No More Learning

fare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension
of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like
the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recom-
mend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the
result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation; and
which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your
felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more
freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings
of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to
bias his counsels. Nor can I forget an encouragement to it,-
your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not
dissimilar occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of
your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify
or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is
also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in
the edifice of your real independence: the support of your tran-
quillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your pros-
perity in every shape; of that very liberty which you so highly
prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes,
and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many arti-
fices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this
truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which
the batteries of external and internal enemies will be most con-
stantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) di-
rected: it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate


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15670
GEORGE WASHINGTON
the immense value of your national union to your collective and
individual happiness,- that you should cherish a cordial habit-
ual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to
think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety
and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety;
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it
can, in any event, be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon
the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our
country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now
link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest.
Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country
has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of Amer.
ican, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must
always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appel-
lation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of
difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and polit-
ical principles. You have in a common cause fought and tri.
umphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are
the work of joint councils and joint efforts,- of common dan-
gers, sufferings, and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address
themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those
which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every
portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for
carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South,
protected by the equal laws of the common government, finds in
the productions of the latter, great additional resources of mari-
time and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manu-
facturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting
by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its
cominerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the sea-
men of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated;
and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase
the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to
the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally
adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already
finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communi-
cations by land and water will more and more find, a valuable


## p. 15671 (#629) ##########################################

GEORGE WASHINGTON
15671
vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manu-
factures at home. The West derives from the East supplies
requisite to its growth and comfort; and what is perhaps of still
greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoy-
ment of indispensable outlets for its own production, to the
weight, influence, and future maritime strength of the Atlantic
side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of
interest, as
one nation. Any other tenure by which the West
can hold this essential advantage — whether derived from its own
separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection
with any foreign power — must be intrinsically precarious.
While then every part of our country thus feels an immedi-
ate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined in
the united mass of means and efforts cannot fail to find greater
strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from
external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by
foreign nations: and what is of inestimable value, they must
derive from union an exemption from these broils and wars be-
tween themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries
not tied together by the same government, which their own rival-
ships alone would be sufficient to produce; but which opposite
foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues, would stimulate and
embitter. Hence likewise they will 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. 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.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every
reflecting and virtuous mind; and exhibit the continuance of the
Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt
whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere?
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a
were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper
organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of govern-
ments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue
to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment.
With such powerful and obvious motives to union affecting all
parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated
case


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15672
GEORGE WASHINGTON
its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the
patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken
its bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it
occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should
have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical
discriminations: Northern and Southern - Atlantic and Western;
whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there
is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the ex-
pedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts,
is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You
cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and
heart-burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They
tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound
together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western
country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. They have
seen, in the negotiation by the executive, and in the unanimous
ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the
universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States,
a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated
among them, of a policy in the general government, and in the
Atlantic States, unfriendly to their interests in regard to the
Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the formation of two
treaties — that with Great Britain, and that with Spain - which
secure to them everything they could desire in respect to our
foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it
not be their wisdom to rely, for the preservation of these advan-
tages, on the union by which they were procured? Will they
not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who
would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with
aliens?
To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a govern-
ment for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict,
between the parts, can be an adequate substitute. They must
inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all
alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this moment-
ous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adop-
tion of a constitution of government better calculated than your
former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious manage-
ment of your common concerns. This government, the offspring


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GEORGE WASHINGTON
15673
of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full
investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its prin-
ciples, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with
energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own
amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support.
Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence
in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims
of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right
of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of govern-
ment. But the constitution which at any time exists, till changed
by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly
obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right
of the people to establish government, presupposes the duty of
every individual to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws; all combina-
tions and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the
real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe, the regular delib-
eration and action of the constituted authorities, -are destructive
of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve
to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary
force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the
will of a party, — often a small but artful and enterprising minor-
ity of the community, -and according to the alternate triumphs
of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror
of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather
than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by
common councils and modified by mutual interests. However
combinations or associations of the above description may now
and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of
time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning,
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be 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.
Towards the preservation of your government and the perma-
nency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that
you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowl-
edged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of
innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.
One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the


