dated by Washington, on the 17th September, 1796, and published by him to the country, I shall ask the reader to make, with the exception of two or three clauses collated in the Inquiry, the entire collation or comparison himself, with the two papers under his eye, to save me from exhibiting, what some persons might deem an invidious parallel, if they were placed side by side, in opposite columns or pages.

It seems worthy of particular remark at the outset, that 、Washington does not appear to have intended, at any time, to be the unassisted composer or writer of the Farewell Address. Though it was not, strictly speaking, an official paper, nor a state paper, appertaining to the regular duties of his political office, and for which he might, and usually did, refer to his official ministers and advisers, and sometimes to approved friends, for thoughts and clauses, that he might consider and apply, or modify or reject, at his pleasure,—it was a paper, in his regard, of a higher grade, and calling for even more consideration, as it was to be in the nature of a testamentary declaration of his political principles, as well as to impart his counsels, and to express his personal thanks and valediction to the whole people of the United States.

The original conception, the fundamental thought, purpose, or design of this paper, was Washington's; his first, and it would seem his only, upon separate consideration and deliberation, until the purpose was matured, when he communicated it to another, who approved it. That design comprehended, in addition to his cordial and thankful farewell, upon retiring from civil life, a recommendation of various patriotic counsels and admonitions to his countrymen, which should bring before them the blessings of their

union under a federal government, the perfect adaptation of their diversified soil and climate to such a union, the advantages of their mutual dependence and intercommunity, their common relation to foreign nations, and the dangers of either local or foreign partialities and antipathies, and of party spirit in all its shapes, whether of combinations to control or obstruct the action of regular authority, or of pervading jealousy to weaken its effects, or of virulent opposition and censure, to discourage and drive from public office the faithful servants who had been selected to administer it. In a word, the advantages and the dangers of the whole country, and the maintenance of the Union, under a wise and equal administration, as the best security and defence of the public happiness, were to be his theme; and no man ever suggested a nobler theme, or was more worthy by his patriotism, or so well entitled by his services, to make it the subject of his final discourse and instruction. It was a paper far above all ordinary official or state papers, was related to topics as high or higher, involving equal or greater responsibility, addressed to greater numbers, and asking a perpetual remembrance by the people, as they should tender their political existence.

That Washington ought to have thought that such an address was so personal, or "so connected with other obvious "considerations," that he only "could with propriety write "it," is a pure fancy, if we take in the whole of Washington's thought. Instead of such considerations being "obvious," they are not even discoverable. No satisfactory

reason can be given for the proposition, that would not have made it his duty to write everything that purported to express his personal sentiments, whether official or unoffi

cial-his speeches to Congress, and everything emanating from his public position. No reason of any kind was given for it by Mr. Jay, in the place where it was first announced. Upon the same hypothesis, whatever it may have been, he ought not to have asked for thoughts, or revision and correction for his own draught of this paper, or for any assistance whatever, which was the very thing that was asked of him who has made the criticism; and this would bring the Address to a schoolboy exercise, that was to try Washington's progress in composition, and to bring dishonor upon him, if he borrowed a feather, or a feather's weight, from anybody else.

It is sufficient, however, to know that this thought was not Washington's thought, upon this or any other occasion of public concern. He thought the contrary, clearly and constantly, in regard to the Farewell Address. He thought it a year or more before the end of his first term of office as President; and he thought it till the matter was consummated, about six months before the end of his last term. By a letter dated the 20th May, 1792, he first opened the subject freely to Mr. Madison.

His letter, and Mr. Madison's reply, and the draught of a Farewell Address prepared by Madison, at Washington's request, appear in the twelfth volume of "The Writings of George Washington," edited by Jared Sparks, in pages 382 to 390. I will present a summary of Washington's letter, and some extracts from it, in this place.

After saying that he was unable to dispose his mind to a longer continuation in the office he held, and that he looked forward with the fondest and most ardent wishes to spend the remainder of his days, which he could not expect to be

long, in ease and tranquillity,-and saying further, that nothing, but a conviction that by declining the chair of government, it would involve the country in serious disputes respecting the Chief Magistrate, could induce him to relinquish the determination he had formed, Washington proceeded to say as follows:

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"Under these impressions, then, permit me to reiterate the "request I made to you at our last meeting, namely, to think of "the proper time and best mode of announcing the intention; and .. "I would fain carry my "that you would prepare the latter." "request to you farther than is asked above, although I am sensible "that your compliance with it must add to your trouble; but as "the recess may afford you leisure, and I flatter myself you have

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dispositions to oblige me, I will, without apology, desire (if the "measure in itself should strike you as proper, or likely to produce "public good, or private honor) that you would turn your thoughts "to a valedictory address from me to the public, expressing, in plain and modest terms, that, having been honored with the Presi“dential chair, and to the best of my abilities contributed to the organization and administration of the government—that having "arrived at a period of life when the private walks of it, in the "shades of retirement, become necessary, and will be most pleasing "to me;-(and as the spirit of the government may render a rota❝tion in the elective officers of it more congenial with the ideas [the "people have] of liberty and safety*)—that I take my leave of them

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* I possess a fac simile of Washington's letter of 20th May, 1792, to Mr. Madison, to which, in this place, the copy in Mr. Sparks's Appendix does not literally conform. I do not vouch for this fac simile, though the resemblance to Washington's handwriting, which is familiar to me, is perfect; and the copy in Mr. Sparks's Appendix, in other respects, conforms to it. The clause, in the fac simile to which I refer, is as follows, without marks of parenthesis, but beginning where the first mark of parenthesis in Mr. Sparks's copy, which I follow, begins, after the words "pleasing to me ;"—" and the spirit "of the government may render a rotation in the elective officers of it more congenial with

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as a public man, and, in bidding them adieu, retaining no other concern than such as will arise from fervent wishes for the pros"perity of my country, I take the liberty of my departure from "civil [life], as I formerly did at my military exit, to invoke a "continuation of the blessings of Providence upon it, and upon all "those who are the supporters of its interests, and the promoters "of harmony, order, and good government." . . ."That, to im"press these things, it might, among other topics, be observed"

and then the letter proceeds to state, and very briefly develope, four topics, which, with very little variation of Washington's words, may, in his own order, be represented as follows: 1. That we are all children of the same country, great and rich in itself, and capable and promising to be as prosperous and happy as any which the annals of history have brought to view; and that our interest, however diversified in local or smaller matters, is the same in all the great and essential concerns of the nation. 2. That the extent of our country, the diversity of our climate and soil, and the various productions of the States, are such as to make one part not only convenient, but indispensable to other parts, and may render the whole one of the most independent nations in the world. 3. That the government, being the work of our hands, with the seeds of amendment engrafted in the Constitution, may, by wisdom, good dispositions, and mutual allowances, aided

“their ideas of liberty and safety, that I take my leave of them as a public man,” &c. I have heard, and have no reason to doubt, that the fac simile was made from the original letter, which came from a member of Mr. Madison's family, after Mr. Madison's death. The word [life] within brackets is subject to my preceding remark; it is not in the fac simile. Indeed, this manner of bracketing words in a copy, is understood, 1 believe, to be an intimation that the original does not contain the bracketed word or words.