George Washington's Farewell Address Analysis

From being the General of the Continental Army until on the brink of death, George Washington, the first president of the U.S., treasured America and wanted to keep it safe against the upcoming and unavoidable dilemmas the country would face. To accomplish this, he wrote his Farewell Address, with the help of the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. In this letter, George Washington informed the people that he would no longer run for a presidential term and advised the people to avoid debt and to pay their taxes, to avoid creating permanent foreign alliances, and not to form political parties.

Debt and taxes were a major issue for the U.S. in its beginning. For instance, the U.S. owed

broke away from England, and in order to help pay back the debt, “Congress passed a tax on American-made whiskey in March 1791” (Deverell and White, 209), a product in which farmers converted their corn into because it was “easier to transport than corn”(Deverell and White, 209) and “became like money in their region” (Deverell and White, 209). This tax enraged many farmers who thought that “the tax was aimed specifically at them” (Deverell and White, 209) and so, “farmers lashed out against the tax on whiskey … in what became known as the Whiskey Rebellion” (Deverell and White, 209). In response to the protests and riots, Washington proclaimed “that people have to obey laws” (Deverell and White, 209) and when the farmers continued to evade the tax, he personally “led the army in military action against the rebellion… 13,000 men” (Deverell and White, 209). Due to this experience, Washington advises the people to “cherish public credit… use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace… that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding… accumulation of debt… shunning occasions of expense… in times of peace to discharge the debts… not ungenerously throwing

into another war with Britain. At this time, “the French people rebelled against their king” (Deverell and White, 205), which became known as the “French Revolution - a rebellion of French people against their king in 1789” (Deverell and White, 205). After taking control of France, the French people beheaded their king and queen, “King Louis XVI in January 1793 and Queen Marie-Antoinette later that year” (Deverell and White, 206), causing many Americans to worry, “about the French Revolution’s violent riots and attacks on traditional authority… shocked many Americans” (Deverell and White, 206), ultimately causing many U.S. citizens to discontinue their support of this revolution. Then, the French Republic, which overthrew the French Monarchy, stated that they would declare war against all monarchies, and asked the U.S. for help because they had an alliance with the U.S. from the Revolutionary War. To avoid war, Washington decided to issue a “Neutrality Proclamation” (Deverell and White, 206) which “stated that the United States would not take sides with any European countries that were at war” (Deverell and White, 205), and claimed that the alliance was made with the French Monarchy, not the French Republic. Despite this, “The British seized ships carrying food to the French West Indies”, claiming that trading with France was helping their