Farewell Address, by George Washington
"The common and continued mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, and kindles the animosity of one part against the other." -- George Washington, Farewell Address.
George Washington was aware of the special status history would accord him as the first President of the United States. He asked James Madison to help him compose a valedictory address, and the Farewell Address is a classic in American political discourse.
In the Address Washington discusses the concept of interest. Interest, which in a political context is related to power, refers to the concrete needs of an actor. Because many sub-national groups comprise society, and because each sub-national group pursues its own interests, it is inevitable that domestic politics will be the realm of competition, and perhaps even conflict, a good deal of the time.
Washington’s prominent theme in the Address is that Americans should recognize -- and give their allegiance to -- in addition to their own parochial desires, the single national interest, or the interest of all Americans as they exist together in a single national community. "Every portion of our country," he said, "finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole."
Personally fearless in the face of battle, Washington nevertheless as commander of the American Army lost more engagements than he won. As President, historians and political scientists almost universally rate him at or near the top. The Presidency as an office that is limited in power derives as much from Washington’s precedent as from the United States Constitution itself.
Throughout their history Americans have sought, in addition to freedom, national unity, believing that one is not possible without the other. "Your union ought to be considered a main prop of your liberty," Washington said, "and the love of one ought to endear you to the other."