Key-Notes of American Liberty: Comprising the most important speeches, proclamations, and acts of Congress, from the foundation of the government to the present timeVarious
History
Key-Notes of American Liberty: Comprising the most important speeches, proclamations, and acts of Congress, from the foundation of the government to the present time
Various
United States -- History -- Sources
or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence
for the characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public
harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question,
how far the former can be more impregnably fortified, or the latter be
safely and advantageously promoted.
To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most
properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself,
and will, therefore, be as brief as possible. When I was first honored
with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an
arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my
duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From
this resolution I have in no instance departed, and being still under
the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to
myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must
accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I
am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual
expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as as they have been awakened
by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave,
but not without resorting once more to the benign parent of the human
race in humble supplication, that since he has been pleased to favor the
American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
on a form of government for the security of their union and the
advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally
conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the
wise measures on which the success of this government must depend.
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS--The period for a new election of a citizen
to administer the executive government of the United States not being
far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be
employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that
important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce
to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now
apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered
among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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