The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien describes man’s insatiable lust for “the Ring of Power”:
Always remember Frodo, the Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found.
Power wants to concentrate.
In a real sense, George Washington held that “Ring of Power” and gave it up … twice.
The first time was when Washington resigned his commission as general of the Continental Army in 1783.
The American-born painter Benjamin West was in England painting the portrait of King George III. When the King asked what General Washington planned to do now that he had won the war.
West replied:
They say he will return to his farm.
J.R.R. Tolkien, age 24, in 1916 (Wikipedia {Public Domain} PD-1923)
King George exclaimed:
If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.
The King was in disbelief as Washington’s actions were in stark contrast to kings throughout history who killed to get power and killed to keep power.
George Washington gave up power again after having served two terms as president; he returned to his Mount Vernon farm.
This was similar to Roman leader Cincinnatus, who twice led the Roman Republic to victory in battle then returned to his farm, resisting the temptation to be dictator.
The world stood amazed as President Washington delivered his Farewell Address, which was printed in the American Daily Advertiser, SEPTEMBER 19, 1796.
President Andrew Jackson commented on it in 1837:
The Father of his Country in his Farewell Address … Washington … seemed to be … the voice of prophecy, foretelling events and warning us of the evil to come …
It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government … to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution.
In his Farewell Address, Washington cautioned of dangers:
UNPRINCIPLED MEN USURP REINS OF GOVERNMENTWashington warned:
And of fatal tendency … to put, in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party;—often a small but artful and enterprising minority …
They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for the themselves the reins of Government;
destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion …
PARTY POLITICSWashington warned:
Let me now … warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of Party …
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its roots in the strongest passions of the human Mind …
It is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy …
Domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism …
George Washington at age 40 (1772) (Public Domain)
DESPOTISM OF AN INDIVIDUALWashington warned:
But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an Individual … (who) turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty …
Ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection …
FOREIGN INFLUENCEWashington warned:
It opens the doors to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the Government itself through the channels of party passions.
Thus the policy and the will of one country, are subjected to the policy and will of another …
ENCROACHMENTWashington warned:
The habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted 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.
A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position …
CHECKS ON POLITICAL POWERWashington warned:
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power; by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern …
USURPATIONWashington warned:
If in the opinion of the People … Constitutional powers be in any way 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) must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield …
ACCUMULATION OF DEBT
George Washington, 1776. Oil on canvas by Charles Wilson Peale in Brooklyn Museum (By Charles Willson Peale (Brooklyn Museum) [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons)
Washington warned:
Avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning
occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned,
not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear …
FOREIGN ATTACHMENTSWashington warned:
In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent … attachments for other (countries) should be excluded …
The Nation, which indulges towards another … an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave … subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.
A passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils.
Sympathy for the favourite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exist, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and Wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification …
BETRAYALWashington warned:
By exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld:
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens … facility to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity: gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation …
MISLEAD PUBLIC OPINIONWashington warned:
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 …
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to
believe me fellow citizens), the jealousy of a free people to be constantly awake …
History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government …
REAL PATRIOTS BECOME SUSPECT
George Washington, 1st President of the U.S. (Gilbert Stuart portrait) (Gilbert Stuart [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Washington warned:
Real Patriots, who may resist the intriegues of the favorite (foreign nation), are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests …
In offering to you, my Countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression, I could wish … to warn against the mischiefs of foreign Intriegue …
RELIGION AND MORALITYWashington warned:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.
In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars …
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 …
Morality is a necessary spring of popular government …
Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?