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15674
GEORGE WASHINGTON
1
.
.
Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the sys-
tem; and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.
In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that
time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character
of governments as of other human institutions; that experience
is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the
existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes upon
the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual
change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion: and
remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your
common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a govern-
ment 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. — It is indeed little else than a name, where the
government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction,
to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed
by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil en-
joyment of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the
State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geo-
graphical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehens-
ive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the
baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature,
having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It
exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less
stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form
it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharp-
ened 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 dis-
orders 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 fac-
tion - more able or more fortunate than his competitors — turns
this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins
of public liberty.
>
i


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GEORGE WASHINGTON
15675
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common
and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to
make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and
restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble
the public administration. It agitates the cominunity with ill-
founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one
part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.
It opens the doors to foreign influence and corruption, which find
a facilitated access to the government itself, through the channels
of party passions. Thus the policy and will of one country are
subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful
checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to
keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within limits is probably
true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may
look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party.
But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elect-
ive, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tend.
ency, it is certain that there will always be enough of that spirit
for every salutary purpose; and there being constant danger of
excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to miti-
gate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands
a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame; lest
instead of warming, it should coitsume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free
country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its admin-
istration, to confine themselves within their respective constitu-
tional spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one
department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroach-
ment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in
one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real
despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness
to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient
to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of recip-
rocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing it and
distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the
guardian of the public weal against invasion by the others, has
been evinced by experiments ancient and modern: some of them


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15676
GEORGE WASHINGTON
in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must
be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the
people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional pow-
ers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amend-
ment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there
be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance,
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by
which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must al-
ways greatly over balance in permanent evil any partial or trans-
ient benefit which the use can at any time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political pros-
perity, 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 obli-
gation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation
in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the sup-
position that morality can be maintained without religion. What-
ever 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 reli-
gious principle.
'Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary
spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with
more or less force to every species of free government. Who
that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon
attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institu-
tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as
the structure of government gives force to public opinion, it is
essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish
public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as spar-
ingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating
peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to pre-
pare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements


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GEORGE WASHINGTON
15677
to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only
by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in
time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars
may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity
the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution
of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is neces-
sary that public opinion should co-operate. 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 incon-
venient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment insepa-
rable 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.
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate
peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this
conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin
it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant
period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and
too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted just-
ice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time
and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any
temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence
to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the per-
manent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at
least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human
nature; alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices ?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential
than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular na-
tions, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded;
and that in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all
should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another
an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a
slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of
which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more
readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of


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15678
GEORGE WASHINGTON
umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or
trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions,-
obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation prompted
by ill-will and resentment sometimes impels to war the govern-
ment, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The govern-
ment sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts
through passion what reason would reject: at other times it
makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hos-
tility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and per-
nicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty,
of nations has been the victim.
So likewise a passionate attachment of one nation for another
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation,
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest where
no real interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the
other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and
wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification.
It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges
denied to others; which is apt doubly to injure the nation mak-
ing the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to
have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a dis-
position to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges
are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded
citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to
betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without
odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the appear-
ances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference
for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base
or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such
attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened
and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford
to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduc-
tion, to mislead public councils! Such an attachment of a small
or weak towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former
to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you
to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought
to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that
foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican


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GEORGE WASHINGTON
15679
government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial;
else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be
avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those
whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to
veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real
patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to
become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp
the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their
interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as
little political connection as possible. So far as we have already
formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none,
or a very remote, relation. Hence she must be engaged in fre-
quent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign
to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes
of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her
friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to
pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an
efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy
material injury from external annoyance; when we may take
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any
time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent
nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us,
will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall
counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by inter-
weaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle
our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival-
ship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances
with any portion of the foreign world, -- so far, I mean, as we are
now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable


