Tenth Amendment Center: George Washington’s Farewell Address, Warnings Ignored for Generations

When people remember or discuss the address, they most often recall his warning against political parties, his admonition to avoid permanent, entangling foreign alliances, and his insistence that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to political prosperity. 

His warning on factions is almost eerily prophetic:

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”

It sure sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Most people start with a faction-first mentality – and support or oppose government actions based on who is doing it. And the Constitution is in shreds as a result.

But wait, there’s more. Washington continued:

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; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

If we aren’t there right now, we’re so close it might be indistinguishable.

Most people read right over what might be an even more poignant warning in Washington’s address; a warning we failed to heed to our own detriment – for generations.

Washington advised that we should hold tight to the original Constitution and avoid giving in to the temptation to turn it into a “living, breathing” document that changes at the whim of whoever holds power.

As Washington put it, we must “resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.”

Washington wrote that “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.”

We see these alterations in the Constitution all the time – mostly courtesy of the federal courts as they have expanded various clauses to “authorize” federal actions that were clearly left to the states and the people. They’ve twisted restrictions on power and used them to authorize the monster state of today.

Thanks to these constitutional “alterations,” the federal government has interjected itself into almost every area of our lives, from dictating how much water flushes down our toilets to the kinds of plants we can grow in our back yard.

Of course, we can’t place blame solely on the courts. Not even close. 

Presidents have seized a wide range of unconstitutional powers, further altering and undermining the constitutional system.

And Congress has done its part, punting much of its responsibility to the executive branch by passing broadly worded bills that allow executive branch bureaucrats to essentially write the law after the fact.

Washington warned us that these kinds of alterations would undermine the system. In fact, he called them a “weapon” by which freedom is destroyed.

Thomas Jefferson, who helped convince Washington to stay on for a 2nd term, had a similar warning:

To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.

Washington wrote that “time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions.” He warned that constantly changing the meaning of the Constitution through government action would ultimately prevent any kind of stable system from developing.

“Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable.”

We certainly see this tendency today. The federal government makes up its own rules as it goes, completely untethered from any foundational principles or absolute limits.

The founders and old revolutionaries called this arbitrary power – and it’s how they defined tyranny. That’s why it was one of the most important of the listed grievances in the Declaration of Independence.

Those who embrace the idea of a “living, breathing” Constitution argue that it must be flexible to “change with the times.” Washington wasn’t ignorant of this fact. He admitted the need for flexibility, but insisted change must happen within the Constitutional system itself through the amendment process, not via political maneuvering by the government itself.

“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 must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.” [Emphasis added.]

Sadly, Washington’s advice has not been followed. Not even close.

Virtually every change to America’s constitutional system has been by usurpation. The “federal” government has run up trillions upon trillions in debt. It fights unconstitutional wars across the globe. It spies on virtually everybody and violates the right to keep and bear arms.

It reaches into every corner of your life, attacking your liberty at every turn.

Washington was right. Whatever transient benefit the federal government may have brought by these actions has been “overbalanced” by evil. And until the people start heeding these warnings, it’s only going to get worse.

We’re working hard every single day to get these foundational constitutional principles out to more and more people. Nothing helps us get that job done more than the financial faith and support of our members.

Please consider joining us today – for as little as $2/month here:
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/members/

Help us take a stand for the Constitution and liberty – whether the government wants us to, or not.

Concordia res parvae crescunt
(small things grow great by concord)

Michael, Mike
and the rest of the TAC Team