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A page from the Virginia home page on Washington's papers is copied here to show you the thought that went into that Farewell Address. Below that are some quotes to show you some of its significance. Note: The New York Public Library owns Washington's final manuscript of the Farewell Address as well the drafts made by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and a number of letters relating to the preparation of those drafts. In 1935 the Library published Victor Hugo Paltsits' Washington's Farewell Address: In Facsimile, with Transliterations of all the Drafts of Washington, Madison, & Hamilton, Together with their Correspondence and Other Supporting Documents, and the digitized facsimiles of Washington's final manuscript of the Farewell Address were made from that book with the Library's permission. Copies of the book may be obtained from the Library's Publications Department. The brief introduction that follows is taken from the preface of Paltsits' edition.

When Washington early in 1796 determined to retire in March, 1797, he revived the idea of issuing a valedictory address to the American people. He reverted to Madison's draft of 1792, and wove it into the structure of a new address he was preparing. This new holograph manuscript of Washington is called Washington's first draft. After it was finished, he had a conversation with Alexander Hamilton in Philadelphia, showed him this first draft and asked him to redress it. This Hamilton agreed to do. The first thing that Hamilton did then, was to make a digest of it, called Abstract of points to form an address, as a syllabus for his own use in making a new draft of the Farewell Address, and leaving Washington's holograph first draft untouched. In the correspondence that passed between the President and Hamilton during ensuing months, the form that the address was to take was altered. Washington had suggested to Hamilton, that if he were to form it anew, it would of course "assume such a shape" as Hamilton was "disposed to give it," but always "predicated upon the Sentiments" which Washington had furnished.

It was here that Hamilton began a major draft. If followed his Abstract of Points closely. But as the result of correspondence between them, and the passing of the major draft back and forth, that draft became in process "considerably amended," and so was endorsed by Hamilton: "Original Draft. Copy considerably amended." It is therefore always referred to as Hamilton's major draft.

Now, after Hamilton had sent this major draft to Washington, he told him he was preparing another draft for incorporating, meaning thereby, that if Washington was determined to use his own first draft and wished to redress it by Hamilton's structure and additions, he could do so by availing himself of the draft for incorporating in which case Hamilton's major draft would be discarded. But Hamilton thought the major draft the better. Washington agreed with him, though he said it was too long. Washington began the preparation in his own hand of a manuscript for the printer. This is called Washington's final manuscript.

In its preparation he availed himself of all the drafts that had come into his hands, but principally Madison's draft and Hamilton's major draft; and he made changes of his own in the process of revision to the very end before its publication. Throughout the preparation Washington's ideas or "sentiments," as he liked to call them, were preserved. Hamilton knew, as Madison had before him, that whatever he might do in reshaping, rewriting, or forming anew a draft, the results should be "predicated upon the Sentiments" which Washington had indicated. This central fact was adhered to. Hamilton was solicitous to be governed by it. He had recognized that Washington would be the final judge, and considered his own part in the undertaking as an affectionate act, without putting upon it the least suspicion of restraint. He was magnanimous to Washington, when he wrote: "Whichever you prefer, if there be any part you wish to transfer from one to another--any part to be changed--or if there be any material idea in your own draft which has happened to be omitted and which you wish introduced--in short if ther be anything further in the matter in which I can be of any [service], I will with great pleasure obey your commands." And it was precisely this freedom, as has been shown, that Washington pursued in preparing his own final manuscript for publication. In the last analysis, Washington was his own editor; and what he published to the world as a Farewell Address, was in its final form in content what he had chosen to make it by processes of adoption and adaptation. By this procedure every idea became his own without equivocation.

QUOTES COPIED FROM THE FAREWELL ADDRESS:

Topic: enemies of this union will employ many devices of deception, omission, distortion, to weaken in the minds of Americans the truths of our nation.

"But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes & from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal & external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly & insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value..."

"...of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion ..."

". With slight shades of difference, you have the same Religeon, Manners, Habits & political Principles. "

" Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding & preserving the Union of the whole."

" Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown Military establishments, which under any form of Government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly " hostile to Republican Liberty: "

"One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions & aims of other Districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies & heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render Alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal Affection. The Inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on ..."

"To the efficacy and permanency of Your Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No Alliances however strict between the parts can be an adequate substitute. "

" But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all. 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."

"They serve to Organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force--to put in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprizing minority of the Community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public Administration the Mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the Organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils..."

", but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown."

For the rest I leave you to print it out for yourself. I have given you the addresses, and soon it will be available at my site, http://www.christianparents.com

Topic: Supreme Court usurpation of authority in changing the traditions of hundreds of years by nine men in 1961. Supreme Court usurped power and authority to effectively remove the First Amendment rights of the free exercise of religion and they did this without the vote of Congress and most horribly, they effectively altered the Constitution without a vote of the people as approved and authorized by Congress and the Constitition of the United States of America.

"... 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. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power; ..."

To preserve them (free governments) must be as necessary as to institute them.
If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.
But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent (of usurpation of power by the Supreme Court being allowed once) must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

" The mere Politican, equally with the pious man ought to respect & to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their (religion and morality) connections with private & public felicity. "

"Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the Oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?"

And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure--reason & experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

'Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of Free Government.

"Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric."

"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."

" As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great & powerful Nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens,), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality ...."

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