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15680
GEORGE WASHINGTON
of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the
maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that
honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let
those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in
my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend
them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establish-
ments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust
to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended
by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial pol-
icy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor
granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural
course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with
powers so disposed — in order to give trade a stable course, to
define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government
to support them - conventional rules of intercourse, the best that
present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but tem-
porary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied
as experience and circumstances shall dictate: constantly keeping
in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested
favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its inde-
pendence for whatever it may accept under that character; that
by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having
given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached
with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater
error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to
nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a
just pride ought to discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old
and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the
strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will con-
trol the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation
from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny
of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be
productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that
they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party
spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard
against the impostures of pretended patriotism: this hope will be


## p. 15681 (#639) ##########################################

GEORGE WASHINGTON
15681
a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which
they have been dictated.
How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been
guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public
records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you
and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own con-
science is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by
them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Procla-
mation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan.
Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your Repre-
sentatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure
has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to
deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the
circumstances of the case, had a right to take a neutral position.
Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me,
to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this con-
duct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail.
I will only
observe that according to my understanding of the matter, that
right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers,
has been virtually admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, with-
out anything more, from the obligation which justice and human-
ity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to
maintain in violate the relations of peace and amity towards other
nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will
best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With
me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to
our country to settle and nurture its yet recent institutions, and
to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and
consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the
command of its own fortunes.
Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of
my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed
many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the
XXVI–981


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15682
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend.
I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will'never
cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five
years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the
faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as
myself inust soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actu-
ated by that fervent love towards it which is so natural to a man
who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors
for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that
retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the
sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens,
the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the
ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust,
of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
UNITED STATES, September 17th, 1796.


## p. 15683 (#641) ##########################################

15683
DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
(1823-1887)
N THE life and writings of David Atwood Wasson, New Eng-
land Transcendentalism found a singularly perfect expres-
sion, a fine, clean, austere embodiment, conspicuous even in
that rare era of incarnate philosophy. He had not the genius of
Emerson, nor the glowing beauty of Parker: he dwelt for the most
part in the chambers of the pure intellect, looking from their high
windows toward the stars. He taught individualism, and the oneness
of the soul with God, and the unity of all things seen and unseen. In
him, perhaps, as in many of his brethren, the forces which are now
producing the pestilence-stricken multitude of writers whose concep-
tion of individualism is love and hate let loose,– in him, these same
forces showed their mystical white side. To him also, love was all,
but love was also law; man was all, but man was all through God:
to him also the natural man was pure; but the natural man was the
spiritual man. Like many of the clamorous school of literature,
nothing less than the universe would suffice Wasson; but he believed
that man receives his inheritance of the universe through harmony
with its moral law.
He came into his own intellectual freedom through much trial.
Born in Brooksville, a coast town of Maine, May 14th, 1823, the child
of a ship-builder, his childhood was spent under a double tyranny of
stern theology and stern labor. He took a child's privilege of hating
Deity and loving dear Nature; so grew with a fragmentary schooling
into a youth who began to find ways of his own into the unseen, and
now congenial, world. He passed through North Yarmouth Academy,
.
,
through Phillips Academy, and partly through Bowdoin College. A
few years before entering college, an accident in a wrestling match
left him with the ill-health which all his life hampered him. His
college course was succeeded by law studies at Belfast, but these
were soon discontinued. Carlyle was speaking to him through “Sartor
Resartus'; his soul was thirsty for reality.
Entering the Theological School in Bangor in 1849, he remained
there two years, and was then ordained pastor of an evangelical
church in Groveland, Massachusetts. His intellectual development
had now brought him into that position of entire acquiescence with
the demands of the whole, the Good, and the Beautiful, which may


