Washington’s farewell warnings to America

Many are now asking “what would George Washington do today?” President Washington has already answered that question in his Farewell Address to the Nation on 9-17-1796. The following warnings made 226 years ago should stop you in your tracks:
• “Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, and the apprehension of danger urge me to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments that are all important to the permanency of you as a people. They are offered as a disinterested warning of a parting friend---
• The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government---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.
• All obstructions to the execution of the laws, 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.
• Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
• 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 likewise the accumulation of debt, not only shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts of unavoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.
• It is important that freedom should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration to confine themselves with their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the power of all the departments in one, and thus to create a real despotism.”
In closing, President Washington gave us these warnings because of his sense of danger that these issues could have on the survival of America. We should listen closely, as Freedom is a gift and, trusting God as did our Founding Fathers, let us continue to strive to keep a nation where we all might live as one in prosperity.

Steve Gardes is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.