The Farewell Address

There have been a lot of so-called "farewell speeches" lately - tomorrow, January 20, 2017 is Inauguration Day in the United States.  It is a time of transitions - as one era peacefully ends, a new era peacefully begins.  As is the case with most transitions of power, some people are going to be happy and others are going to be sad.  I am reminded of our nation's first transition of Presidential leadership.  George Washington had everything going for him - even back then, all those years ago, he was considered the "father of his country."  He was loved by all, and if he had wanted to do so, he would have easily been elected for a third term as President (there was no such thing as term limits then).  In fact, some of his officers near the end of the American Revolution had recommended that he declare himself King (in what has been called the Newburgh Conspiracy, in essence, a military coup against the Continental Congress) - the nation had been weakened by the long and drawn out war, both militarily and economically, and these officers believed that only Washington as King could keep the country together.  Washington responded to one officer in particular as follows:

Be assured, Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War, has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed [which] I must view with abhorrence, and reprehend with severity.  If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable...Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your Country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your Mind.

As the story goes, Washington addressed his officers, and as he began to read his written speech, he gazed with difficulty on his words.  He did not speak, but instead he took a pair of reading glasses from his pocket (few, if any officers had ever observed him wearing his glasses), saying, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country."  His officers quickly realized that Washington perhaps had sacrificed more than any of them had.  Many of his officers were moved to tears as Washington read his speech, and the conspiracy collapsed before it had even started.

Washington chose the alternate path - he gracefully and peacefully stepped down.  Not too much later, he gave the first of what would be many farewell addresses during his military and political career.  He first addressed his beloved troops, the men who had fought beside him for six long years.  In his farewell orders to the Continental Army, Washington outlines the virtues and personal character that would be necessary for the success of the new American republic.  He warns his men of the difficult path ahead, stating that what they do, how they choose to live their lives, would ultimately decide whether the American nation would "stand or fall."

...and by their confirmation or lapse it is yet to be decided, whether the revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse; a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.

Washington gave his final public farewell at the end of his Presidency in 1796.  In his farewell address, he cautioned the young United States against either geographical or political factions - rather, he advised the American citizens to view themselves as one cohesive group in a foreshadowing of the later President Lincoln's quote, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

In this time in our history, when there are so many issues that divide us, we would be well to remember our nation's first President and his advice that we are better together than we are apart.  We can accomplish more when we work together than we can ever hope to accomplish working separately.  Regardless of whether you are Republican or Democrat or whether you are black, brown, red, yellow, or white; regardless of whether you are part of the 1% or the 99%;  regardless of whether you live in a red state or blue state - we are the UNITED States of America.  And as the "Father of our country" said:

...all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionately greater security from external danger...

...in this sense, it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.