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15684
DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
}
1
be so easily confounded with indifference. His congregation admired
but could not comprehend his exquisite mysticism, which bound the
reason and the soul in so loving a marriage.
Some doubted; the
crisis came when Wasson preached a sermon against what were to
him obnoxious doctrines in the orthodox faith. His own orthodoxy
seemed to his congregation too much a part of the sunlight and air.
He was forced to form an independent church. His career after this
was largely determined by the exigencies of ill-health. For two
years he was pastor of Theodore Parker's Congregational Society in
Boston. He resided for a time in Concord and in Worcester; he was
for three years storekeeper of the custom-house in West Medford;
he lived for three years in Germany.
Wherever he was, he car-
ried on his old battle with disease; yet wrote and read incessantly,
and lived his life of thought, which seemed ever to grow clearer and
stronger. He was in the ranks of the rationalists, yet his spirituality
guided him always into the serene air of harmony. He died in West
Medford in 1887.
He wrote a great number of essays, which were published in the
New-Englander, the North American Review, the Atlantic Monthly.
the Radical, and other magazines. The subjects of these essays
cover a wide range, but there is between them the bond of an under-
lying unity. Wasson, whose creed embraced the universe, could not
well touch upon a subject outside that creed. He looks upon art,
upon literature, upon religion, upon science, in the clear broad light
of the absolute. His is the temper of a brother to the universe; yet
for this reason his essays lack perhaps the home-like quality, - the
inferior, necessary, limited outlook. They are written in strong nerv-
ous English, in an austere yet graceful style, well expressive of Was-
son's spirit.
His poetry possesses many of the characteristics of his
prose; being the fruit of noble feeling, as the essays of noble thought.
Both his prose and his verse offer an esoape from the heated air of
passion-haunted literature, into the wintry sunshine of a calm and
exalted philosophy.
THE GENIUS OF WOMAN
From Essays; Religious, Social, Political. ? Copyright 1888, by Lee & Shepard
A
N UNKNOWN friend has asked me to write upon woman. The
terms in which the request was made express a spirit so
large, while also it was accompanied by an offer so gen-
erous, that I do not feel at liberty to refuse, though the theme
appalls me. To write worthily upon man in general were not


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DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
15685
.
easy; but when one selects for a subject that half of mankind
whose nature differs from that of the other moiety by its greater
delicacy and subtilty, by its grace of concealment, by its charm
that only is a charm because it defies analysis, by powers whose
peculiar character it is to tread untraceable paths and work more
finely than explicit thought, then the difficulty of treatment
becomes such that I wonder at my own temerity in attempting
the topic, and am half inclined to find in my consent an argu-
ment of my unfitness to write upon it. Yet it is a matter which
I have a good deal meditated, and one upon which light is
greatly needed.
At present nothing is so discouraging as the shadow which
passes over the face of earnest women when one remarks that
from their sex has never proceeded an Iliad, a Parthenon, an
(Organon' or 'Principia. ' And when the more hopeful among
them reply, «Give us equal opportunity, and see what we will
do to stop your boast,” the case becomes more discouraging still.
The date-palm is not pine, oak, or teak, but thinks it may become
such, and furnish timbers and masts for ships some day. Why
this false desire ? Why is not woman the first to remark and
insist upon the fact that she does not build, whether epics or
temples or systems of thought, for the very good reason that
she has a genius of her own, and is not a reduced copy of man ?
The statement makes for her, not against her; it is argument of
superiority in a kind and manner of her own.
Let her respect
her own nature. Let her, if she must make assertion in her
own behalf, maintain that her actual performance in the history
of humanity needs no imaginary eking out to bear comparison
with masculine achievement. This I, for one, strenuously affirm.
And in order to throw some little light upon this matter, which
has been darkened so deplorably, I will endeavor in the present
essay to offer some suggestions upon the genius of woman.
The primary distinction seems to me this: that Thought
is masculine; Sentiment, feminine. Of course, both these must
be found, more or less, in every human being: but in a manly
character the one will predominate; in a womanly character, the
other. This characteristic pre-eminence being secured, the sub-
ordinate faculty may exist in any degree of power; no measure
of sentiment, which leaves thought sovereign, detracts from
manliness; no vigor of intellect, which does not dispute the em-
pire of sentiment, diminishes the grace of woman. Indeed, each
I.


