President’s Day And George Washington
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In Preparation for the upcoming President’s Day weekend with all of its leisure and spectacular sales, I thought it would be nice to remember the man for whom we celebrate—George Washington. In fact, the holiday is technically still called George Washington’s Birthday, not President’s Day. He is the man we are celebrating with our 3 day weekend. Below is an article that summarizes his farewell address—the most famous he ever ‘gave’.
Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation appears in its entirety in this issue of the Independent Chronicle. Although it is by all accounts the most famous and best-known of Washington’s speeches, it was never actually delivered orally by Washington. By his own arrangement it first appeared in a newspaper at Philadelphia. It was published seven days later in The Independent Chronicle.
The Chronicle, published in Boston by Thomas Adams and Isaac Larkin, was the leading New England voice of the Republican party. Its pages contained a number of outspoken contributors who could be counted on to regularly issue vigorous assaults on the Federalists. In Boston since 1776 the newspaper carved out a distinguished journalistic career for one hundred years.
Washington’s Farewell Address was similar to one he had prepared at the end of his first term, when he had considered retiring from office. Toward the close of his first term in 1792 James Madison prepared notes to be used by Washington in formulating a valedictory speech. Madison submitted a draft but it was set aside when Washington abandoned his plans for retirement.
In May 1796 he took Madison’s notes and wrote a first draft for the new address. Washington showed his manuscript to Alexander Hamilton and asked him to revise it. For the next four months various drafts were sent back and forth between Washington and Hamilton. Finally, Hamilton read his version of the address to John Jay for criticism, discussing the work paragraph by paragraph. The result, rewritten again by Washington in a final version, and admittedly a collaborative effort, nonetheless embodies the thoughts, ideas and principles of the retiring president.
Describing the farewell address in his book on the life of Washington, Henry Cabot Lodge wrote “…no man ever left a nobler political testament.”
In his Address Washington announces his planned withdrawal from politics “after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its (America’s) service.” He then sets forth his reasons against running for a third term. As if to bolster his argument, he states: “While choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.”
In his address Washington:
- Extolls the benefits of the federal government. ”The unity of government…is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence…of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize.”
- Warns against the party system. ”It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration….agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one….against another….it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption…thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
- Stresses the importance of religion and morality. ”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?”
- On stable public credit. ”…cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible…avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt….it is essential that you…bear in mind, that towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not…inconvenient and unpleasant…”
- Warns against permanent foreign alliances. ”It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…”
- On an over-powerful military establishment. ”…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.”
In saying farewell to the new nation he helped create Washington pointed out that “…….the name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism…”
To the great soldier, statesman and leader of his country…no tribute could be more fitting.
For original article see: http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell/
Working Toward a New Egypt
As Egypt is working on reforming their government after last year’s revolutions, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg gave a few suggestions during an interview on Al Hayat television. One of the more controversial pieces of advice given was to avoid using the U.S. constitution as a guideline. To be fair, our constitution was written almost 250 years ago. And as a Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America, she is probably fairly well-versed with its content. Below is an article reporting on the interview:
“As Egyptian officials prepare to send to trial 19 American democracy and rights workers, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited Cairo last week where she suggested Egyptian revolutionaries not use the U.S. Constitution as a model in the post-Arab Spring.
“I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. “I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done.”
As Egypt prepares to write a new constitution, Ginsburg, who was traveling during the court’s break to speak with legislators and judges in Egypt as well as Tunisia, spoke to students at Cairo University, encouraging them to enjoy the opportunity to participate in the “exceptional transitional period to a real democratic state.”
In a long interview with a reporter who asked her to explain the foundation of the U.S. Constitution and how it would be applied in today’s Egypt, Ginsburg suggested with pride that “we have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‘We, the people.’”
Ginsburg also extolled several aspects of the document, particularly the separation of powers, the concept of checks and balances and an independent judiciary that can’t have its salaries diminished if it rules a law enacted by Congress as unconstitutional.
But asked about models for the Egyptian people, Ginsburg said Egyptians “should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone on since the end of World War II.”
She then pointed not only to South Africa’s constitution, but to Canada’s 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Why not take advantage of what is else there in the world? I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others,” Ginsburg added.
Indeed, Ginsburg’s comments are not foreign to her overall philosophy. The justice has previously stated that she weighs foreign law as well as U.S. law when forming a legal opinion.
“The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification,” Ginsburg told an audience at the American Society of International Law in April 2005.
Ginsburg told the Egyptian interviewer that she can’t dispense advice for Egyptian society about how to set up its constitution, nor can she comment on a document that isn’t written or in force yet.
But she said looking at the Federalist Papers — essays written by the drafters to expound upon the articles before they were ratified by the states — it’s clear that a discussion must be held by all members of the country. She also suggested that a constitution is only as good as the people who live by it.
“If the people don’t care, the best constitution in the world won’t make any difference,” she warned.”
To go to original article: