To My Magnificent Agents, Staff and Friends:
The Fourth of July has suffered the fate of so many of our holidays. While many Americans still consider it a patriotic holiday, for far too many others it is merely another day off of work, a time to relax and perhaps enjoy some barbeque and beer with friends and family. All of this overshadows what the holiday is supposed to be – a celebration of our government.
Perhaps one could argue that there isn’t much to celebrate about our government today. Things seem so out of control. There is such partisanship among our political parties, we have what seems to be insurmountable problems with deficits and debt, there is an atmosphere permeated in political discourse of our country being at war with itself – rich versus poor, union versus non-union, strict constitutionalists versus modernists, entitled versus taxpayers, religious versus secularists…it goes on and one. With this as a backdrop, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that nearly forty percent of Americans surveyed believe that our country is now entering an era of permanent decline. Who could have foreseen the turmoil we face today? How about George Washington?
In 1796, near the end of his second term as president of the United States and before his retirement to his cherished home at Mount Vernon, Washington released his farewell letter to “The People of the United States.” The letter was written after years of exhaustion due to his advanced age, the enormous pressures of the presidency, and increased attacks by his political opponents. In his letter, Washington announced his intention to decline a third term in office, but he also reflected on what he deemed to be the emerging issues on the American political landscape and offered his advice to current and future citizen patriots.
“A solicitude for your welfare, 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 recommend 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…”
Washington goes on to state his support for the new constitutional government, calling it an improvement over the Articles of Confederation. He reminds the people that,
“…you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for the intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim of 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 system is the right of the people to make and alter their constitutions of government. 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 right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”
Washington also warns that the people must be conscious of and vigilant against those who in pursuit of their narrow and parochial interests might circumvent and undermine our constitutional government, even as they nurture the appearance that they are working in the interest of answering popular demands or solving pressing problems, but whose true intention is to take the power from the people and place it in the hands of the unjust.
“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, 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, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force: to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of the party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternative 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 counsels 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.”
While Washington acknowledges the fact that political parties are sometimes beneficial in “promoting liberty in monarchies,” he argues that they must be restrained in a popularly elected government because of their tendency to “distract the government from their duties, create unfounded jealousies amongst groups and regions, raise false alarms amongst the people, promote riots and insurrection, and provide foreign nations and interests access to the government where they can impose their will upon the country.”
Washington provides strong support for a balanced federal budget, arguing that the nation’s credit is an important source of strength and security.
“As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.
Washington then states that while government should be careful in choosing the items that will be taxed, he reminds us of the necessity of government generating revenue and that no matter how hard the government tries there will never be a tax that is not inconvenient, unpleasant, or seemingly an insult to those who must pay it.
The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. 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…”
One of the most referenced parts of Washington’s Farewell Address is his strong support of the importance of religion and morality in not only promoting private and public happiness, but also promoting the political prosperity of the nation.
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should not labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these finest 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 obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained 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.”
Finally, Washington opines that the secret to sustaining our the benign influence of good laws under a free government is an informed and knowledgeable citizenship.
“Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 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.”
It seems that none of the issues that we are grappling with today are unique or unforeseen. Over two hundred years ago they were present and known. Consider where we have come as a nation over that period of time and that alone should provide us with both hope and confidence that the challenges we face today do not foretell or presuppose the imminent or permanent decline of our great nation.
So, on this fourth of July as with every day, take heart! Rejoice in the freedoms and opportunities that have flowed in abundance to us as citizen patriots of this wonderful and blessed nation; freedoms and opportunities that we still enjoy. Learn who we are so that we can retain what we are and what we are destined to remain – One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!
Have an AWE-full weekend!
Bill