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In nineteen seventy-six, George Washington published his farewell address to the nation. He publicly stated his unwillingness to run for the presidency for the third time. He compiled a list of advice and recommendations reflecting his vision for the future vector of the country’s development. The first president of the United States put forward several global ideas about the political structure of America, some of which exist in the modern system of the country and some of which have gradually lost their significance due to certain factors.
The first and most important thing George Washington wanted to say was the idea of state consolidation. He argued that the regional or local interests of parts of America should not trump the nation’s interests, which could otherwise lead to internal discord. When asked if these words were prophetic for U.S. history, it is worth recalling the civil war between the North and South in the mid-XIX century and all the political differences between different regions in the country today.
The second critical thought in the President’s opinion was to prevent the party spirit from prevailing over the spirit of the nation, which, besides internal discord, could cause more foreign influence, usurpation of power, and the subsequent despotism of the most fortunate representative of the winning party, etc. Washington believed inter-party struggles could weaken the state and cause the party’s interests to take precedence over those of the country and the people. Rakove (2020) says that the people accepted the President’s words in cultural and instructive rather than political terms. Therefore the inter-party struggle between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans had already become tougher under President John Adams. The country’s division into two notional large competing factions remains. Today’s elections, among which the election of the forty-fifth president of the United States stands out, vividly demonstrate the vital difference in electoral support for the conservative and Democratic parties in the United States among its regions. Cross-party infighting has remained in the country’s political structure for many years. It has often led to a precedent of suspected support for particular parties by foreign forces that is now hard to prove or disprove.
A third critical thought of George Washington is the general course of the country’s foreign policy toward isolationism, which would later be reflected in the Monroe Declaration, which stated that the U.S. did not want to be involved in European conflicts. Washington said that the country should make all decisions based on free choice dictated by the ideas of justice and the future of the nation, which would be the primary vector of the country’s foreign policy until the twentieth century. Scarfi (2020) writes that the declaration was intended to carry out acts of U.S. imperialism in Latin America and Mexico. Still, even omitting this period of history, the country’s steady adherence to this course over time is worth noting. It is also worth noting that the country’s first president warned the people against electing “favorites” or, conversely, “opponents” of his nation, which in both cases leads to no good. At this point, it is difficult to talk about maintaining such a course since there is the example of the Cold War, the change of course in the direction of France rather than Great Britain, etc. At the moment, we can say that the country is entirely committed to the principle of economic engagement with everyone on an equal footing. Still, there are periods of history during which this principle has fallen by the wayside.
Thus, George Washington’s Farewell Address left an enormous cultural impact on the country’s political life. His ideas were reflected in one way or another in future American history, at different periods becoming the main postulates of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Despite the problems of inter-party struggle today, the country generally remains true to the course set by its founder about two hundred years ago.
References
Rakove, J. (2020). The Political Presidency: Discovery and Invention. In The Unprecedented American Presidency (pp. 7-33). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
Scarfi, J. P. (2020). Denaturalizing the Monroe Doctrine: The rise of Latin American legal anti-imperialism in the face of the modern U.S. and hemispheric redefinition of the Monroe Doctrine. Leiden Journal of International Law, 33(3), 541-555.
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