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15686
DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
2.
character, while remaining true to its own ideal, is richer in pro-
portion to the presence of the opposite element.
As the eye of sentiment, woman has an intuitive percep-
tion, requiring always the nearness of its objects; but so quick,
so subtle and untraceable in its action, that for want of any
more distinctive term, we can often give it no other name than
feeling She carries divining-rods, mysterious to herself as to
another; can render no reason for what she affirms, but says,
“Here it is; this is it. ” Her conclusions are reached neither by
induction nor by deduction, but by divination. She makes little
use of general principles, defies logic; cannot be convinced against
her will, it is said, -that is, against her feeling; is very commonly
mistaken when she generalizes, and has a kind of infallibility in
particulars. To argue against her persuasion is raining upon
a duck, or reasoning against the wind. She is right and she is
wrong in the teeth of all logic; can easily be confuted, but all
the world will not convince her unless she is persuaded,- that
is, unless her sentiment is won over. She is as often mistaken
as man, but in a wholly different way; for she sees best where
he is blind, and has a dim vision for that which his eye is best
fitted to discern.
This intelligence, so intimate with feeling as to be indistin-
guishable from it, — this winged sensibility, this divination at
close quarters, — has but to be comprehended to make it clear
why woman does not build epics and systems of thought. She
has not a constructive genius, because she does not work so re-
motely, and through such long channels of mediation, as the archi-
tectural genius must. Because she is a diviner, she cannot be a
builder.
Rejoice, O women, that you do not produce Homers and New-
tons. It is that blessed incapability, due to another mode of
human genius, which has again and again held the world fast to
the breasts of living, foodful Nature, when the masculine world
had lost itself among the dead dust and débris of its own labor.
At this very moment my hope for modern civilization clings to
the spirit of woman, to this divining sensibility whose blessed
cannot is the cable that holds humanity to the shores of life. If
woman could cope with man in his own form of labor and excel-
lence, she could also lose herself with him. But, thank God, we
are all born of mothers, and never can quite leave our cradles
behind us.
And ever and anon when the learned scribes of the


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DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
15687
-
world have buried the Biblical heart out of sight beneath their
traditions,—that is, beneath representative forms of imagination
and thought built out of other forms, and those out of others
still, there arises someone to say, Become as little children;
go back to the mother heart of humanity, to this matrix of pure,
divining sensibility, and, newly born thence, become again liv.
ing souls. If that command be heeded, a new epoch arises, and
the wrinkled Tithonus obtains the blessing along with the gift
of immortality.
I do not intimate that woman should forbear attempting a lit-
erary career, nor that she is incapable of high excellence in such
labor. On the contrary, I think she can contribute to literature
work which in its own kind the other sex will scarcely be able to
equal, — can give us a literature of sentiment without sentiment-
ality, which would be a precious addition to the world's wealth
and resource. The religious lyric or hymn would well befit her;
and indeed the tenderest hymn in the English language, and
pure in tone as tender in feeling, was written by a woman,-
Nearer, my God, to Thee. ' The devotion of love has never
been expressed in our tongue as by Mrs. Browning in the Portu-
guese Sonnets”; a lady whose genius I value far above that of
her husband, though in the later years of her life she seemed
to have been bewitched by him, and fell to his jerky style, - a
sort of St. Vitus's dance with pen and ink. Mrs. Howe's 'Army
Hymn' was perhaps the most lyrical expression of devout feeling
brought forth by our war. The underlying excellence of Uncle
Tom was its pure appeal to sentiment: just this made it irre-
sistible. Uncle Tom himself is feminine to the core,-
a nun in
trousers. Miss Cobbe's Intuitive Morals) assumes the feminine
point of view by its very title: woman, by her very nature, must
believe in intuitive morals; and by bringing her own native
method to the treatment of this topic can render invaluable
service.
Personality in the pure sense is Spirit without individual limi-
tation. Woman by her very nature and genius inevitably affirms
Spirit. She holds the human race to that majestic confession.
Blindly, superstitiously she may do so; blindly and superstitiously
she will do so, while philosophy falsely so called has eyes to
stare only into the earth: but in this blindness there is vision,
and the superstition of belief need not be shamefaced before the
superstition of sciolism. But superstitious or otherwise, she has


