Farewell Address of President George Washington, printed in The Virginia Herald, 23 September 1796

Washington’s farewell address embodies the core beliefs that he hoped would continue to guide the nation and remains a statement of the American political purpose.  There were several contributors (Madison and Hamilton among them) to the address and Washington’s final statement to the citizens was well though-out:

“I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.”

“With slight shades of difference, you have the same Religeon, Manners, Habits & political Principles. You have in a common cause fought & triumphed together--The independence & liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts--of common dangers, 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 & preserving the Union of the whole.”

His address was originally published in David Claypole's American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796 under the title "The Address of General Washington To The People of The United States on his declining of the Presidency of the United States," the letter was almost immediately reprinted in newspapers across the country and later in a pamphlet form.