The Farewell Address is an open letter that George Washington addressed to “Friends and Fellow-Citizens” near the end of his second presidential term, announcing his decision not to seek a third term and offering counsel on the dangers facing the young republic. It was never delivered as a speech. It was first published as The Address of Gen. Washington to the People of America on His Declining the Presidency of the United States in David C. Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser of Philadelphia on 19 September 1796, roughly ten weeks before the presidential electors voted in the 1796 united states presidential election. It was almost immediately reprinted in newspapers around the country, and later in pamphlet form.
Although it carries Washington's name, signature, and ideas, the final text was largely drafted by Alexander Hamilton working from Washington's notes and an earlier 1792 draft prepared by James Madison; the relative contributions of each man to the final wording are themselves a subject of historical dispute, addressed at farewell-address-authorship-debate.
Historians agree on the broad outline of the document's composition and publication, and on its core themes: warnings against the dangers of political faction and sectionalism, a defense of constitutional union and the rule of law over revolutionary upheaval, and a call to avoid permanent foreign alliances while extending commercial relations broadly. In it, Washington writes about the importance of national unity while warning Americans of the political dangers of regionalism, partisanship, and foreign influence. The address also attempted to reunite a country that had partly turned against Washington following the controversial Jay Treaty of 1794.
What remains contested is how far Washington's specific policy advice should be read into present-day debates over American foreign policy, party politics, and the proper scope of federal power. Some of these disputes are treated below; the document's drafting history, including Madison's and Hamilton's roles, is treated at length on farewell-address-history.
The address's foreign-policy passages have generated the most durable interpretive dispute. Washington's most-quoted line urges the United States “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Some readers and later political movements have treated this as a blanket case for American isolationism; others describe this as a “myth of virtuous isolation” resting on an overly literal reading of a document written for a specific, time-bound set of circumstances. A frequently cited counter-reading holds that Washington did not call for isolation as such, only for avoidance of binding, permanent alliances, while continuing to support the wartime treaty with France and favoring open commerce with all nations.
Outline of American History. https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/democrac/49.htm.