## p. 15688 (#646) ##########################################

15688
DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
the master-key; and man can but bruise his hand against the
iron gate until he takes the key from hers. The metaphysic of
France and England is barren because it is purely masculine; it
dares not assume Spirit, this perennial import of feminine sensi-
bility. When we have yawned over it a century or two longer,
one may hope that we shall return to the starting-point, begin
with Personality or Spirit, and bringing masculine logic to the
service of feminine divination, attain to a philosophy.
All the charm of life is inseparable from a certain fine
reserve. In the half-opened rosebud, at once displaying and con-
cealing its beauty, there is a fascination wanting to the full-
blown flower. The soft veil of purple haze that lies over the
Grecian landscape gives to it an enchantment scarcely conceivable
to one accustomed only to the starry aspect of scenery under
a perfectly clear air. What more enticing than a road wind.
ing and losing itself among woods? Inevitably the eye dwells
on that point where it disappears: for there the hard every-
day world ends and the world of imagination begins; beyond
that point, dryads lurk and fauns with cloven heel, with all the
enchanting dream-world of mythic antiquity.
Now, woman's existence is appointed to carry forever, and in
the highest degree, this inscrutable, inexhaustible charm. Indeed,
when this is gone she is no longer woman, but only a female
animal, or at least a somewhat feeble copy of man.
This pecul.
iar genius is symbolized by her spontaneous choice of concealing
draperies in dress. Mr. Winwood Reade remarks upon the pain-
ful disillusionment effected by the absence of costume among the
women of tropical Africa. The imagination is quite stared out
of countenance, he says, by the aspect of unclothed women; and
every trace of sexual attraction disappears. Without dress, love
loses its beauty, woman her exaltation, domestic life its spiritual
complexion; and the relation of the sexes becomes animal only.
I have seen among the Esquimaux what a sad disenchantment is
operated by the spectacle of woman in trousers. It is no longer
a wontan you behold, but only a lumpy, ugly, ill-gaited, ridiculous
Whenever the dress of the two sexes approximates closely,
woman is degraded; a curious fact that ought not to be disre-
garded. In Hindostan, the men are effeminate and the women
inferior: the dress of the two sexes is nearly the same. Only
courtesans there conceal the bosom; the charm of costume is left
to those who defile it: and in this fact alone a hint of the


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DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
15689
.
degradation of the sex is given to any who are sufficiently skilled
in interpretation.
It is therefore by a true instinct, though pushed to a destruct-
ive extent, that Mussulman women are forbidden to appear in
public unveiled. There the rosebud must always remain bound
in the green calyx, never expanding in the sunshine. This is
one of many instances to be found in history wherein sentiments
of great intrinsic delicacy develop themselves blindly and with a
kind of ferocity. What is sweeter than religion in Jesus? Yet
we all know what a fury, what a merciless edge, Christian senti-
ment has often shown. Faith in Mohammed was preached with
the scimitar, faith in Christ with the fagot and rack; and to this
day those who no longer employ those summary methods for the
propagation of “the faith” in this world pay themselves off by a
liberal supply of menace for the next.
But the sentiment from whose barbaric interpretation the
growing ages must release themselves, will guide the ages still.
Woman conserves for herself and for humanity that unsurpassed
priceless grace of which the veil is here made the symbol. A
nameless fascination leads the high labor of civilization: a name-
less charm sustains the dignity of life, which would lapse into
brutishness without it; and this charm hides chiefly behind the
native veil of womanhood. Athens was named for a feminine
divinity; the ideal woman was enthroned in the Parthenon, and
here in Greece told the fine secret of civilization. It requires
courage to say that woman's function is to charm; courage, for in
the meaning often given it the statement is pre-eminently silly.
Taken as signifying that the proper business of Araminta is
to bewitch Augustus, and bereave him of the little sense nature
gave him, it may be made over to the exclusive use of those
who speak because they have nothing to say. But it is the
business of woman to enshrine that grace which makes human
life nature's supreme work of art, and keeps the eye entranced,
and the heart kindled. Somewhere in life itself is the inspira-
tion and the reward of our labor; and in the exalted reserve
of woman, without design on her part, and aside from the ex-
press affection she may draw, lurks this finest resource of the
race.
The perennial interests of humanity may be classified as
public and private, outdoor and indoor: the former having more
breadth, the latter greater depth; the one catching the world's
eye, the other engaging its heart; that furnishing food, this giving


