In our current homeschool co-op, our curriculum has our 9th graders and 11th graders taking a deep dive into American History. This includes reading through original writings and documents of our founding fathers. We began with the Declaration of Independence, Articles of the Confederation, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Most recently, we read George Washington’s Inaugural Speech in 1789 and his Farewell Address which was written eight years later.
What impacted me the most when reading Washington’s words was the foresight he had into the specifics of events that could destroy this young country. He and the other founding fathers were acutely aware that this was a great experiment in a new type of government; and, if not fiercely protected, the experiment, our new country, would fail. Many of the events of which Washington warned are happening in our society and political world today. Below, I have listed quotes from his Farewell Address along with my observations of national and world events that prove his insights and foresight were correct.
First of all, one cannot read very far into Washington’s thoughts without realizing that he was an extremely humble and wise man. He did not desire fame or public office. He saw his election as a dutiful service to his country. He states, “I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.” Washington did not use his office to better himself, get rich, or become powerful. He accepted no payment and was eager to return to private life. There is a tremendous contrast between himself and the political leaders of our nation today. The actions he expressed which would bring about the downfall of this new and hopeful country seem to actively be embraced by our political leaders today.
First of all, Washington praised the formation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He realized that these foundational documents and decisions could protect our country if they were “sacredly maintained.” However, he also noted that “All obstructions to the execution of the laws…with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction…in the place of the delegated will of the nation…often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community…to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than…wholesome plans…by common counsels…by mutual interests.”
As I read this, pictures of the events occurring during the years 2020 and 2021 come into focus. We have seen multiple obstructions to executing the laws of our country in the form of changes to voting laws put into place in a manner that has been shown to be unconstitutional either federally or locally. We have seen multiple factions pop up around the country promoting their own interests rather than the will of the people or mutual interests for the mutual good of all citizens. We have seen laws obstructed and completely ignored when these factions actively break laws, usurp authority, and dare anyone to do anything about it.
Washington knew that “for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.”
But what happens when the government no longer efficiently manages the common interests of its citizens? What happens when the powers of government are no longer properly distributed and are improperly dictated? We as a people no longer have a sure guardian. Many of us as citizens are realizing that this type of government cannot and will not protect us or our best interests.
Washington also noted that “One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.” While we have not seen the Constitution amended as yet, we have seen it undermined repeatedly by executive orders which have been proven to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. We have also seen it undermined by the label of “racism” on anything and anyone that disagrees with the Democratic Party as it exists today.
In his immense foresight and wisdom, Washington knew that the power of party could destroy the republic. He states, “I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State…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.” Our two main political parties of today could not be further at odds with each other and with the ideas they wish to impose on us as a country. Even within each party, there are factions that are destroying these two main political parties. They have become “potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men…” have been “enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Over the past two years and more so within just the last six months, we have repeatedly watched our political leaders use their elected office to further enrich themselves and promote their own agendas and ideologies without regard to the common American citizen who elected them to that place of power. Our trust has been repeatedly betrayed. Our power as a people to control our government has been repeatedly usurped. They have been uplifted by our votes, and we have been put down by their vanity.
Currently, we are headed into an ever-increasing authoritarian government where the elected elite owns those who elected them. Washington warned, “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 purpose of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
The outbreak of the Coronavirus caused an outbreak of fear in our society which in turn caused an outbreak of governmental usurpation of power in the name of protecting the people. Our current miseries caused many to accept this overreach of government and readily complied with the shutdown of our economy, the closure of our schools, and the loss of our jobs. Our society’s desire for security overwhelmed their desire for freedom. We chose to live in fear rather than choosing to live in freedom by exercising bravery and faith. This in turn has only propagated more government interference in our lives as seen by the current push for vaccine mandates and requirements to return to school and work. We should be able to see as Washington did that this is depleting the liberty of us as Americans and degenerating our great country as a beacon of freedom throughout the world.
In addition, no one would need to look very deep into present-day political actions to find another confirmation of Washington’s warning. Our current President is assuming control of the legislative branch by issuing decrees as an ultimate ruler rather than the elected official who answers to the people. These decrees have only accomplished the gradual depletion of the public liberty of American citizens.
One example of this perversion of elected office brought about the events of January 6, 2021. Citizens peacefully assembled as is their right according to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. American citizens wanted their dissatisfaction to be heard and noticed. It happened because of the “the mischiefs of the spirit of party” which “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one party against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”
It can be easily argued that factions such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa were mischievously utilized by the Democratic Party to agitate liberty-loving Americans which kindled their animosity and resulted in January 6th. It can also be easily argued that our politicians have opened the door to foreign influence, most notably from China, and have become corrupted by foreign power and money, allowing this foreign government to infiltrate our own government and other national institutions such as our education and financial establishments. To combat these abuses, Washington states the citizens of the United States must “mitigate and assuage it. …it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame…”
Washington goes on to say that, “the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration…avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.” The increasing use of Executive orders is concerning in that it takes the power of the Legislative Branch and puts it into use by the Executive Branch. Recently, we’ve seen the Executive Branch make decisions that were declared unconstitutional by the Judicial Branch. Are we seeing a consolidation of three branches into one despotic, authoritarian position? It seems that is what one party would like to see happen. According to Washington, there should “…be no change by usurpation…it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.”
As I am not as wise as Washington, his words will serve as a sufficient summary to this essay. “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.” Perhaps the time has come to alter our Constitution. Or, perhaps the time is here that we should fully support it, respect its authority, comply with its laws, and acquiesce to its measures as Washington proposed. This system established upon morality and virtue can only continue to exist if our people and our politicians continue to act with morality and virtue. Herein lies the current problem. Washington foresaw this problem most likely because it was also a problem in his day. He understood that Judeo-Christian values were the foundation that allowed this new system of government to work. He stated that, “religion and morality are indispensable supports…reason and experience forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”
Washington also understood that an informed and educated population was important to the success of this new government. He promoted and supported “institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.” Currently, our American way of life and heritage of thinking is being attacked by projects such as the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory. Perhaps these ideas easily infected our educational institutions because we abandoned effective education techniques and traditions in the 1960s. Washington states that “In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” Enlightened in Washington’s mind seems to be something very different than what “enlightened” means today: WOKE. However, the Woke movement understands what Washington understood, that you have to educate the people in an ideology in order to make the government of that particular ideology work.
For Washington, it is clear that he believed in personal liberty, morality, and virtue. Most of the end of his Farewell Address was devoted to relations with foreign countries. His personal belief system and what he believed would strengthen and protect this new nation was a commitment to “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct.” Washington could not envision the success of the United States and its new government without the enduring virtue and morality of it’s citizens and elected leaders.
I can’t help but think that if George Washington were alive today, his speech to the nation would not need to change in the least. His words in this Presidential Farewell Address are as timely today as they were over 200 years ago. My hope and prayer is that our country will resist the forces that are currently working to destroy this great nation and that we will return to respecting, valuing, and fiercely protecting the foundational documents that have brought life, liberty, and happiness to this great nation.
