President's Note: George Washington's Legacy
When I stand in places where George Washington stood, some of which we highlight in this issue, I’m reminded always of his farewell address—“the disinterested warnings of a parting friend”—to a young nation. As we, the people of that nation, prepare to commemorate 250 years, Washington’s words offer a useful perspective for Americans as we strive to honor self-evident truths and build a more perfect union.
In his parting address, Washington urges Americans to resist all efforts to sow lasting division. Your union as one people, he says, protects your liberty, and it’s also vulnerable to attack. The differences among you are easy to exploit. To acquire influence among one group, Washington predicts, cunning men will “misrepresent the opinions and aims” of others. They will make strangers of people who should be family. If you cherish your freedom, Washington says, then guard against every attempt “to alienate any portion of our country from the rest.”
Our Union is codified in the Constitution, which contains provision for its interpretation and amendment. We have the right to alter it through “an explicit and authentic act of the whole people.” We also have an obligation to respect its authority.
Government officials, especially, must respect the Constitution. The human heart, Washington says, loves power. Concentrating it in one person or group is dangerous.
That’s why the Constitution distributes authority and establishes checks on it. When officials usurp powers constitutionally allocated to another part of government, they undermine the sovereignty of the people.
Washington particularly warns against “the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension.” The turmoil created when opposing factions fight for dominance leads the people to “seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.” Eventually, Washington says, the undisciplined leader of some faction will use our exhaustion to elevate himself “on the ruins of public liberty,” and government by the people will perish.
When I stand in historic places that hold the stories of those who fought for freedoms I enjoy, Washington’s “disinterested warnings” come to mind. What would it mean for us now to live as responsible heirs of his farewell words?
We can reject attempts to distort our views, call us names, or erase our existence. We can resist those who would confine us to hostile camps from which we see others only as ally or enemy, and instead find a sliver of common ground from which we can recognize our shared humanity and identify where we agree, where we disagree, and how we might together imagine a more perfect union. And we can categorically refuse the allure of “security and repose” when it comes at the cost of our freedom and that of future generations.
Thank you all, for your extraordinary stewardship and commitment to preserving our nation’s history and to building a shared future.
