farewell address and other papers · washington

George Washington's public papers as president, from the First Inaugural of 1789 to the Farewell Address of 1796, set the precedents for the office. The Farewell warns against party spirit, sectionalism and permanent foreign alliances and ties republican government to religion and morality; the letter to the Newport synagogue promises a country that gives 'to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance'.

Read the First and Second Inaugurals, the Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport (1790) and the Farewell Address in the Roots of American Order summer seminar, June 2026.