| rdfs:comment
| - During his long farewell address, George Washington warned against a few things:
* Civil wars: "our country... ...must derive from Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves..."
* Too large a military: "avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."
* Patriotism that divides: "With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. "
* Placing party loyalties above the nation: "Let me n
|
| abstract
| - During his long farewell address, George Washington warned against a few things:
* Civil wars: "our country... ...must derive from Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves..."
* Too large a military: "avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."
* Patriotism that divides: "With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. "
* Placing party loyalties above the nation: "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."
* Breaching separation of powers: "It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another."
* Morality formed 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"
* Trying to avoid taxes: "To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue; that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate."
* Permanent alliances with foreign powers: "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."
* He also generally speaks about supporting the government and of being wary of forces that may try to undermine its authority. Unfortunately, over the years, the U.S. has not heeded very many of Washington's warnings (the Civil War, the largest military the world has ever seen, McCarthyism, "Starve the beast", NATO, an adversarial 2-party system, and the Nixon and W. Bush administrations) and much irony can be seen in American history when compared to his advice.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)