9010. WASHINGTON (George), Farewell address of.—
With respect to his [President
Washington's] Farewell Address, to the
authorship of which, it seems, there are conflicting
claims, I can state to you some facts. He
had determined to decline reelection at the end
of his first term, and so far determined, that he
had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for him
something valedictory, to be addressed to his
constituents on his retirement. This was done,
but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce in a
second election, to which no one more strenuously
pressed him than myself, from a conviction
of the importance of strengthening, by
longer habit, the respect necessary for that office,
which the weight of his character only
could effect. When, at the end of this second
term, his Valedictory came out, Mr. Madison
recognized in it several passages of his draft;
several others, we were both satisfied, were from
the pen of Hamilton, and others from that of
the President himself. These he probably put
into the hands of Hamilton to form into a
whole, and hence it may all appear in Hamilton's
handwriting, as if it were all of his composition.—
To William Johnson. Washington ed. vii, 292.
Ford ed., x, 228.
(M.
1823)
