A year ago, I suggested that everyone celebrate the 4th
of July by re-reading the Declaration of Independence, and reflect on how the
United States has evolved since 1776.
In an era of encroaching executive power, I wondered, are we the heirs of
the Founding Fathers, or the descendants of King George III?
This year, I recommend you spend a few minutes reading
George Washington's Farewell Address, originally published in September 1796. Read the whole thing. Our first president has many wise
things to tell us today, but none is more telling than his trenchant advice on
the conduct of foreign policy:
Observe good faith and justice towards all
nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin
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 to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people
always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the
course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any
temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it?. . .
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is
more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations,
and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place
of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The
nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a 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.
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer
insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty
and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence,
frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation,
prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government,
contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes
participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason
would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient
to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and
pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations,
has been the victim.
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