congress does, it’s all for show.
If George Washington were alive and president today, I suspect most of our officials in Washington who venerate his memory by rereading his Farewell Address would be more than anxious to run him out of town.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at rmoll@nwadg. com. Opinions expressed are those of the author.