Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1902 — FROM WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

“Friends and Fellow Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in,designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is ta be made. . . . “It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness, . . . accustoming yonrselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity. ... 1 “Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride ot patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. . . . “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. . . . The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every Individual to obey the established government. . . . “In all the changes to which you may be invited remember that time and habit are at least as necessary ts fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the aurest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country. . . . Remember especially that for the efficient management of your :ommon interests in a country so extenlive as ours a government of as much rigor as is consistent with the perfect •ecurity of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adlusted, its surest guardian. . . .

“In governments of a monarchical east patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, iu governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. . . . “It is important likewise that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within 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 powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. . . , “Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. . . , “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations: cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoins this conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. . . . “The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. “The great rule for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. . . . “It is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character.”