BOOK OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2017

Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations by John Avlon

Washington’s Farewell Address — written to “Friends and Fellow Citizens” in 1796 — was an open letter to the American people that has been more widely read than the Declaration of Independence. While it is mostly forgotten, it has often inspired, been referred to, and quoted by other presidents inclusive of Lincoln, Wilson, Eisenhower, and Obama. As Avlon’s subtitle states it is The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations and it could not be more relevant if it had been written this year in reaction to our fractured and regressing nation.

Washington’s Address has been read in the Senate, on his birthday, every year since 1896. At the conclusion of each reading, the appointed senator inscribes his or her name and brief remarks in a black, leather-bound book maintained by the Secretary of the Senate. Considering the hypocrisy, partisanship and fear mongering going on in our country, I thought readers would find it interesting to see some of these remarks, which I have transcribed from their hand-written entries, at the end of this review.

I urge every citizen to read this book and take it to heart, after all it was to us that it was addressed and we need to heed the call to action. The fate of our nation has always been in our hands as it was placed by our Founding Fathers. Our Senators need to care about the ideals, the warnings, and the solutions set forth by Washington and his famous ghost- writers Madison and Hamilton. They need to act with ethics and morality every hour of every day that they have the honor of representing the people of this nation. It is not enough to spend one hour a year reading aloud to each other and writing their hollow comments for posterity.

Rise Up,
Julie Robinson

ABOUT THE BOOK

George Washington’s Farewell Address was a prophetic letter from a “parting friend” to his fellow citizens about the forces he feared could destroy our democracy: hyper-partisanship, excessive debt, and foreign wars.

Once celebrated as civic scripture, more widely reprinted than the Declaration of Independence, the Farewell Address is now almost forgotten. Its message remains starkly relevant. In Washington’s Farewell, John Avlon offers a stunning portrait of our first president and his battle to save America from self-destruction.

At the end of his second term, Washington surprised Americans by publishing his Farewell message in a newspaper. The President called for unity among “citizens by birth or choice,” advocated moderation, defended religious pluralism, proposed a foreign policy of independence (not isolation), and proposed that education is essential to democracy. He established the precedent for the peaceful transfer of power.

Washington’s urgent message was adopted by Jefferson after years of opposition and quoted by Lincoln in defense of the Union. Woodrow Wilson invoked it for nation-building; Eisenhower for Cold War; Reagan for religion. Now the Farewell Address may inspire a new generation to re-center our politics and reunite our nation through the lessons rooted in Washington’s experience.

As John Avlon describes the perilous state of the new nation that Washington was preparing to leave as its leader, with enduring wisdom, he reveals him to be the indispensable Founding Father.