## p. 15690 (#648) ##########################################

15690
DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
fertility. The means of life, that by which we live, whether
as physical or as human beings; the instrumentalities of use,
from the plow to the university; the sustenance that we live
upon, from corn and wine to thought and philosophy,- belong
to the department of public interest: but the inward enrichment,
the digestion, the chemical conversion, the fructification of life,
all its subtler, deeper, immediately vital interests, belong to the
realm of privacy. Now, the "spheres of man and woman cor-
respond to these two classes of interests. Of course, the two
mingle in action very intimately. When some men invite woman
to stay indoors and mind her affairs there, she might reply by
inviting man, at dinner-time or evening, to stay out of doors and
mind his affairs there. Of course, too, each sex is concerned in
the work of the other. Woman shares in all public good or ill;
man, in all private. It certainly imports much to the husband
whether the children of his household are born healthy or sickly,
reared excellently or miserably; whether he is at home sur-
rounded by an atmosphere of peace, amenity, charity, and all
spiritual beauty, or with one of brawl, scandal, and tumbled dis-
array: and it equally imports much to the wife whether the hus-
band does his duty, whether he be industrious or a drone, faithful
and honorable, or the contrary, in all those concerns upon which
private competence and public peace descend. I here separate
these diverse interests only in respect to the sovereignty over
them. The sovereignty, the office, the endowment and creden-
tials of Nature are given to man and woman according to this
classification. Each works for the other, -it may probably, and
properly, be with a predominant regard for the other; for they
are polaric. Life has its uses only in relation. He does not
really live who lives only to and for himself. The plant grows
from the soil that feeds it. “What I give, I have. ”
-
SOCIAL TEXTURE
From “Essays: Religious, Social, Political? Copyright 1888, by Lee & Shepard
ll genesis is social. Every production, not of life only, but of
LL
Al ,
constitution of beings, objects, or elements.
Society, as we commonly speak, signifies relation between
conscious individuals. But it is obvious that every system of


## p. 15691 (#649) ##########################################

DAVID ATWOOD WASSON
15691
>
>
relation through which diverse objects, animate or inanimate, con-
cur to one effect, is of a like nature. Now, in such relation lies
the quickening of the world. Without it, nothing lives or moves;
without it the universe were dead. Illustrations of this truth are
to be seen on all sides: one cannot look but they are before the
eyes. As the seed germinates, and the tree grows, only by effect
of a society, so to speak, in which the sun, soil, air, and water
concur with the object itself; as chemical correlation is in the
grass of the field, in the soil that nourishes it, in the earths that
sustain the soil, in the rock of which earth is formed; as loco-
motion is possible only through a determinate mode of relation
between the active power of the mover (itself a product of rela-
tion) on the one hand, and the earth's attraction and resistance
on the other; as the flow of rivers and fall of rain are condi-
tioned upon the whole system of relations which effect the pro-
duction, distribution, and condensation of aqueous vapor; as the
powers of steam, of the lever, the pulley, the screw, are in like
manner conditioned, — so it is always and everywhere: a social
constitution of things, and order and play of relation, is required
for any and every generation of effect. In the crook of a finger
and the revolution of a world, in the fertilization of a pistil and
the genesis of a civilization, the same fact is signalized as the
fountain of all power. The birth, therefore, of the individual
from social relation is anything but anomalous or singular;
rather, it is in pursuance of a productive method from which
nature never departs.
For the method is continued in the production of those facul-
ties and qualities by virtue of which the individual is a human
creature. Relation between men is, in the order of nature, a
necessary means to the making of man. It is just as impossible
there should be a really human individual without a community
of men, with its genetic effect, as that there should be a com-
munity without individuals. By a man we do not mean merely
a biped animal conscious of its existence, but a speaking, think-
ing, and moral, or morally qualified, creature. Speech, thought,
and morals; — with these, there are human beings; without
them, none. But, one and all, they are possible to the individual
only through his relation with others of his kind.


## p. 15692 (#650) ##########################################

15692
JOHN WATSON
(1850-)
ohn Watson, whose widely familiar pen-name is lan Maclaren,
is a pure Scot, although he was born some forty-seven years
ago in Manningtree, Essex, where his father, who was en-
gaged in the Excise, happened to be stationed at the time. Shortly
after his birth the family removed to London, where they stayed
long enough for Dr. Watson to retain a distinct recollection of their
residence there. The formative years of his childhood were spent
however in Scotland, first at Perth and then at Stirling. He was an
only child, and his parents were both re-
markable personalities. To his mother's
influence and gifts are due much of her
son's equipment in life. She was Highland
and understood Gaelic, which she used to
say was the best language for love and for
anger. To the observant reader of the Bon-
nie Brier Bush it is needless to add that
Dr. Watson's mother died while he was still
a young man. In due time young Watson
went to the University of Edinburgh, where
he excelled in the classics and in philoso-
phy. He became secretary and afterwards
John WATSON president of the Philosophical Society con-
nected with the University.
When he had completed his studies he decided to enter the Free
Church of Scotland, and passed through the curriculum of the New
College. He also spent some time at Tübingen. Robert Louis Ste-
venson was a classmate of his in the English Literature class in the
University; and Dr. Watson remembers the occasional visits Ste-
venson made to the lass, and the round of cheers which invariably
greeted his entrance into the class-room. Dr. A. B. Davidson, the
well-known professor of Hebrew, made a deep impression on his
mind while at college; and he was greatly molded by the friendships
he formed there with such men as Dr. James Stalker, Professor Henry
Drummond, and Professor George Adam Smith. At the gatherings
of the “Gaiety Club » Dr. Watson used to tell, with the perfect art of
a consummate raconteur, the stories which have been woven into the
famous Drumtochty sketches. He says that the first author who



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JOHN WATSON
15693
made any impression on his mind was Scott, whom he read eagerly.
He studied the Waverley Novels, with their prefaces, introductions, and
notes, and became saturated with Scott's spirit. Another stage of his
development was marked by the influence of Carlyle, and still an-
other by that of Matthew Arnold. Browning and Arnold, and Seeley
the author of Ecce Homo,' have perhaps made the deepest innpres-
sion upon his intellectual and spiritual activity. Thackeray was a
later favorite.
For a short period about a year — after his ordination, he served
as assistant pastor to Dr. J. H. Wilson of the Barclay Church in
Edinburgh, before he became minister of the Free Church in Har-
rietfield, a small village consisting chiefly of one main street, belong-
ing to the estate of Logiealmond in Perthshire, and now far-famed as
Drumtochty; an uncle of his had been parish minister there at the
time of the Disruption in 1843. The work amongst this people of
primitive instincts, and simple fundamental needs, proved congenial;
and he made a close study of them with a half-formed intention of
using the material. But self-distrust and various plans intervening,
his literary sc mes were laid aside and were discarded, as the years
distanced him from these early scenes and experiences. His gifts as
a brilliant preacher could not be hid under a bushel; and two and a
half years were all that he was permitted to spend at Logiealmond.
Calls multiplied, and became insistent, until he ultimately accepted
one from St. Matthew's in Glasgow, where he became the colleague
of Dr. Samuel Miller, whose pulpit is now celebrated as that of Dr.
James Stalker.
But he found his true sphere, when, three years later, he became
minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool. This took
place in 1880; and Dr. Watson still remains the pastor of that church.
His liberal views and catholicity of thought, his geniality and bright,
winning disposition, have drawn to him men of all schools; and
young men especially find a haven in Sefton Park for their varied
intellectual cravings and aspirations. Dr. Watson's church is con-
stantly crowded by one of the largest and most influential congrega-
tions in Liverpool; and among the younger generation of English
preachers Dr. Watson holds a foremost place. He is a speaker of
extraordinary force and clearness. He mingles culture and devotion
with a strong sense of reverence and a deep-seated earnestness,
which enable him to wield immense power over great masses of
people. In 1896 the University of St. Andrew's conferred the degree
of D. D. upon him.